2012-13 Theme Seminar - “Economics and Politics”

Organizer - Marco Battaglini
Visiting Professor from Princeton University

Economic and political matters are obviously closely connected. Indeed, the disciplines of economics and political science have their common origin in the field of political economy, which was premised on this inter-relationship. For many decades, however, each discipline took rather little notice of the other; the subjects evolved in more-or-less parallel universes. That has changed in recent years, which have seen a renaissance in the study of economics and politics together. Thus, for example, scholars have been investigating how political alignments induce and constrain economic policy--and, conversely, how economic conditions shape the growth of political movements and coalitions. We anticipate assembling a diverse group of eight to twelve scholars to examine positive issues like these, as well as normative questions, such as which political systems best promote economic welfare. We are also interested in research on the history of political economy and political economists, the theories advanced in that field and their pertinence to what counts as political economy today.

 Grant support from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung is gratefully acknowledged.