Political economy of the West: Populists versus policy wonks

Authors

  • Frederick Van der Ploeg University of Oxford, Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK; St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2340-4633

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu05.2017.101

Abstract

An attempt is made to understand the political upheaval in the West following the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and the emergence of populist patriotic parties throughout Europe, and why much of the anger is directed at economists and other experts. One possibility is that migration, international trade, technological advances, the introduction of the Euro and climate policy hurt the working and much of the middle classes without them being properly compensated. Part of the anger is directed at new people who seem to be able to jump the queue and at the rich who seem to get richer why wages for the poor remain stagnant.

Keywords:

political economy, experts, populations, trade, immigration, technology

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Author Biography

Frederick Van der Ploeg, University of Oxford, Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK; St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation

PhD (University of Cambridge, 1981). Professor of Economics and director of the Oxford Centre for the analysis of Resource Rich Economics, department of Economics; University of Oxford.

Director of  the  Laboratory  for  Economic  Performance  and  the  Environment,  St.  Petersburg  State  University

 

References

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Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Экономика, 2017, 33 (1)

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Published

2017-03-30

How to Cite

Van der Ploeg, F. (2017). Political economy of the West: Populists versus policy wonks. St Petersburg University Journal of Economic Studies, 33(1), 004–016. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu05.2017.101

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Economic methodology

License

Articles of the St Petersburg University Journal of Economic Studies are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.

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