Stavros Mavroudeas

• PhD Economics
• Professor (Full) at Panteion University

Till today there is a widespread presumption that Neoliberalism (NL) is the dominant political-economic paradigm in the West but also in the greater part of the world. This paper argues that this is not so and that since the beginning of the 21st century NL has fallen from grace and has been replaced by the equally conservative New Keynesianism (NK...

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated the global inequalities regarding the availability and access to vaccines. Many terms have appeared in the academic literature (“vaccine colonialism,” “vaccine nationalism,” “vaccine apartheid”) trying to capture and interpret these inequalities, failing in most cases to realistically explain the upstr...

The financialization hypothesis (FH) is a popular leitmotiv which argues that the financial system conquers the commanding heights of the capitalist economy. It maintains that finance gained independence from productive-capital and began to dominate it. The FH bases this argument on several empirical claims concerning the size and the strategic rol...

A Marxist critique of Varoufakis' DIMITRA plan

Μηντιακοί «σωτήρες» σε καιρούς κρίσης Σε καιρούς κρίσης είναι συχνό το φαινόμενο εμφάνισης «σωτήρων» που υπόσχονται στις χειμαζόμενες λαϊκές μάζες την σωτηρία μέσω ευφάνταστων σχεδίων που θα μεταρρυθμίσουν το σύστημα και θα καλυτερέψουν την άσχημη θέση τους. Πίσω από τις φωνακλάδικες «αντι-συστημικές» διατυπώσεις τους κρύβονται περισσότερο ή λιγότε...

Στην διάλεξη αυτή υποστηρίζεται ότι ο Νεοφιλελευθερισμός έχει εκπέσει από κυρίαρχο οικονομικό παράδειγμα από τις αρχές του 21ου αιώνα. Την θέση του έχει καταλάβει ο Νέος Κεϋνσιανισμός με τη Νέα Μακροοικονομική Συναίνεση. Βασικά στοιχεία των τελευταίων είναι η αποδοχή ενός ολοένα και αυξανόμενου κρατικού οικονομικού παρεμβατισμού. Το νέο κυρίαρχο οι...

Economic Policy covers the aims and the instruments of state economic interventionism. As a broad problematique it existed from the very birth of the science of the economy. However, as a special subject-area it was inaugurated in the interwar era and formalized by the beginning of the post-World War II era. Since then, Economic Policy faced seriou...

Η μελέτη αυτή εξετάζει το επίπεδο και την εξέλιξη των μισθών των εργαζομένων στον δημόσιο τομέα στην Ελλάδα. Παρουσιάζει την θέση του δημόσιου τομέα στην ελληνική οικονομία και την διαχρονική εξέλιξή της και διαπιστώνει τον κομβικό του ρόλο αλλά και την πρόσφατη τάση συρρίκνωσής του λόγω της επικράτησης νεοσυντηρητικών πολιτικών. Δείχνει επίσης την...

Selected and revised papers from the proceedings of the ICOPEC 2021 Conference have been published by IJOPEC Publications in a ccollecctive volume titled 'The Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on societies and economies'. I was an invited speaker at the conference and I contributed a paper titled 'The Political Economy of the COVID-19 Pandemic', which is...

Social, Economic and Human Consequences of Covid-19 Pandemic in Turkey and the World

Presentation at International Conference "Soviet Union: An Alternative of the Past, or a Strategic Project for the Future?", National Library of Russia, Plekhanov House, Association for Marxist Social Sciences, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 12-13/11/2021

COVID-19 is a global pandemic but has a particular geography to it, differentially affecting people and places. Here we explore its impact upon labour markets in the Mediterranean European Union (EU) countries. Our analysis is part of a collective work-in-progress monitoring the pandemic's effects upon workers since early March 2020. First we note...

This paper surveys the changing notions ascribed to the term ‘Political Economy’ in Greece from the beginning of the Greek economics till the beginning of the 21st century. It relates them to the evolution of economic thought in Greece and the turbulent course of Greek capitalism. It argues that during the birth period of economic studies in Greece...

The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered a twin (health and economic crisis). The first is caused by the “metabolic rift” (capitalism’s uncontrollable and insatiable commodification of nature) that leads to the modern “emerging epidemics” of zoonoses. The economic crisis was already simmering but lockdowns triggered and aggravated its eruption. Furtherm...

Engels is the co-founder of Marxism. However, he sometimes came under attack as a distorter of Marx’s thought. The first wave of attacks (1970s and 1980s) focused on philosophical and methodological issues. The second wave of attacks emerged since the 1990s and centred more on political economy, pioneered by the Neue Lekture and the Sraffians. It m...

The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered a twin (health and economic crisis). The first is caused by the ‘metabolic rift’ (capitalism’s uncontrollable and insatiable commodification of nature) that leads to the modern ‘emerging epidemics’ of zoonoses. The economic crisis was already simmering but lockdowns triggered and aggravated its eruption. Furtherm...

A Relação entre tempo de trabalho e produtividade-Intensidade do trabalho Resumo: Economistas influentes como Marx, Jevons, Chapman e Robbins argumentaram que o tempo de trabalho e a intensidade do trabalho estão fortemente correlacionados. No entanto, a relação quantitativa entre essas duas magnitudes nunca foi estimada. Este artigo dá um passo no...

The 200th anniversary of the birth of F.Engels comes at a time when his contribution to Marxism is being disputed by Neue Lekture and Sraffian authors, based on the alleged discovery of him having distorted Capital. The evidence presented by the new anti-Engelsionists are flimsy and essentially philological hair-splitting arguments. The common grou...

Michael Roberts has been publishing a series of very interesting videos in his YouTube channel. I participated in one of them and gave a talk on 'The Political Economy of COVID-19".

Interview given for a course conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) that will appear in a Chinese publication

Το πανεπιστήμιο είναι ένας ειδικός θεσμός του καπιταλιστικού συστήματος. Έχει δυναμικό χαρακτήρα, δηλαδή μεταλλάσεται. Οι μεταλλάξεις του συνδέονται με τα στάδια εξέλιξης του καπιταλιστικού συστήματος. Διακρίνονται τρεις «εποχές» του πανεπιστημίου (ερασμιακό, δημόσιο-κρατικό, επιχειρηματικό) που αντιστοιχούν σε τρία διαδοχικά στάδια του καπιταλιστι...

Coronavirus, Capitalism and the Political Economy of modern epidemics

Today, humanity is in the throes of a coronavirus pandemic resulting in a huge health crisis. At the same time, however, the global economy is entering a recessionary path that is now characterized as economic crisis from almost all sides. So, it is justified to talk about a double crisis, both health and economic.

Σήμερα η ανθρωπότητα βρίσκεται στη δίνη της πανδημίας του κοροναϊού με συνέπεια μία τεράστια υγειονομική κρίση. Ταυτόχρονα όμως η παγκόσμια οικονομία μπαίνει σε μία υφεσιακή τροχιά που πλέον από όλες σχεδόν τις πλευρές χαρακτηρίζεται ως οικονομική κρίση. Δικαιολογημένα λοιπόν μπορούμε να μιλήσουμε για μία διπλή κρίση, τόσο υγειονομική όσο και οικον...

Βασικά ζητήματα Οικονομικής Πολιτικής

The globalization hypothesis (i.e. the argument that modern capitalism has once and for all discard the nation state and modern capitalism became a truly unified ‘global village’) was overwhelmingly popular since the 1990s. This was coupled with the expansion of a multifaceted theoretical trend that rejected previous analytical tools and purported...

The globalisation hypothesis (i.e. the argument that modern capitalism has once and for all discard the nation state and modern capitalism became a truly unified ‘global village’) was overwhelmingly popular since the 1990s. This was coupled with the expansion of a multifaceted theoretical trend that rejected previous analytical tools and purported...

Lecture in Universidad Computense, Madrid 24-4-2019 CONCEPTS OF STRUCTURAL CHANGE: MAINSTREAM, HETERODOX AND MARXIST CONCEPTIONS AND THE GREEK CRISIS Stavros Mavroudeas Dept. of Social Policy Panteion University I. The concept of Structural Change in economic analysis and policy II. Competing explanations of the 2008-10 Greek crisis III. Structu...

Συγκεφαλαιώνοντας, οι προοπτικές του παγκόσμιου καπιταλισμού για το 2019 κάθε άλλο παρά ευοίωνες είναι και η πιθανότητα μιας άλλης παγκόσμιας καπιταλιστικής κρίσης (όπως ακόμη και επίσημα κέντρα καθομολογούν) αυξάνεται.

4ης βιομηχανικής επανάστασης» Θεσσαλονίκη, 15/2/19

The Financialization Hypothesis is a popular argument in contemporary heterodox and also mainstream economics. It maintains that capitalism has undergone a radical transformation over at least the past three decades. The financial system, through a series of innovative mechanisms, has conquered the commanding heights of capitalism and has changed t...

The Financialisation Hypothesis is a popular argument in contemporary Heterodox but also Mainstream Economics. It maintains that capitalism has undergone a radical transformation during at least the last three decades. The financial system, through a series of innovative mechanisms, has conquered capitalism’s commanding heights and has converted th...

Comment on Ramirez’s article (‘Credit, Indebtedness, and Speculation in Marx’s Political Economy’) in ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Unpaid overtime is a currently increasing phenomenon. It signifies a tendency for increasing work-time in developed economies that takes place contrary to the rights and wishes of the workers; at least at a first glance. The increasing significance of unpaid overtime creates also serious analytical problems for mainstream economic theories given th...

In previous works (e.g. Mavroudeas & Paitarides (2015b)) it has been argued that the post-2007 long duration crisis of Greek capitalism has two intertwined causes. The internal cause stems from the falling profitability trend caused by the increase of the organic composition of capital. The external cause stems from the economic imperialist exploit...

The Theory of Imperialism has been the theoretical toolbox through which Marxism traditionally analyses capitalism’s international system. The very term was born after the first global capitalist crisis and the concomitant eruption of international conflicts that led to the collapse of classical liberalism’s conception of capitalism as a peace-lovi...

Σε προηγούμενες εργασίες (π.χ. Mavroudeas & Paitarides (2015b)) έχει υποστηριχθεί ότι η κρίση του ελληνικού καπιταλισμού μετά το 2007 έχει δύο αλληλένδετα αίτια. Η εσωτερική αιτία οφείλεται στην πτωτική τάση της κερδοφορίας που προκαλείται από την αύξηση της οργανικής σύνθεσης του κεφαλαίου. Η εξωτερική αιτία προέρχεται από την οικονομική ιμπεριαλι...

The Financialisation Hypothesis is a popular trend in contemporary Radical Political Economy. It maintains that capitalism has nowadays entered a new stage where money capital dominates the whole circuit of capital dethroning productive capital. More ambitious versions of the Financialisation Hypothesis uphold that money capital becomes totally ind...

Το κείμενο επισημαίνει τα βασικά και θεμελιακά στοιχεία της Μαρξιστικής ανάλυσης που εξακολουθούν να την κάνουν επίκαιρη σήμερα τόσο επιστημονικά όσο και πολιτικά. Ταυτόχρονα εξετάζει μία σειρά προβλήματα και προκλήσεις που έχει να αντιμετωπίσει ο Μαρξισμός σήμερα.

’Marx and the theory of economic crisis’, a 2-part lecture for freshers (without a concise background in Marxist economics)

J.Cartelier’s article follows in the steps of his long-standing previous work (e.g. Cartelier (1991), Benetti & Cartelier (1999)) of advancing a Monetary Approach as an alternative to the Theory of Value. This approach had begun, in the past, as what was then branded the ‘Rubin School’ (e.g. Cartelier (1976), Deleplace (1979), Benetti & Cartelier (...

The current Greek crisis—together with crises of the other euro-periphery economies—is at the epicentre of European Union’s (EU) structural problems. In order to overcome this crisis, the EU in agreement with successive Greek governments has applied three Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs), entailing successive loans to Greece in order to avoid...

Comment

Αποδέσμευση από την ΕΕ ή Δραχμισμός;

Η πολιτική οικονομία του ελληνικού εφοπλιστικού κεφαλαίου.

Εκατό πενήντα χρόνια μετά την έκδοση του πρώτου του τόμου το «ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟ» του Κ.Μαρξ εξακολουθεί να είναι επίκαιρο δίνοντας το πλαίσιο για την ρεαλιστική κατανόηση της λειτουργίας του καπιταλιστικού συστήματος αλλά και τις αναλυτικές προϋποθέσεις για την κομμουνιστική πολιτική.

Στο κείμενο αυτό εξετάζεται η πολιτική οικονομία της ΕΕ, η θέση του μαρξισμού και τα πολιτικά καθήκοντα της Αριστεράς. Παρουσιάζονται οι βασικές εναλλακτικές θεωρήσεις (επίσημη, ριζοσπαστική και μαρξιστική) της ευρωπαϊκής ενοποίησης και το πώς εξελίχθηκαν κατά την ιστορική διαδρομή της. Επισημαίνεται ο απολογητικός χαρακτήρας των επίσημων θεωριών,...

1980 και μετά. Η ιστορική διαδρομή της ευρωπαϊκής ενοποίησης διακρίνεται σε επιμέρους φάσεις, ενώ ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στην τελευταία –που ακολούθησε την παγκόσμια καπιταλιστική κρίση του 2007-08–, η οποία υποστηρίζεται ότι οδήγησε στη σημερινή κρίση της εε. Τέλος, υποστηρίζεται ότι η σημερινή κρίση της εε αναδεικνύει ξεκάθαρα τον αντιλαϊκό χαρ...

The Greek economic crisis is one of the major crises that erupted in the aftermath of the global economic crisis of 2007-8. It is at the epicentre of the Eurozone crisis and at the same time has an asymmetric effect – given the size of the Greek economy – on the world economy. This paper surveys the different explanations of the Greek crisis. It cl...

Η θεωρία της «χρηματιστικοποίησης» είναι δημοφιλής σήμερα μέσα στη Ριζοσπαστική Πολιτική Οικονομία. Παρόλα αυτά είναι μία εξαιρετικά προβληματική προσέγγιση που αφενός διαβάζει εσφαλμένα την πραγματικότητα και αφετέρου ανατρέπει βασικές αρχές του Μαρξισμού που σε αντίθεση με την «χρηματιστικοποίηση» συλλαμβάνουν πολύ πιο ρεαλιστικά την λειτουργία τ...

Το κείμενο αυτό προτείνει μία ερμηνεία για την συστηματική αποτυχία των ελληνικών ΠΟΠ. Το επόμενο τμήμα δείχνει ότι οι θεωρητικές και πολιτικές καταβολές του ελληνικού ΠΟΠ (αλλά και των άλλων αντίστοιχων προγραμμάτων για ευρω-περιφερειακές χώρες) βρίσκονται στα εκπορευόμενα από την Συναίνεση της Ουάσιγκτον Προγράμματα Δομικής Προσαρμογής που επεξερ...

Το άρθρο παρουσιάζει τις βασικές ανταγωνιστικές ερμηνείες της ελληνικής κρίσης και αναλύει το πώς αντιμετωπίζουν το ζήτημα της παραγωγικής αναδιάρθρωσης. Ακολούθως παρουσιάζει τις βασικές εναλλακτικές στρατηγικές διεξόδου από την κρίση και δείχνει πως συνδέονται με τις εναλλακτικές ερμηνείες της κρίσης

This paper surveys the competing explanations of the Greek crisis and the alternative strategies (associated with these explanations) proposed in order to surpass this crisis. The competing explanations are categorized in three main groups (Mainstream, Radical and Marxist). It is argued that the Marxist explanations can grasp better the deep struct...

This paper reviews the alternative explanations offered to explain the Greek crisis and checks there analytical and empirical validity. The first part focuses on the mainstream explanations. It distinguishes three main versions ('Greek disease', EMU is an unrectifiable non-OCA, EMU has problems but can be rectified). Mainstream explanations are cri...

Despite the depth of the Greek crisis, the exorbitant burdens placed upon the working people and the massive popular resistance movement to capitalist policies, there is a definite lack of consistently Marxist analyses of the Greek problem. International debates regarding the Greek crisis have been dominated by orthodox (Neoclassical and neo-Keynes...

During the last decades an increase of unpaid overtime has been observed combined with the inversion of the working time decreasing trend. This article analyses the data from the Labour Force Survey to estimate the determinants of unpaid overtime in Greece and uses the results to test various theoretical explanations.

Water is a fundamental resource for the reproduction of humankind and should be treated in a sustainable manner. The term Virtual Water (VW) and its associated concept of Water Footprint (WF) have become popular terms in the field of resource management to address water scarcity. In the context of international (food) trade, the focal point of this...

This paper offers an explanation of the current Greek crisis, it disputes the mainstream “debt crisis” explanation and argues that it is a twin crisis: a crisis of capital over-accumulation aggravated by the participation in the European Union. The second part analyses the turbulent historical course of Greek capitalism through the main phases of i...

This paper reviews the alternative explanations offered to explain the Greek crisis and checks there analytical and empirical validity. The first part focuses on the mainstream explanations. It distinguishes three main versions. The first, stemming mainly from the dominant EU circles, considers the Greek crisis as a historical accident; a case of p...

This paper studies the position of the main currents of the Greek Left vis-à-vis the European integration project. The first part analyses the politico-economic nature of this project and the main phases of its evolution. Its main argument is that it is an attempt to create a European imperialist bloc in the beginning as an ally to the US versus th...

Political economy, and especially Marxist political economy, holds a precarious position in the curricula of Greek universities today. This paper diagnoses problems associated with its teaching, particularly at an introductory level, and then proposes a solution. The paper first discusses how economic science had been introduced as an autonomous su...

Την τελευταία δεκαετία παρατηρείται αύξηση των απλήρωτων υπερωριών στην Ευρώπη και τις ΗΠΑ. Το φαινόμενο αυτό επιζητεί εξήγηση, αφού σύμφωνα με την επικρατούσα οικονομική θεωρία δεν θα έπρεπε να παρατηρείται απλήρωτη εργασία. Στη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία έχουν προταθεί εναλλακτικές θεωρητικές ερμηνείες με ταυτόχρονη προσπάθεια για την εμπειρική τους τεκ...

The regulation or non-regulation of finance and its extent and forms has always been an issue in the historical development of capitalism. This issue is crucial for the system's modus operandi since in capitalism money (and its provision, i.e. finance) operates as capital (i.e. the provider of the means for entrepreneurial activities), whereas its...

'Whilst the regulation approach has gone beyond its peak of influence and has been diluted of much of its radical content, this outstanding critical appreciation of its strengths and weaknesses will prove an invaluable point of reference for all those engaged in the political economy of the national within the global economy.' - Ben Fine, Universit...

Marx recognized two distinct but also interrelated processes of increasing surplus-value extraction: absolute and relative surplus-value. Both these processes hinge upon the duration, the intensity and the productivity of labour, albeit in different ways. The increase of the duration of labour is indisputably related to absolute surplus-value and t...

This paper surveys the changing notions that have been ascribed to the term ‘Political Economy’ in Greece. These notions are closely related to the evolution of economic thought in Greece and the debates between various economic approaches. Moreover, these different understandings shaped crucially the academic landscape of Economics in Greece. In a...

The similarities between the Social Structures of Accumulation perspective and the Regulation Theory are well known and established in the relevant literature. However, most of the comparisons focus on the founding texts of both approaches. During recent years there appear to be significant developments in both these two theories. This paper studie...

The relationship between the duration of work (working time) and its intensity is a rather neglected issue in economic theory, both neoclassical and heterodox. Marx's analysis of this subject remains highly original and accurate. Furthermore, a dissenting minority of neoclassical labor economists have — consciously or unconsciously — followed his t...

Today there is increasing evidence supporting the claim that an increasing number of workers around the world are overworked. Although, many researchers have raised the issue of the longer working time, it is usually considered a non-European phenomenon. This paper disputes this perception with reference to the case of Greece and argues that there...

This paper examines the recent decentralization of governance in Indonesia and its impact on local infrastructure provision. The decentralization of decisionmaking power to local jurisdictions in Indonesia may have improved the matching of public infrastructures provision with local preferences. However, decentralization has made local public infra...

The study of the history of economic theory is entwined with nonneoclassical and especially Marxist political economic analyses, which relate the creation of an autonomous science of economic relations to the establishment of capitalism. Usually, the main agents in this interaction are social groups and especially social classes. Contrarily, neocla...

The similarities between the Social Structures of Accumulation perspective and the Regulation Theory are well known and established in the relevant literature. However, most of the comparisons focus on the founding texts of both approaches. During recent years there appear to be significant developments in both these two theories. This paper studie...

A critique of Trigg's reformulation of Grossman's crisis model.