Mark Blyth
Eastman Professor of Political Economy
Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs
Areas of Interest: International and Comparative political economy with Europe and US as core areas. Global financial markets, banks and non-banks. History of political economy. The politics of economic ideas.
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)
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.
“Capitalism in Crisis: What Went Wrong and What Comes Next” Foreign Affairs, Summer 2016
“Ideas and Historical Institutionalism.” Contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism (New York: Oxford University Press 2016) With Oddny Helgadottir and William Kring.
“The New Ideas Scholarship in the Mirror of Historical Institutionalism: A Case of Old Whines in New Bottles?” European Journal of Public Policy, December 2015.
“Just Who Put You in Charge? We Did: Credit Rating Agencies and the Politics of Ratings,” chapter for Alexander Cooley (ed.), Rankings and Ratings Organizations and Global Governance (Cambridge University Press 2015) (with Rawi Abdelal).
Matthias Matthijs and Mark Blyth (eds.), The Future of the Euro (New York: Oxford University Press 2015).
Spring 2016 PLCY 2235 – The Political Economy of Hard Policy Problems
Spring 2016 POLS 1415 – Classics of Political Economy
Fall 2016 POLS – Money and Power in the International Political Economy
February 28, 2018 Bloomberg
In a video interview at the Global Financial Markets Forum in Abu Dhabi, political economist Mark Blyth discusses Brexit negotiations, populism across Europe, tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, geopolitical risk and the upcoming election in Italy.
February 13, 2018 BBC Business Matters
Political Economist Mark Blyth joins BBC's Business Matters to discuss President Trump's budget among other things.
January 23, 2018
In March 2017, political economist Mark Blyth co-hosted a multidisciplinary conference on "The New Financial Geopolitics," that brought about new research on the issue of global monetary stability. These contributions were published together in a new e-book published by Foreign Affairs magazine.
October 23, 2017 Gears of Biz
Mark Blyth, professor of international political economy, comments on the effictiveness of the low-wage economy in the UK. “There’s no way for labor to push up wages since no one goes on strike anymore and the unions are weak."
October 12, 2017 The Daily Nebraskan
On Tuesday, October 10th, Political economist Mark Blyth participated in "Why People Vote for Those Who Work Against Their Best Interests," an event at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
October 5, 2017 The Washington Post
Mark Blyth and Matthias Matthijs examine the "impossible task" British Prime Minister Theresa May has ahead of her.
July 14, 2017 CBS News
To understand how President Trump rose through the political ranks, one has to step back and see how globalization benefitted the wealthiest not only in the U.S. but throughout the world, Brown economist Mark Blyth discussed during CBS News' The Takeout.