New Thinking on Economic Systems
Institutional Variety: Well Beyond the Varieties of Capitalism
Anyone who has used the phrases ‘a multi-polar world’, ‘rules-based international order’, or even the more prosaic ‘multilateralism’, acknowledges that there are many different types of economies and many rules. Strangely however, the discussion of typologies of economies has been largely restricted to what are thought of as the industrialised West, or more narrowly, the Anglo-American, or even North Atlantic economies. ‘Capitalism’ is used which may confuse process and outcomes. In the book, the Varieties of Capitalism, Hall and Soskice provided a carefully constructed but narrow North Atlantic framing of what it meant to have many types of capitalism and provided a very interesting read.
Nevertheless, several questions follow: What types of economies have existed over time and how were they constituted? What major fraction of the world remains outside these typologies today? Are the typologies distracting from the vibrancy of these economies and their development potential? Many such economies are innovative and foster growth. Does industrial transformation and the building of technological capabilities point us to new institutions and organisations that combine in productive ways? Add in more complex societies and democratic processes beyond elections alone, and economic theory begins to fray.
Practical applications from sustainability to skills and budgeting
This article, book chapters on theory, methods, and policy implications, and a book manuscript all point to the importance of Institutional Variety and the Future of Economics. The work has been invited to several applied topics to understand how we may use these concepts and improve economic theories. Invitations have included studying current policy and program interventions: sustainable industry, ‘informal labour’, innovation, skills development, categories of knowledge systems, and innovation metrics and budgeting. The thinking behind the theme also involves methods explorations in combinatorial logic systems, case selection and construction, comparative economic development, and heuristics.
Some reading
Srinivas, S. (2023). India and ‘European’ evolutionary political economy. Rev Evol Polit Econ 4, 415–443 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43253-023-00105-x
Srinivas, S. (2023). When is Industry ‘Sustainable’? The Economics of Institutional Variety in a Pandemic, Special Issue Industrial Policy for Sustainable Development, Review of Evolutionary Political Economy.
Srinivas, S. (2021). Heuristics and the microeconomics of innovation and development. Innovation and Development, 11(2-3), 281-302.
Srinivas, S. (2021). Institutional Variety and Ayres-Veblen “Lag”: Implications for Selection and Development. Journal of Economic Issues, 55(2), 293-305.
Srinivas, S. (2020). Institutional variety and the future of economics. Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, 1(1), 13-35.
Srinivas, S. (2012). Market menagerie: health and development in late industrial states. Stanford University Press.
Cancer as an archetype of a complex problem
This is an age of complex social problems. Cancer may be the toughest one yet and new perspectives are needed.
Our data from this unique multi-country project that ran all through the pandemic, has been published as an entirely Open Access book in January 2024 through Palgrave McMillan. Several journal articles and working papers are now out or in process.
The India team’s unique survey of firms is also being analysed.
The ICCA India team’s podcasts and videos are publicly available now. Thank you, NCBS-TIFR and the Open University UK.
Access to cancer care is an emerging health crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. This project’s primary research in Kenya and Tanzania will add to knowledge of this health challenge, and investigate how local industry could help to improve cancer care. In searching for new industrial-health linkages to tackle the crisis, the project will draw on evidence from India and the UK of emerging low-cost innovation.
This India-East Africa-UK collaboration generates new shared knowledge across countries and between the academic, industrial, policy, and health sectors. The main outcomes of this project are practical research-informed scenarios.
Innovation for Cancer Care in Africa (ICCA) is an East Africa-India-UK research collaboration led by The Open University, investigating ways to link innovation in the industrial and health sectors to improve access to cancer care in Kenya and Tanzania.
India team members of the ICCA project are affiliated to the National Centre for Biological Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental research (NCBS-TIFR), India. The support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (UK) is gratefully acknowledged. ICCA was funded by the ESRC under the Global Challenges Research Fund Inclusive Societies initiative. Grant reference ES/S000658/1.