Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
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Mark Blyth

Mark Blyth

mark_blyth@brown.edu
+1 401 863 1567
280 Brook Street, Room 126

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Mark Blyth

Director of the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance
The William R. Rhodes ’57 Professor of International Economics
Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs

Biography

Mark Blyth is a political economist whose research focuses upon how uncertainty and randomness impact complex systems, particularly economic systems, and why people continue to believe stupid economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary. He is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press 2013, and The Future of the Euro (with Matthias Matthijs) (Oxford University Press 2015)

Research

Currently trying to stop talking about the macroeconomics of austerity but bad ideas never seem to go out of fashion so it's hard to stop. New projects on economic knowledge as a macro-structural property rather than as an individual property; why the Baby-Boomers constitute a threat to future prosperity and political stability; and why long and low inflation rates and interest rates are here to stay for much longer than we think.

Publications

"The Global Economics of European Populism: Growth Regimes and Party System Change in Europe (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2017)," Government and Opposition. 54 (2) (2019) pp. 193-225, with Jonathan Hopkin.

"From Big Bang to Big Crash: The Early Origins of the UK's Finance-led Growth Model and the Persistence of Bad Policy Ideas," New Political Economy. 24 (5) (2018) pp. 605-622, with Tami Oren.

“When is it Rational to Learn the Wrong Lessons? Technocratic Authority, Social Learning, and Euro Fragility,” Perspectives on Politics. Volume 16 (1) March 2018, pp. 110-126. doi:10.1017/S1537592717002171   

“Black Swans, Lame Ducks, and the Mystery of IPE’s Missing Macro-Economy,” The Review of International Political Economy, 24 (2) (2017) pp. 203-231, with Matthias Matthijs.

“After the Brits Have Gone: How to Turn a Drama into a Crisis that Will Not go to Waste.” The Review of European Economic Policy, 50th Anniversary Issue, Winter 2016.

“Policies to Overcome Stagnation: The Crisis, and the Possible Futures, of All Things Euro.” European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies, Vol. 13 No. 2, 2016, pp. 215–228.

“Capitalism in Crisis: What Went Wrong and What Comes Next” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2016.

Teaching

POLS 2175 – Ideas, Institutions and Politics.

POLS 2050 and 2051 – Preparing the Prospectus

POLS 1420 – Money and Power in the International Political Economy

PLCY 2730 – The Political Economy of Hard Policy Problems

POLS 2160 – International Political Economy

News|Recent News

Market Mania (interview with Mark Blyth)

February 5, 2021 Radio Open Source

In this radio interview, Mark Blyth explains the populist lingo around the GameStop situation on Wall Street, Robinhood and other day traders, and more. 

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Hocus-Pocus? (co-authored by Mark Blyth)

January 4, 2021 Foreign Affairs

This article provides a debate on "the age of magic money" - or the idea that COVID-19 stimulus checks have altered the economy in a drastic way. 

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Events

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