Structuralist and Behavioral Macroeconomics: Seminar with Professor Peter Skott

Professor Peter Skott will deliver a seminar on his new book Structuralist and Behavioral Macroeconomics

Date: 5th March 2024 (Tuesday)

Time: 4.00-5.30pm, London time, followed by drinks and dinner at The Rose (at own expense)

Seminar location: Goldsmiths College, University of London. Room DTH-G16 (Deptford Town Hall building, ground floor, entrance from New Cross Road). Click here for map.

Book summary:

Mainstream macroeconomics is founded on the idea of perfectly rational representative agents. Yet there is a growing realisation that economic theories based on such agents are inadequate guides to real-world decision making. The behavioural evidence has had significant impacts on microeconomics but the same cannot be said of macroeconomics. This book is part of the movement to do for macroeconomics what behavioural thinking has done for microeconomics. Using behavioural evidence and insights from Keynesian and institutionalist traditions, it presents an empirically grounded alternative to the paradigm that currently dominates macroeconomic theory. It highlights how dynamic interactions across markets can generate instability, endogenous cycles and secular stagnation. It fully engages with macroeconomic theory, provides a multi-faceted view that explains how and why it is time to rethink its foundations and offers a path forward.

Peter Skott is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Professor of Economics at Aalborg University. Before moving to UMass in 2003, he held positions at Copenhagen University (1981-1987) and Aarhus University (1987-2003). His research interests fall primarily within macroeconomics, with contributions on a range of topics, including economic growth and development, business cycles, inflation, and the distribution of income. His general approach draws on the (post-) Keynesian, (neo-) Marxian and institutional traditions as well as behavioral economics; a recent book on Structuralist and Behavioral Macroeconomics (Cambridge University Press, 2023) synthesizes some of his work on core macroeconomic issues.

The seminar will be held in person at Goldsmiths. Click here for more information about the event.

No need to register. When you arrive at the reception desk, tell the concierge that you are attending the seminar in room DTH-G16, which is just behind the reception desk on the ground floor.

This seminar is organised by the:

Structural Economic Analysis research unit at Goldsmiths

Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE)