Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics and author of the acclaimed Governing the Market will speak on this topic in association with Victoria University School of Government at Lecture Theatre 2, Rutherford House, Wellington at 6pm on Thursday 22nd September. All are welcome to attend this free lecture; if you would like to attend please register here as places may be limited.
He writes in his abstract: “Some may consider “decent capitalism” an oxymoron, like “MIT nightlife” or “LSE sports”. I start from the premise that it makes sense to distinguish “more decent” and “less decent” capitalism. I first give some indicators – relating to income inequality, social mobility, child well-being and mass education – which serve to place European and North American national capitalisms on this scale. Then I suggest what social democrats should be arguing for, in contrast to “taken for granted” standard/mainstream/conservative prescription, in four areas: the role of the state and markets, the solution to the eurozone crisis (the finger points at German wages); the use of northwest European capitalisms rather than Anglo-American ones for inspiration about decent capitalism; and development strategy in developing countries. Then I briefly discuss the elephant in the room, the possibility of continuous “green growth”.”
Robert Wade is Professor of Political Economy at the London School of Economics. He won the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2008, and his book Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asia’s Industrialization (1990, 2004) won the American Political Science Association’s Best Book in Political Economy award.
He was a guest lecturer at the Treasury in 2008; a copy of his speech my be found here. His recent work has dealt with: financial booms and busts; world income distribution; global economic governance (especially the G20, World Bank, IMF and WTO); neoliberal (“Washington Consensus”) policy prescriptions, with particular reference to East Asia, the US and the UK; the fights over environmental norms inside the World Bank; industrial policies; and Iceland. He was a guest lecturer at the NZ Treasury in 2008: a copy of his speech titled “The first world debt crisis and the desirable policy response” may be found here. It is prescient.
He graduated from Otago University and Victoria University in New Zealand, and took a PhD at Sussex University. Subsequent employment at the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex University), the World Bank, the US Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School), MIT (Sloan School and Department of Political Science), and Brown University (Political Science and Watson Institute of International Relations). He has taught at LSE since 2001.
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