Economic History for Economists: Why? Professor Nicholas Crafts

‘The imperfect lessons that we can draw from history… are of inestimable, irreplaceable value, and no controlled experiment will ever be able to equal them. – Thomas Piketty 2014
The recent financial crisis has given rise to a fierce debate over the training that economics students receive, with many key figures arguing that a lack of knowledge of economic history contributing to the mistakes that were made. Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, said that, “financial history should have caused us to take credit cycles seriously,” and that it’s disappearance from the curriculum caused complacency. As one of the only economics degrees with a compulsory economic history paper remaining, what does it offer us? How might it help us prevent future crises? And why should we defend it?
CSEP invites you to debate the fate of economic history with our world-renowned speaker. Professor Nicholas Crafts is Professor of Economics and Economic History at the University of Warwick. His research interests are the Industrial Revolution, British economic decline and the analysis of growth rates. His book ‘British Economic Growth During the Industrial Revolution’, and his work with Professor Charles Harley, were hugely influential in the field of economic history, and remain a staple of the Cambridge curriculum today. ​

Econophysics: The Future of Economics? Dr. Christophe Schinckus and Professor Tobias Preis

With the perceived failure of mainstream economics to predict the financial crisis, there has been a renewed interest in alternative methodologies to the mainstream. Amongst the most radical of these alternatives is ‘Econophysics’ which attempts to apply ideas and concepts from physics to economics issues; most notably in financial economics. However the approach remains highly controversial amongst both economists and physicist. Just how can physics help us understand economic issues? What results has the field already generated? Will econophysics replace established economic methodology?
CSEP invites you to discuss these questions, and more, with our distinguished panel of experts. Dr. Christophe Schinckus is a lecturer in finance at the School of Management at the University of Leicester and was previously a visiting scholar the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the LSE. He is currently working on a book on econophysics for the Oxford University Press and is the author of numerous papers in the field including ‘Econophysics, a new step in the evolution of physical sciences’.
Dr Tobias Preis is an Associate Professor of Behavioral Science and Finance at the Warwick Business School. Preis received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 2010 and draws on an interdisciplinary background in physics, economics, and computer science. He has authored more than 30 scientific publications, published a book about the physics of financial markets and acts as a reviewer for more than 15 leading international journals.

Corbynomics: The solution to Britain's problems? Dr. Anastasia Nesvetailova and Dr. Sean Holly

The unexpected election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party has re-ignited debate over policies previously considered heresy amongst political circles. However, in the shadow of a weak recovery from the financial crisis, widening inequality and stagnant productivity could ‘Corbynomics’ provide the solution to the plethora of problems that Britain faces? CSEP invites you to join us to discuss this with our expert panel of distinguished economists.
Dr Anastasia Nesvetailova is Director of the Political Economy Research Centre at City University London. She is a renowned expert in the fields of International Political Economy, Financial Crises and Globalisation. She is also a member of the recently formed Economic Advisory Committee to the Labour Party.
Dr Sean Holly is a fellow at Fitzwilliam College. His research focuses on Macroeconomic modeling and optimal policy formulation with a particular focus on monetary formation. He is also a lecturer in Monetary Policy here at Cambridge.

What is wrong with modern economics? Professor Tony Lawson

Why did economists not see the financial crisis coming? Has modern economics lost touch with reality and instead lost itself in fancy mathematic models? These are questions that have thrown the economic discipline into turmoil and (hopefully) self-reflection.
To discuss and argue his case for why Modern Economics has lost its way we will host Professor Tony Lawson of the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. He is head of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group with its fortnightly Cambridge Realist Group and is patron of CSEP. We are particularly delighted and honoured to have him speak. He has written several prominent books on this matter including ‘Reorienting Economics’, ‘Economics and Reality’ and released this year ‘Essays on: Nature and State of Modern Economics’. For the many of you who may have heard his lectures, you know how passionately he speaks on this matter!

Does our economy serve the common good? Christian Felber and Tomas Sedlacek

Does the current economic system serve the Common Good? Should it? And does it even make sense to assess our economy from an ethical point of view?
The Cambridge Society for Economic Pluralism is proud to host the two intenationally renowed speakers Tomáš Sedláček and Christian Felber for a discussion OPEN TO STUDENTS OF ALL SUBJECTS on these questions. Particularly, the "Economy of the Common Good", a rapidly growing international movement that hopes to align economic activity with ethical values, will be discussed.
Tomas Sedlacek is a Czech economist and author. His book "Economics of Good and Evil" has been translated into several languages, and has been published in the UK by Oxford University Press. He has been a member of the National Economic Council of the Czech Republic, works as Chief Macroeconomic Strategist for one of the Czech Republic's largest banks, and has been described as "one of the hottest minds in economics" by the Yale Economic Review. He will talk about the failings he sees in the current economic system.
Christian Felber is an internationally renowned speaker and author of several award winning bestsellers. He has been featured in Rolling Stone, the Financial Times, El Pais and Der Spiegel. He initiated the ‘Economy for the Common Good’ movement, as well as the Bank for the Common Good, Austria’s first ethical finance institute. He will present the Economy for the Common Good as an alternative economic system.

Rethinking the relationship between economics and geopolitics Leonhardt van Efferink

The impact of geopolitics on our economy should be one of the most exciting areas of economics but is often understated in the mainstream despite its clear significance and wide-ranging impact on the economy – which is ever more so given the several major on-going geopolitical events occurring today from the frostier relations between the EU and Russian to the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.
Exploring the relationship on both a national and European level, the talk given by Leonhardt van Efferink promises to provide great new insights to how we can view geopolitical events and their consequences for our economy and greater wellbeing in multiple time dimensions.
After working for the Dutch Ministry of Finance and three major banks as a senior policy advisor and country risk analyst, Leonhardt van Efferink founded ‘Geomeans’, a geopolitics consultancy in 2011 where he has led workshops for organisations including, the Bundeswehr, ABN Amro and NATO. He holds two Master’s degrees from Erasmus University Rotterdam and King’s College London and is completing his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is currently a course leader of five modules at the University of Maastricht’s summer course programme and a part-time lecturer at the University of Amsterdam.

An introduction to Post-Keynesianism Professor Engelbert Stockhammer and Professor Victoria Chick

Post-Keynesianism has gained a lot of attention in heterodox circles in recent years, particularly after the Financial Crisis of 2007/8 which showed that financial research produced by Post-Keynesians was empirically relevant. Come along to our free event to find out what Post-Keynesianism can add to economics, what it stands for and what's in store for the future. Please invite your friends who might be interested as well!
Professor Engelbert Stockhammer is Senior Lecturer at the pluralist Kingston University. His research areas include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, financial systems and heterodox economics. He works heavily with the Post-Keynesian Study Group and has published numerous articles in international peer-refereed journals including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Structural Change and Economic Dyamics, the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, the International Review of Applied Ecnomics and the European Journal of Industrial Relations.
Victoria Chick is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of College London and is the co-founder of the Post-Keynesian Study Group, which whom she is very active. Her main research interests lie in Monetary Theory and Macroeconomics. She has written numerous works on John Maynard Keynes and Post-Keynesianism, such as "The Theory of Monetary Policy" and Macroeconomics After Keynes. More recently she has been active in founding the group "Economists Against Austerity" and encouraging politicians to speak out against actions on this front.

Is austerity a necessity? Dr Steve Keen, Diego Laguna and Mark Gilbert

For this talk, we are very fortunate and proud to host the world-renowned economist and author Dr Steve Keen, who is known for his book "Debunking Economics" and has also set up the website Debt Deflation.
Joining him on the panel are two other fantastic speakers: Diego Laguna, an International Research Fellow of the Institute for Economic Affiars (UK's original free market think-tank), and Mark Gilbert, author of 'Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable'