Overview of other initiatives worldwide

The great financial crisis of 2008 prompted a wave of new research aimed at explaining how the crisis could have come about given the then deep-seated belief in the self-regulating power of markets. According to this belief, the size and depth of markets and their integration across borders should have rendered such a crisis impossible by allocating resources efficiently and disbursing risk. The depth of the crisis and the prohibitive economic and financial costs of clearing up after it led to the establishment of a number of initiatives to explore the development of a new economic paradigm. In 2009, the Institute for New Economic Thinking was launched. Its first conference under the title “Paradigm lost” was held in Cambridge where John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich August von Hayek had their disputes during and after the crisis of the 1930s. Also, in 2012 the OECD launched its “New Approaches to Economic Challenges” unit. 

Rising populism as a result of the paradigmatic vacuum in policymaking has accelerated the search for new answers to the economic and social challenges we face. In early 2019, Dani Rodrick and colleagues launched the “Economics for Inclusive Prosperity” initiative. In the summer of 2019, the Economic Change Unit was officially launched in London. And the recently created Berlin-based Global Solutions Initiative aims at “recoupling” the economy with the society.

OECD/NAEC

The New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC), a division of the OECD reporting to the organizations general secretary, develops a systemic perspective on interconnected challenges with strategic partners, identifies the analytical and policy tools needed to understand them, and crafts the narratives best able to convey them to policymakers.

World Inequality Lab

WIL aims to promote research on global inequality dynamics. An initiative of Thomas Piketty, its core mission is to maintain and expand the World Inequality Database. It also produces inequality reports and working papers addressing substantive and methodological issues.

Economics for Inclusive Prosperity

A network of academic economists committed to an inclusive economy and society. Led by Dani Rodrik, members develop and discuss policy ideas based on sound scholarship. They believe the tools of mainstream economists not only lend themselves to but are critical to the development of a policy framework for what we call “inclusive prosperity.”

The Economic Change Unit

ECU is a non-profit organization run by Michael Jacobs and Laurie Laybourn-Langton that seeks to amplify efforts to realize a more sustainable, just and resilient economy. There is a growing consensus among a wide range of campaigners, academics, policymakers, business leaders and commentators that fundamental changes are needed to our economic model.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth

WCEG is a is a non-profit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth.