1. “TINA and the market turn: why deindustrialization proceeded under democratic capitalism but not state socialism”
Critical Historical Studies 8 (2), Fall 2021, 209-237

Deindustrialization was one of the most disruptive social transformations of the 20th century. Why did democratic capitalist regimes permit and survive this process, while state socialist regimes did not? Drawing on historical evidence from the UK, Poland, and the US, this article advances two mechanisms as explanation: first, enabled by the polity-economy distinction characteristic of capitalism, the belief that “there is no alternative” (TINA) could appear credible in the West, but not the East. Second, the Western turn towards market-led deindustrialization reduced the economic costs of deindustrialization and, more importantly, deprived unrest in the West of focal points for protest, lowering political costs, too. Strengthening the case for these two mechanisms, the article rules out four alternative explanations: generic inefficiency in planned economies, differential elite views on the necessity of structural change, immediate acquiescence by Western electorates or unions, and a uniquely successful return to high growth rates in the West.

2. “Changing accounts of the relationship between capitalism and democracy: from incompatibility to partnership, and back?”
History of Political Thought 43(1), Spring 2022, 161-198

The relationship between democracy and capitalism is one of the major questions of our time. This paper gives context to contemporary debates by tracing past accounts of their relationship. It begins by charting 19th century incompatibility narratives—the belief that capitalism and democracy are incompatible—and demonstrating that they were widespread at the time. Next it shows how, towards the middle of the 20th century, a new paradigm emerged, built on Modernization theory, in which democracy and capitalism were seen as partners in modernity. In closing, the paper points towards an incipient third narrative, whose first sprouts emerged in the 1990s, and which sees capitalism and democracy as antagonistic, if not outright incompatible, principles of social order.

A German translation of this paper has been published at Politik & Ökonomie as “Kapitalismus und Demokratie: Von der Unvereinbarkeit zur Partnerschaft und zurück?”

3. “From demonstration to deployment: an economic analysis of support policies for carbon capture and storage” with Wolf Heidug, John Ward, and Robin Smale, Energy Policy Vol 60 (2013) (Pdf).

4. “Less pain, more gain: the potential of carbon pricing to reduce Europe’s fiscal deficits” with John Ward, Robin Smale, and Jacqueline Cottrell, in Market Based Instruments: National Experiences in Environmental Sustainability, Vol. IX of Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation, Oxford: OUP (2013) (working paper version).

5. “Self-interested Low-carbon Growth in Brazil, China, and India” with John Ward, Cameron Hepburn, David Anthoff, Simon Baptist, Philip Gradwell, and Chris Hope, Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies Vol 4 No 3 (2012) (Pdf).

1. “European Symmetric Rules: Reconciling economic and climate sustainability”, with Cyprien Batut, Jonas Kaiser, and Clara Leonard. Institut Avant-garde, Dezernat Zukunft, and European Macro Policy Network policy paper. Paris: Institut Avant-garde, April 2024.

European countries face a growing dilemma between their climate commitments and their fiscal commitments. But while both fiscal and climate sustainability are crucial, there is currently an implicit hierarchy: non-compliance with fiscal rules leads to sanctions, non-compliance with emission reduction targets does not. We therefore propose the creation of European climate rules, complementary to the fiscal rules, to restore a sound balance between fiscal and climate sustainability.

2. “Islands and the sea: making firm-level democracy durable”, chapter in Democratizing the Corporation: The Bicameral Firm and Beyond, edited by Isabelle Ferreras, Tom Malleson and Joel Rogers. London: Verso, March 2024.

This chapter responds to Isabelle Ferreras’ Firms as Political Entities: Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism. The main argument is that firm-level democracy can only last if the market system into which they are embedded is also democratised, especially financial markets. The chapter makes this case by charting the gradual erosion in economic democracy in the West since the 1970s, using this history to derive lessons and mechanisms for a possible future where firm-level democracy has been achieved.

3. "Fossil Fuel to the Fire", with Felix Heilmann, Dezernat Zukunft policy paper, 21.11.2023

From 2021 to 2023, Europe (and much of the world) experienced a wave of double-digit inflation. This paper analyses its causes and, finding that fossil fuel energy prices were the main driver, investigates the potential of renewable energy to dampen inflation in the future.

4. Hé Patrón! — pour une révolution dans l’entreprise, with Miranda Richmond Mouillot, Dave Hackett, Isabelle Ferreras, and Team Endicott, 29.9.2023 (in French), Paris: Seuil.

5. “‘Gesunde öffentliche Finanzen’ im Europarecht”, with Philipp Orphal, Dezernat Zukunft policy paper, 30.11.2022 (in German; English translation forthcoming).

‘Sound public finances’ are an important principle in EU law. Yet the meaning of the term remains controversial: What precisely makes public finances ‘sound’ or ‘unsound’? In this paper, we show, first, that ‘sound public finances’ are not considered an end in themselves by EU law, but a means to other, higher purposes, such as price stability, the preservation of peace, well-being, and member state (fiscal) sovereignty, or the functioning of the single market. Second, we show that the meaning of the term is not defined in the treaties themselves, and, third, that courts cannot derive a substantive interpretation from treaty law themselves. Instead, such an interpretation must be developed and updated by the competent institutions of the European Union and the Member States. The most important policy implication of this analysis is that the courts cannot second-guess the definition of sound public finances that emerges from the EU fiscal rules and, as a consequence, that the ECB cannot be accused of undermining incentives towards sound public finances if its support is tied to compliance with those rules.

6. “Zinsen statt Geldmenge”, with Philipp Orphal, Dezernat Zukunft policy paper, 14.10.2022 (in German; English version available here).

In this paper, we look at the jurisprudence around ECB asset purchase programmes. Article 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union prohibits the direct purchases of member state government bonds by the ECB. The courts have interpreted this prohibition to also imply limits on so-called secondary market purchases, i.e. purchases on the open market. This paper argues that the courts’ reasoning in these cases builds on monetarist premises. Given that these premises have been falsified, the relevant jurisprudence should be updated: all secondary market purchases that serve the goal of price stability should be permitted.

7. “The economic basis of democracy in Europe”, with Pepijn Bergsen, Leah Downey, Hans Kundnani, Manuela Moschella, and Quinn Slobodian, Chatham House, Chatham House Research Paper, 8.9.2022.

This report argues that understanding contemporary challenges to democracy in Europe requires looking beyond the rise of ‘populism’. Instead, it requires acknowledging a multiplicity of threats to democracy, in particular those arising from the structure of European economies and economic policymaking.

8. “Monetary Targeting Revisited”, with Florian Kern and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Dezernat Zukunft policy paper, 28.6.2022 (German version available here).

This paper explores how the German Bundesbank and the US Federal Reserve have implemented and updated their monetary policy since the 1970s. It shows how the monetarist strategies adopted by both central banks in the 1970s were guided by false assumptions, and how both banks quickly transitioned to a non-monetarist strategy in practice. Given that especially the Bundesbank claimed continued adherence to a strategy of monetary targeting, we call for a policy evaluation to evaluate the extent to which the Bundesbank had been misguided in identifying and communicating the functioning of monetary policy, and why it did so.

9. “Planifier pour répondre à l’incertitude”, chapter in Politiques de l’interrègne. Chine, pandémie, climat, a Le Grand Continent book. Paris: Gallimard, 24.3.2022

10. “Effektiv und mehrheitsfähig? Der Emissionshandel auf dem Prüfstand”, with Vera Huwe and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Dezernat Zukunft policy paper, 26.11.2021.

11. “Wird die Konjunkturkomponente der Schuldenbremse in ihrer heutigen Ausgestaltung ihrer Aufgabe noch gerecht? Analyse und ein Reformvorschlag”, with Florian Schuster and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner (in German; English translation here), 24.8.2021.

12. “Wird die Konjunkturkomponente der Schuldenbremse ihrer Aufgabe noch gerecht?”, with Florian Schuster and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Wirtschaftsdienst, 101. Jahrgang, Heft 8, August 2021. PDF available here.

13. “Die Definition einer zukunftsfähigen Finanzpolitik”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Wirtschaftsdienst, 101. Jahrgang, Heft 7, July 2021. PDF available here.

14. “Eine neue deutsche Finanzpolitik”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Pola Schneemelcher, Florian Schuster, Viola Hilbert, and Henrika Meyer, Forum New Economy working paper (in German, June 2021; English summary; English translation here).

This paper intervenes in the current debate around fiscal rules and the future of fiscal policy. Recent research has shown that fiscal sustainability is neither well-proxied by the debt-to-GDP ratio, nor is it necessarily achieved by aiming for low annual deficits. Moreover, this vision of fiscal policy—written into the German constitution with the 2009 introduction of the Schuldenbremse—is insufficient to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability, external balance, decarbonization, or the successful management of Germany’s demographic transition. Building on this diagnosis, our paper seeks to answer three questions: What objective should fiscal policy pursue today? What fiscal framework is best suited for achieving this objective? And which reforms could move us in this direction? The answers we formulate: sustained full capacity utilisation should be the main goal of fiscal policy; a four-pronged framework, combining secular demand management, cyclical demand management, targeted public investment, and a new fiscal sustainability indicator, can translate this objective into practice; and reforms to the cyclical component of the Schuldenbremse, governed by ordinary law, would enable first steps towards this new framework without the need for constitutional reform.

15. “Sustainable investments and sustainable development: an epistemological one-way street”, Report for the Royal Academy of Belgium, April 2021

This report asks: how can investors, public or private, distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable investments? Its first observation is: different public and private players draw this distinction differently. What some consider sustainable investments, others do not. There is no consensus.

Drilling deeper, the report argues that disagreement is not coincidental. In particular, the question of sustainability can only be asked of systems as a whole, and not, in general, of their individual components. Attempts at starting from individual investments, determining their impact on system-level indicators to determine whether or not they are sustainable, are largely doomed to failure, and the report explains why.

Does this mean the question cannot be answered? No, for while there is no reliable method to translate upwards, from individual investments to their impact on a system’s overall sustainability, the report describes a combination of methods that allows downwards translation, from system-level sustainability to identifying individual investments as sustainable (or not). In other words, the link between system-level sustainability and investment-level sustainability is a one-way street: downwards translation is possible, but upwards translation is not. The trick, then, is to travel in the right direction, and the report concludes with a sketch of what this might look like for the SFPI, Belgium, and Europe.

16. Comments (2020) on the ECB’s draft Guide on Climate-Related and Environmental Risks, with a group of 9 other experts.

17. “Fourteen Ideas for after Corona” (2020), with a group of 30+ researchers coordinated through Dezernat Zukunft.

18. “Das Pariser Manifest” (in German, 2017), with Jonas Freist-Held.

1. “Christian Lindner sollte mehr Geld ausgeben”, Der Spiegel, 11.11.2023

2. “Demokratie und Klimawandel: Alles wird sich ändern”, Die ZEIT, with Georg Diez, 3.7.2023

3. “No Alternative?”, review of and reflections on Fritz Bartel’s The Triumph of Broken Promises, Harvard University Press, 2022. Published at Phenomenal World, 25.3.2023. A Portuguese translation was published at República dos Pijamas as “Sem Alternativa?”, 26.6.2023. A German translation was published at Politik & Ökonomie as “Keine Alternative?”, 7.8.2023

4. “Eine widersprüchliche Bilanz: Das brüchige Erbe der Ära Merkel”, Theorie und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit, 73. Jg. H. 2, Mai 2022

5. “The Whole Field: Markets, planning, and coordinating the green transformation”, Phenomenal World, 30.4.2022. A German translation of this essay was published at Politik & Ökonomie as “Aus dem Nie, ein Jetzt: Zur Planung und Umsetzung der Nachhaltigkeitswende”, 20.11.2022

6. “‘Just do it’: The Economics of Belonging and the temptation of Nike Politics”, a review of Martin Sandbu’s The Economics of Belonging, Princeton University Press, 2020. Published in The Progressive Post, 23.01.2021.

7. “The dog that didn’t bark: inflation and power in the contemporary capitalist state”, Renewal, Vol 28 No 1. April 2020.

8. “Die Macht des Rechtes”, review of Katharina Pistor’s The Code of Capital, Princeton University Press, 2019. Published at Dezernat Zukunft, 24.8.2019, republished by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 19.10.2020.

Press and smaller articles

“La politique européenne favorise l’objectif budgétaire et sacrifie l’objectif climatique”, with Clara Leonard, Le Monde, 17.5.2024

“Höchste Zeit für eine Grundgesetzänderung!”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner and Alexander Thiele, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12.12.2023

“Decarbonization requires new fiscal rules”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner and Janek Steitz, Project Syndicate, 25.4.2023

“Wann sind öffentliche Finanzen (rechtlich) gesund?”, with Philipp Orphal, Makronom, 28.11.2022.

Warum steigen Preise – und was kann man dagegen tun?, Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 28.11.2022.

“How the West Enabled War in Ukraine”, Project Syndicate, 28.3.2022.

“Haushaltshoheit und Schuldenbremse: Warum die Konjunkturkomponente reformiert werden sollte”, Verfassungsblog, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, 9.11.2021.

"Die Wirtschaftsstrategie der Ära Merkel ist gescheitert”, Jacobin, 2.11.2021.

“Die volkswirtschaftliche Wurstfabrik hinter der Schuldenbremse”, with Florian Schuster and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18.9.2021.

“For sustainable finance to work, we will need central planning”, Financial Times, 11.7.2021.

“Gelenkte Märkte statt Lenkung durch Märkte”, with Philipp Golka, Makronom, 17.6.2021.

“Wie eine neue Finanzpolitik aussehen kann”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, The Pioneer, 1.6.2021.

Interview with Jason Furman (in German and English). Dezernat Zukunft, 12.5.2021.

“Die falsche Frage”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, 22.12.2020.

“Onwards, but not via Beijing: for a democratic re-embedding of capitalism”, with Mathis Richtmann. The essay won 2nd prize in the 2020 Hertie Stiftung essay competition. Published (in German) in Wirtschaftswoche as “Lasst uns die demokratische Kontrolle über die Marktwirtschaft wiedererlangen!”, 12.10.2020.

“Vom Urteil zur Anhörung: ein Leitfaden zu Jens Weidmanns Auftritt im Finanzausschuss des Bundestags”, with Mathis Richtmann, Dezernat Zukunft, 14.9.2020.

“Vollbeschäftigung muss das Ziel sozialdemokratischer Finanzpolitik sein” (in German), with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Vorwärts, 12.8.2020.

“Corona und die Schulden: Vorwärts mit neuen Instrumenten statt Stillstand mit der alten Null”, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Vorwärts, 19.6.2020.

“Gleichwertige Lebensverhältnisse im Euroraum”, with Philipp Heimberger, Dominic Ponattu, and Jens van ‘t Klooster, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14.4.2020. Available in English as “Keeping the promise of eurozone convergence”, Social Europe, 27.5.2020.

Interview with Katharina Pistor (in German). Dezernat Zukunft, 6.3.2020 (part 1) and 20.3.2020 (part 2).

“Germany is damaging the European economy. The answer? Raise German wages”, with David Adler, The Guardian, 26.11.2019. Available in German as “Lieber höhere Löhne”, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15.12.2019.

“Utopie als Motor: Neue Vorschläge für eine sozialdemokratische Zukunft”, with Jonas Freist-Held, Neue Gesellschaft Frankfurter Hefte No 7/8 (2018).

Media

“Rules of restraint: Fiscal politics in Brazil, Germany, and the European Union”, panel discussion hosted by Phenomenal World with Clara Zanon Brenck, Pedro Romero Marques, and Alexandros Kentikelenis, 18.11.2023

“Die Regeln können wir selbst schreiben” (in German), interview on the German debt brake, Die Zeit, 17.11.2023

“Das BVerfG hat die Schuldenbremse zu einer gesellschaftlichen Fragestellung erhoben”, interview on Mikroökonomen podcast, 17.11.2023

Ökonom über ‘Bidenomics’: "Biden bricht mit den Grundlagen der US-Wirtschaftspolitik" (in German), interview on Bidenomics, N-TV, 29.7.2023.

“No combate às alterações climáticas, é o Estado que pode absorver o falhanço de uma forma que as empresas não conseguem” (in Portuguese), interview about how to coordinate the green transformation, Visão, 9.4.2023

“Mosca gli ha dato la crescita Merkel etc. il potere di ricatto” (in Italian), quoted on Germany’s dependence on Russia’s natural gas deliveries, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 11.4.2022.

Wirtschaftsfragen Podcast (in German) with Lukas Scholle, interview about my “Changing accounts of the relationship between capitalism and democracy paper” (History of Political Thought 43 (1)), 8.4.2022.

“Il contratto di governo tedesco: ecco quello che c’è da sapere” (in Italian), interview on the new coalition agreement in Germany, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 29.11.2021.

Behind The News (in English) with Doug Henwood, Jacobin Radio, interview on my sustainable finance work. 11.8.2021

Hertie Podcast, Essaypreis Demokratie und Wirtschaft (in German), with Mathis Richtmann. 21.7.2021.

Klimaschutz und Finanzpolitik: Überspannt die EZB damit den Bogen? Interview on “Profit - Das Wirtschaftsmagazin”, WDR5, 13.7.2021.

National debt — threat or opportunity? Invited talk at ODDO BHF Bank, with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, 17.3.2021.

An introduction to public investment on L’Académie.tv, the TV platform of the Belgian Royal Academy of Science, 29.1.2021.

Interview on COVID and inequality in Der Spiegel (in German), 25.1.2021.

Sustainable finance interview on “Le marché matinale” (in French), RTBF, 4.2.2020.

“Wieviel Macht hat ein EZB Präsident und wie übt er sie aus?, Mikroökonomen Podcast with Marco Herack, 25.11.2018.