Capitalism, Social Market Economy and Beyond



Wednesday, 14. October 2015 | 16:00 Uhr

Speaker

Giacomo Corneo

Organisation

Free University of Berlin

Abstract

The increase of income and wealth concentration defies the view of capitalism proposed by classical liberalism and threatens the European project of a good society. While the pre-eminence of markets in coordinating the allocation of resources confronts no serious alternative, structural developments of capitalism point to multiple fissures in the social market economy and to increasing limitations in its ability to redistribute using a tax-transfer system. I argue that the European project of a good society requires today to go beyond the Social Market Economy and to substantially enhance the role of public capital in our economic system. This advocacy poses complex issues pertaining to how such a public capital can be put in place and to how it should be managed by the polity. I propose a strategy to build public capital at small costs to the citizenry and sketch two institutions to which the governance of public capital should be demanded: a sovereign wealth fund and a special public investment agency called Federal Shareholder.

References:
Corneo, G., Bessere Welt, Goldegg Verlag, Vienna 2014. English translation forthcoming Harvard University Press.
Corneo, Giacomo. 2014. “Public Capital in the 21st Century.” Social Europe, Research Essay 2.

Giacomo Corneo

Giacomo Corneo is Professor of Public Finance and Social Policy at the Free University of Berlin. He studied economics at Universitá Bocconi in Milan, received a Ph.D. at Ministero dell’Universitá in Rome and one from the EDP at EHESS in Paris, and got Habilitation at the University of Bonn. He taught at ENPC in Paris, at the University of Bonn, and the University of Osnabrück. He served as senior advisor at Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances in Paris.

He also serves as associate editor of the International Review of Economics. He is Research Fellow of CEPR, London, CESifo, Munich, and IZA, Bonn.

He has published several works in the fields of public economics, labor economics, comparative economics, industrial organization, and growth theory. His papers appear in various periodicals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, International Economic Review, European Economic Review. His research interests include inequality and redistribution, public finance, and the economics of values and norms.

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