Ronen Mandelkern

<em>Policy Studies Journal</em> | PSO Public Policy Journal | Wiley Online Library What are the conditions under which business corporations expand their institutional power? This paper argues that institutional power is affected by the architecture of the “acquisition regime”—the ....

1/5Happy to share this from @psjeditor.bsky.social, w Shir Gal (TAU). We study the conditions under which business corporations expand their institutional power. We find that *how* the state purchases (its acquisition regime) shapes corporations' instit' power
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Screenshot of the title page of linked article: "Noisy Politics, Quiet Technocrats: Strategic Silence by Central Banks" By Benjamin Braun and Maximilian Düsterhöft

🚨New article🚨 The consensus is that contestation pushed central banks to talk 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 about inequality & climate.

Our theory: At first, CBs seek to ward off politicization by talking 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 about controversial topics.

We tested this 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬.🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Finance and the Far Right Rademacher challenges the portrayal of far-right economic policies as erratic by systematically analysing their financial strategies across eight advanced economies. Drawing on a new database of far-r...

Excellent analysis of far right economic and financial policy by @ingarade.bsky.social 💯
www.postneoliberalism.org/articles/fin...

The occupation is destroying Israel from within, and liberals can't ignore it anymore ***

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

I have joined hundreds of other Israeli academics in calling on our academic system to take immediate action against the war in Gaza—for the sake of the lives that can still be saved and for our future here.

Full letter (English follows Hebrew & Arabic): docs.google.com/document/d/1...

This was the moment, just over a month ago, when the ADL could've put an end to Republicans doing Nazi salutes. They didn't. They chose instead to provide cover by calling it "an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm." Now the sieg heil salute has been normalized.

The ADL literally had ONE JOB.

Thanks a lot Jens!

Most importantly - thanks so much to
@elicook.bsky.social @reutmar.bsky.social @jensarnholtz.bsky.social @schoefer.bsky.social
@jonathanpreminger.bsky.social @gpicot.bsky.social

8/8
This opens important questions about:
- Professionalization of labor politics
- Trade-offs between different power resources
- How expertise shapes interest representation
- Future of industrial relations in an era of growing complexity

7/8
The Israeli case illustrates broader trends in advanced economies. As unions face declining power & increasing complexity, they turn to professional experts. But this "professional power" comes with its own logic that affects how class interests are represented

6/8
Theoretical contribution: We develop a novel framework bridging industrial relations & power resource theories with literature on economists' political influence. Show how unions adopt new power resources as traditional ones decline - but this adoption reshapes union identity & goals

5/8
But there's tension: While economists strengthen unions' bargaining position through their expertise & legitimacy, they also reshape HOW workers' interests are represented. This creates conflicts between economists' "professional power" & unions' traditional organizational power

4/8
The consequences? Economists bring their professional dispositions into unions. They promote:
- Depoliticized view of industrial relations
- "Market-friendly" solutions
- Performance-based pay
- Focus on firm sustainability
This transforms how unions define & pursue their goals

3/8
We identify two key drivers:
1) Rising complexity of industrial relations - decentralized bargaining & new compensation schemes require sophisticated economic analysis
2) Union's declining power - economists provide an alternative "professional power" resource as traditional union power weakens

2/8
This is puzzling because neoclassical economics, which shapes mainstream economists' expertise, is inherently skeptical of labor market interventions. Yet, the Histadrut's Economics Division has become central to union strategy and bargaining. Why? And what are the consequences?

An odd couple? When mainstream economists join forces with trade unions The doubtful tendencies of neoclassical economics towards labour market intervention put it at odds with trade unions, whose raison d’etre is worker protection through de-linking compensation from ...

1/8
New (open access) paper with @assafbondy.bsky.social in NPE explores a puzzling phenomenon: How do mainstream economists become key players in trade unions? We examine the case of Israel's Histadrut, where economists gained pivotal positions in collective bargaining. 🧵
doi.org/10.1080/1356...

Counterproductive evolution: the long-term effects of short-term interventionism following the Great Financial Crisis Following the 2008 financial crisis, policymakers in advanced economies employed unconventional economic interventions that were meant to be short-term but continued for more than a decade and were...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A new blogpost with Tami Oren on how short-term post-2008 interventions have evolved into long-term changes in macroeconomic policy. The post is based on our recently published article @ripejournal.bsky.social (open access) (link to article in first comment)

How Quantitative Easing went from temporary crisis-response to permanent policy change Quantitative Easing was supposed to be a temporary tool used to stabilize the UK economy in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The policy worked, but had several negative unintended…

💥New! How Quantitative Easing went from temporary crisis-response to permanent policy change, by @mandelkern.bsky.social and Tami Oren.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Thanks! I didn't :-)
Looks really useful!

I am planning a survey experiment regarding people's attitudes on macroeconomic policy; I want to include a battery of questions regarding macroeconomic literacy. Any recommendations for existing surveys/studies which already did that? Thanks!

finally, an FT piece that connects the crisis of liberal democracies to macrofinancial politics - though it misses the elephant in the room: the institutional status-quo put in place by neoliberalism

My new article is out!! Capital controls critically shaped the evolution of export/finance-led economies. The Bundesbank used controls on innovative financial products until 1998 and hindered Frankfurt's development into a vibrant financial hub doi.org/10.1093/ser/...

אז מה זה בעצם אגף התקציבים באוצר? ואיך הוא הפך מגוף שתפקידו לשמור על קופת המדינה לגוף שקובע את המדיניות הכלכלית בישראל?
אירחתי בפודקאסט "נותנים עבודה" את @mandelkern.bsky.social מרצה באונ' ת"א ועמית מחקר בכיר בפורום ארלוזורוב על איך עובד אגף התקציבים ועל הדרך לאזן את כוחו מול משרדי הממשלה המקצועיים.

Application deadline: December 13, 2024

Reminder:

The application deadline for our postdoctoral program is coming up next Friday!

We welcome applications from postdoctoral researchers in political economy, economic sociology and sociology of low-carbon transitions.

s.gwdg.de/2v6csN

Just created this starter pack. Let me know if you would like me to add you!

go.bsky.app/ptifSR

Thanks Onur! Can you please add me?

Yes, but the whole point of what we refer to as “the system” is that it follows certain rules which are free of such control, right? Or to be more accurate, this is how “non anti-system” politics view the state apparatus...

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A lot of fun to read, this from @bhgreeley.bsky.social (if you're not an economist).
www.ft.com/content/1e25...