The Future of Heterodox Economics with Stephanie Kelton, Deirdre McCloskey and Anwar Shaikh

To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, SCEPA was proud to host a discussion of how heterodox economics can build an alternative framework and policy agenda for shared prosperity, greater social equality, and a sustainable planet, while avoiding past errors. See more details and materials here: https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/25th-anniversary/event-the-future-of-heterodox-economics As The New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Research (SCEPA) celebrates its 25th year, SCEPA hosted top heterodox economists for a discussion on where we can find hope for providing an alternative to neoclassical mainstream economics, both in the academy and in policy on March 11th, 2021. In the midst of the pandemic recession and the economic devastation it has wrought from families to cities, policy makers have turned to economists for solutions. But mainstream economics failed to identify the warning signs of the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the subsequent Great Recession. And it has yet to offer an equitable solution to the ongoing recession. In fact, the dominance of the current paradigm in the education and practice of economics over the last 40 years has coincided with a historic rise in inequality and stagnant wages and ongoing racial injustice and climate change. Clearly mainstream economics is not equipped to generate more just and secure economic outcomes. But in spite of its failure, little has changed in the way economists think about markets and states or how economics is taught in the majority of academic institutions. Alternatives exist in the teaching and practice of “heterodox” economics -- a diverse set of schools of thought including feminist economics, post-Keynesianism, and neo-Marxism built on insights from economist such as Marx, Keynes, Robinson, and Sen. Yet, these traditions have been sidelined in most university economics departments and often receive little attention from policy makers.

Added 19 May 2026