Leaving labour markets to the market mechanism with flexible wages is the worst thing that can happen as the result would be a permanent destabilisation of the price level and an explosion of inequality—both of which adds to the instabilities of capitalism. Guarantee of minimum wages can play...

An economy with a stable medium-term growth rate of zero - or any other politically determined growth rate - needs new regulations and institutions to realise this target. Such an economy would look very different compared with the existing type of capitalism we have today in the Global North....

After the 2001 crisis, Turkey continued to pursue a radical market-oriented reform strategy that followed the philosophy of the Washington Consensus. By the early 2000s the government had already liberalised the capital account, privatised many banks and enterprises, and kick-started the...

This paper analyses several severe financial crises observed in the history of capitalism which led to a longer period of stagnation or low growth. Comparative case studies of the Great Depression, the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Japanese crisis of the 1990s and 2000s are...

This paper analyses financial crises from a theoretical point of view. For this it reviews what different schools of economic thought have to say about financial crises. It examines first the approaches that regard financial crises as a disturbing factor of a generally stable real economy...

Over the past several decades minimum wages have steadily gained importance. In many cases this reflects the weakness of unions which have been unable to prevent very low wages compared to the national average wage in some segments of the labour market. Changes in minimum wages can affect...

Minimum wage policy supported by a strong social policy is an efficient mechanism against poverty and income erosion of the poorest households. Minimum wage is one of the instruments which can control wage dispersion and in this way reduce income inequality. It can also help to prevent a general...

When Vietnam started the Doi Moi (renovation) in the mid-1980s it was a backward agricultural country. Liberalising markets, allowing the establishment of private firms, integrating in the world economy and high FDI inflows stimulated growth and productivity development. However, this first face...