Rethinking Fiscal and Monetary Coordination: Policy Trade-offs in times of Polycrisis

In mainstream economics, central banks’ independence from governments is taken almost as a given or precondition for a functioning monetary system. The assumption is that governments tend to spend too much and get too heavily indebted. Only technocratic central banks, with a different mandate, would have an interest in fiscal austerity and take the unpopular but necessary measures to guarantee price stability. However, in a time of fiscal fatigue and the necessity to address multiple crises, this seems almost cynical. There is a dire need to finance the green transition, a looming recession in many countries and the need for countercyclical investment measures, overburdened infrastructures, and last but not least a rising level of inequality in our credit-based economies.

In this young scholar workshop organised by the Hamburg Institut for Social Research and the Young Scholars Initiative, we want to engage critically with the matter of fiscal and monetary cooperation: Which motives and interests currently drive
monetary and fiscal policies? To what degree is coordination already taking place in practice but merely unofficially? How could central bank independence be challenged politically? In which circumstances would it be beneficial to do so? Who is benefitting from the current design? Who would have an interest in greater policy coordination? What are the dangers attached to it in times of right-wing populist governments gaining prominence in many countries all around the world?

To discuss these and many more questions, we want to invite young scholars across disciplines, schools of thought and with a pluralism in methods to join us and present their work.

Here are some examples for possible topics. Please don’t understand them as exhaustive! If you work on something that is not listed but speaks to the matter of fiscal and monetary coordination in some way, you are more than welcome to apply!

• Fiscal and monetary coordination in different schools of thought
• Empirical studies of debt management and monetary policy implementation and their provision of liquidity
• Institutionalist, comparative and historical approaches to fiscal and monetary coordination
• State finance relationship with respect to public debt
• Expectation management, demand elasticity and interpretation of the yield curve in the context of monetary and fiscal policies
• Fiscal and monetary policy implementation in the context of innovating financial markets, market-based banking, and shadow banking
• Financial stability, banking regulation and their effect on / relevance for fiscal and monetary policy implementation
• Market making, and market making of last resort in sovereign securities markets
• Restraints to fiscal and monetary policies and their coordination in the Global South and peripheral economies in the context of international currencies and monetary hierarchies
• Fiscal and monetary coordination in the context of diverse economic structures (export-led, demand-led economies, etc. )

The workshop will be spread out over two days with an initial keynote and a practitioners panel towards the end. In between there will be parallel groups to present, discuss and give feedback on each other’s work. You will be asked to share a draft of your work two weeks before the workshop and to comment on another person’s paper. It will be a flat hierarchy environment with only young scholars participating, so you can feel free to share early stage work and any doubts or struggles that you might have. Travel costs, accommodation and food will be provided, but unfortunately, there is only limited funding for transatlantic travel. Despite these funding limitations, we want to encourage applications from underrepresented researchers. If any of this has caught your interest, please apply with your abstract by 5.5.2025 using the following link:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=odBNZ2Kux0Kjn2nuGZU3qMn7iXo984ZEvbj84ZUrW7tUQ0lOTUhEQ1A3MUhJNFkyQjdZQ1A1UkhaRi4u

For any questions feel free to drop us an email: ysihamburg2025@gmail.com

This event is organised by Luca Kokol (Hamburg Institute for Social Research), Marina Clavijo (Young Scholars Initiative), Arpan Chakraborty (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur), Enrico Pulieri (SOAS London University), Lionel Stiglitz (National University of San Martin)

Important dates:

05.05. Deadline to submit application
06.06. Information about acceptance
23.06. Deadline to confirm attendance
01.09. Deadline to send the papers to the discussant