Bruno Amable

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Bruno Amable (born December 15, 1961, in France) is a French economist and Professor at the University of Geneva. [1] Amable's research interests include political economy, comparative analysis of capitalism, and institutional economics. His research was awarded the first Best Young French Economist Award in 2000 (together with Agnès Bénassy-Quéré). [2]

Contents

Research

Bruno Amable's research centres on the different forms of capitalism, institutions and their influence on innovation and industry, leading to many publications on the nexus between globalization, industrial policy and technological progress. More recently, he has been studying labour markets and labour market policies as well as structural reforms in Europe. [1] In January 2019, he ranked among the top 2% of economists registered on IDEAS/RePEc in terms of number of published works (January 2019). [3]

Research on productivity growth, technology and innovation

In early work on productivity growth, Amable argues that countries require "social capabilities" to leverage their technological backwardness into catch-up growth, finding - contrary to most growth models - divergence between countries' productivity levels over 1960–85. [4] In later research, Amable further finds productivity growth to increase in inter-industry specialization and specialization in electronics. [5] In further research on the role of technology for economic development, Amable and Bart Verspagen find that technological advantage, as measured by patent counts and investment, significantly affects long-run price competitiveness. [6] With regard to innovation, in work co-authored with Rémi Barré and Robert Bayer, Amable makes the case for a richer perspective on innovation systems than the one provided by Keynesian, monetarist or Schumpeterian theories of innovation, as these fail to adequately account for the key roles of organization types, institutions, labour supply and attitudes and their mediation by globalization, claiming that mixed economies outperform both command and free market ones in terms of innovation and competitiveness. [7] Relatedly, he has also highlighted the role played by institutional complementarity and hierarchy for the co-existence of diverse social systems of innovation and production. [8] [9]

Research on capitalism and neoliberalism

This perspective - that economies may grow substantially and sustainably despite large differences in institutions - is also present in Amable's research on capitalism. Notably, in The Diversity of Capitalism, Amable explains how institutions - far from being irrelevant for economic development - may keep economies from converging towards a unique economic model. [10] He further offers a typology of capitalisms, distinguishing between (i) the neoliberal model, (ii) the continental European model, (iii) the social democrat model, (iv) the "Mediterranean" model" and (v) the Asian model of capitalism. Amable has been critical of political efforts to force countries to converge towards a single economic model (typically the neoliberal one), arguing that ongoing differences between developed countries in terms of financial systems, social protection, industrial relations, labour markets and education systems strongly suggest that a common economic system would be both inadequate and undesirable in the face of such diversity, and is bound to be opposed by populations. [11] In another study of capitalism, Amable argues that neo-liberal politics is driven by a moral imperative of competition, leading to a replacement of the "old" social contract of collective rights to social protection and redistribution by a new one based on reciprocity between the individual and society, with important implications for e.g. the emergence of the "modern" left. [12] More recently, taking a neorealist approach, Amable (with Stefano Palombarini) has theorized how types of institutional change and their timing may depend on the interplay between political strategies and demands for institutional change. [13]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capitalism</span> Economic system based on private ownership

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price systems, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Schumpeter</span> Austrian political economist (1883–1950)

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State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises. The definition can also include the state dominance of corporatized government agencies or of public companies such as publicly listed corporations in which the state has controlling shares.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic history</span> Aspect of history

Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and institutions. The field can encompass a wide variety of topics, including equality, finance, technology, labour, and business. It emphasizes historicizing the economy itself, analyzing it as a dynamic entity and attempting to provide insights into the way it is structured and conceived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market economy</span> Type of economic system

A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a market economy is the existence of factor markets that play a dominant role in the allocation of capital and the factors of production.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">German model</span>

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Economic planning is a resource allocation mechanism based on a computational procedure for solving a constrained maximization problem with an iterative process for obtaining its solution. Planning is a mechanism for the allocation of resources between and within organizations contrasted with the market mechanism. As an allocation mechanism for socialism, economic planning replaces factor markets with a procedure for direct allocations of resources within an interconnected group of socially owned organizations which together comprise the productive apparatus of the economy.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariana Mazzucato</span> Italian-American economist and professor (born 1968)

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References

  1. 1 2 Profile of Bruno Amable on the website of the University of Geneva. Retrieved January 21st, 2019.
  2. ↑ Cercle des économistes (May 20th, 2000). Prix du Meilleur Jeune Économiste 2000. Retrieved January 21st, 2019.
  3. ↑ Ranking of economists registered on IDEAS/RePEc by number of works. Retrieved January 21st, 2019.
  4. ↑ Amable, Bruno (January 1, 1993). "Catch-up and convergence: a model of cumulative growth". International Review of Applied Economics. 7 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1080/758528250 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
  5. ↑ Amable, Bruno (December 1, 2000). "International specialisation and growth". Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. 11 (4): 413–431. doi:10.1016/S0954-349X(00)00026-6 – via ScienceDirect.
  6. ↑ Amable, Bruno; Verspagen, Bart (February 1, 1995). "The role of technology in market shares dynamics". Applied Economics. 27 (2): 197–204. doi:10.1080/00036849500000024 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
  7. ↑ [Amable, B., Barré, R., Boyer, R. (1997). Les systèmes d'innovation à l'ère de la globalisation. Paris: Economica.]
  8. ↑ Amable, Bruno (January 1, 2000). "Institutional complementarity and diversity of social systems of innovation and production". Review of International Political Economy. 7 (4): 645–687. doi:10.1080/096922900750034572. S2CID   18555007 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
  9. ↑ Crouch, Colin; Streeck, Wolfgang; Boyer, Robert; Amable, Bruno; Hall, Peter A.; Jackson, Gregory (May 1, 2005). "Dialogue on 'Institutional complementarity and political economy'". Socio-Economic Review. 3 (2): 359–382. doi:10.1093/SER/mwi015. hdl: 11858/00-001M-0000-0012-4EAA-0 – via Silverchair.
  10. ↑ Amable, B. (2003). The Diversity of Modern Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Amable, B. (2005). Les cinq capitalismes. Diversité des systèmes économiques et sociaux dans la mondialisation. Paris: Éditions Seuil.
  12. ↑ Amable, Bruno (January 1, 2011). "Morals and politics in the ideology of neo-liberalism". Socio-Economic Review. 9 (1): 3–30. doi:10.1093/ser/mwq015. hdl: 11858/00-001M-0000-0012-3F50-F – via Silverchair.
  13. ↑ Amable, Bruno; Palombarini, Stefano (January 1, 2009). "A neorealist approach to institutional change and the diversity of capitalism". Socio-Economic Review. 7 (1): 123–143. doi:10.1093/ser/mwn018 – via Silverchair.
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