Jamee K. Moudud

BS, MEng, Cornell University. MA, PhD (Honors), The New School for Social Research. Current interests include the study of industrial competition, the political economy of the developmental welfare state, the determinants of business taxes, and the study of Schumpeter’s analysis of the tax state. SLC, 2000–

Undergraduate discipline: Economics

Courses taught in Economics

2013-2014

2012-2013

Industrial Competition, Labor Relations, and National Systems of Innovation
Industrial Competition, Labor Relations, and National Systems of Innovation – Jamee Moudud
Money and Financial Crises: Theory, History, and Policy
The Political Economy of Global and Local Inequality: The Welfare State, Developmental State, and Poverty

Connect with Jamee K. Moudud

Research and Interests

One of the oldest controversies in economics is the “State versus markets” debate, in which one group of authors has supported laissez faire while a rival group has been a proponent of state intervention. In contemporary economics this is essentially the debate between the Austro-Libertarian tradition of Friedrich Hayek and the broad tradition inspired by John Maynard Keynes. Ironically, both of these rival traditions implicitly assume that the state is fundamentally neutral and autonomous and therefore can implement the appropriate policies. In contrast, my research draws on an alternative theoretical tradition, inspired by Karl Polanyi and others, which takes the view that the state and economic processes are enmeshed and co-evolve across geographic space and historical time. Quite simply, one cannot disentangle the state from the economy. From what I call a historical-structural-institutional (HSI) perspective, I am currently studying not only how public policies shape economic processes but the deeper question regarding the ways in which structural and institutional factors, that evolve over time, shape the public policies themselves. I am investigating business-state relations and the ways that they shape and are shaped by industrial, labor, social, and taxation policies. My framework involves the study of these issues in the context of the long waves of variations in profitability and capital accumulation. One component of my study of business-state relations involves the investigation of industrial organization theory and business history. I am also working on an econometric project involving tax rates in the US and overseas and on another one dealing with the political economy of the state in a comparative international and historical perspective. Finally, I am the Guest Editor of a special issue of the Review of Keynesian Economics (to be published in spring 2014) which will be devoted to the theme Industrial Organization, Labor Relations, and Labor Market Outcomes. I am currently working on a paper for this special issue (with Ipek Ilkkaracan) entitled “A Historical and Institutional Analysis of Labor and Social Policies and the Evolving Labor Market Inequalities by Gender and Class in Turkey”.

Professional affiliations

Review of Keynesian Economics
Associate Editor
Member, International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy
Associate, The Academic-Industry Research Network

Selected Publications

“Policy as a Contested Process: Notes for Heterodox Economists.”
Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Heterodox Economics, Lee, F. S. and Cronin, B (eds.). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (2014).
International Economics: An Encyclopedia of Global Trade, Capital, Labor, Technology, and Innovation, Co-edited with Cyrus Bina. Greenwood Press (2014)
Alternative Theories of Competition: Challenges to the Orthodoxy, Co-editors: Bina, Cyrus and Mason, Patrick. Routledge Press (2012)
Strategic Competition, Dynamics, and the Role of the State: A New Perspective, New Directions in Modern Economics Series, Edward Elgar Press (2010)
“Neoliberalism and the Developmental State: Considerations for the New Partnership for African Development (with Karl Botchway)”
In Benjamin Bobo and Herman Sentim-Aboagye (eds) Building Africa: the Core Truth , Africa World Press (2012)
“Constrained Economy and the Developmental State: From Successful Developmentalism to Catastrophic State Failure”
New School, Graduate Program in International Affairs Working Paper , 2011-110.
“The Political Economy of Public Investment and Public Finance: Structural and Institutional Regulators (with Francisco Martinez-Hernandez) ”
Research on Money and Finance Discussion Papers, no. 26, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
“The Role of the State and Harrod’s Economic Dynamics. Toward a New Policy Agenda?”
International Journal of Political Economy, vol. 38, no. 1. (2009)
“The Search for a New Developmental State (with Karl Botchway)”
International Journal of Political Economy, Fall (Special issue on the developmental state)
“Challenging the Orthodoxy: African Development in the Age of Openness (with Karl Botchway)”
African and Asian Studies, 6 (2007)
“Surplus”
In William Darity, Jr., (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition, 8 volumes, MacMillan Reference, Detroit, MI. (2007)
“Competition”
In William Darity, Jr., (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition, 8 volumes, MacMillan Reference, Detroit, MI. (2007)
“How State Policies can Raise Economic Growth”
Challenge, March–April. (2006)
“Economic Growth”
In R. J. Barry Jones, (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Political Economy, Routledge Press, U.K. (2001)

Jamee K. Moudud

Favorite Quotes

The testimony of the facts contradicts the liberal thesis decisively. The antiliberal conspiracy is a pure invention. The great variety of forms in which the “collectivist” countermovement appeared was not due to any preference for socialism or nationalism on the part of concerted interests, but exclusively to the broader range of vital social interests affected by the expanding market mechanism…each of these Acts dealt with some problem arising out of modern industrial conditions and was aimed at the safeguarding of some public interest against the dangers inherent either in such conditions or, at any rate, in the market method dealing with them…Most of those who carried these measures were convinced supporters of laissez faire, and certainly did not wish their consent to the establishment of a fire brigade in London to imply a protest against the principles of economic liberalism. On the contrary, the sponsors of these legislative acts were as a rule uncompromising opponents of socialism, or any other form of collectivism.

Karl Polanyi
(On the important role of the State in capitalist development)

The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

Joan Robinson

Modern economics is sick. Economics has increasingly become an intellectual game played for its own sake and not for its practical consequences for understanding the economic world. Economists have converted the subject into a sort of social mathematics in which analytical rigour is everything and practical relevance is nothing.

Mark Blaug

Both students and faculty find economics obsessed with technique over substance . . . the many macro and micro theory exams the Commission examined . . . tested mathematical puzzle-solving ability, not substantive knowledge about economics . . . Only 14 percent of the students report that their core courses put substantial emphasis on 'applying economic theory to real-world problems'.

Alan Blinder
(member of the American Economic Association Commission reporting on the state of graduate economics education in the US).