The upcoming 2024 election cycle in Europe and the United States poses a number of serious questions about how to confront our large societal and economic challenges. This workshop dives into the complex political economy of contemporary Western democracies and the risks we face in the current political environment.

Helene Schuberth has been chief economist and head of the Economics Department of the Austrian Trade Unions Confederation (ÖGB) since May 2022. Previously, she held various positions at the Austrian Nationalbank, most recently as head of the foreign research department. In 2007/08 she was economic policy advisor to the Austrian Federal Chancellor and later to the Austrian Federal President. She has written and published on monetary, macroeconomic, financial and international issues mostly related to central banking. She studied economics at the University of Vienna, the Vienna University of Economics and Business and at Harvard University. She taught economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Thomas Ferguson is the Research Director at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Senior Fellow at Better Markets. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught formerly at MIT and the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Golden Rule (University of Chicago Press, 1995) and Right Turn (Hill & Wang, 1986). His articles have appeared in many scholarly journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Economic History. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Political Economy and a longtime Contributing Editor at The Nation.

Venue: Humboldt Universität Berlin, Spandauer Str. 1

Program

30 May, 2024 | 10am – 4pm

Block 1 — Why Median Voter Models Fail and What Works Instead  — Thomas Ferguson

Block 2 — Inflation and Macroeconomics: Theory and Facts – Helene Schuberth

Dinner

31 May, 2024 | 10am – 4pm

Block 3 — Dilemmas of Europe’s Future: Investments, Income Distributions, and Green Challenges – Helene Schuberth

Block 4 — Donald Trump and World Politics Now — Thomas Ferguson

Background reading:

• The European Union’s New Risk-Based Framework for Fiscal Rules – Overly Complex, Opaque and Self-Defeating By Helene Schuberth
• Europe’s New Fiscal Rules Harm Working People and Women, Boost Right-Wing Radicals By Lynn Parramore, interview with Helene Schuberth
• Trump, Populism, and the Republican Establishment: Two Graphs From New Hampshire By Thomas Ferguson, Jie Chen, Paul Jorgensen, and Matthias Lalisse
• Trump and the Republican Base: A Machine Learning Approach (Revisited) By Thomas Ferguson, Jie Chen, and Paul Jorgensen

The workshop language will be English. Questions and interventions may also be made in German.

This workshop is conducted in cooperation with our friends at Netzwerk für Plurale Ökonomik.