The Columbia Center for Political Economy identifies and advances the most promising contemporary developments within economics and promotes a new political economy with a robust institutional, cross-disciplinary orientation.
“With the creation of this center, Columbia University will be joining a critically important national and global effort to address the nature of political economy and how it determines matters such as the distribution of wealth and the relationship of the public and private spheres of our lives,” said Columbia President Emeritus Lee C. Bollinger. “I can’t think of a subject more urgent or consequential, and I’m deeply grateful to the Hewlett Foundation for its support.”
About
Launched in 2022, the Columbia Center for Political Economy has two primary goals: to identify and advance the most promising post-2008 developments within economics and to promote a new political economy with robust philosophical underpinnings. This approach is distinctive for our time, with an institutional, cross-disciplinary orientation connecting economics to history, law, political science, sociology, public health, engineering, data science and more.
The economic shocks generated by the financial meltdown of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic have catalyzed a wide range of fresh thinking. Not just financial or viral crises, but soaring inequalities, transformations to the scale of firms, often beyond effective regulation, inadequate investments in public goods, and global supply chain limitations have called into question the adequacy of inherited economic frameworks, especially radical market-based approaches that often go hand in hand with budgetary austerity.
As scholars grapple with questions of power, inequality and uncertainty, a new intellectual movement is unfolding, marked by the emergence of post-neoliberal theory and an empirical turn in applied research. This movement breaks free from a fixation on efficiency as the primary criterion to evaluate market outcomes. Scholarship concerning political economy now brings economics into conversation with other disciplines, as scholars respond to the multiple dimensions of inequality — attending not only to vital assets like housing and medical care, but also to access to dignity and respect, heightened political and economic uncertainty, and fractured institutions.
The Columbia Center for Political Economy is motivated by these contemporary circumstances, confident that renewed thinking in economics and interdisciplinary engagement can generate practical policy ideas that advance prospects to secure and share prosperity, sustain the environment, and undergird representative democracy.
Supported by the Hewlett Foundation, the center expands upon existing Columbia initiatives, seeding new research, scholarly publications, policy briefs, curricular materials and networks of scholars and practitioners within and beyond the university. At the core of the center's activities are “Idea Labs,” serving as intellectual and policy incubators across distinct themes.
The ambitions of the Center rest on the understanding that the structure and movements in markets for goods, services, money and financial assets are always shaped by political forces; the economy is always a political economy.
To learn more about the Center for Political Economy and get involved, please sign up for our newsletter.
Faculty Co-Directors
Ira Katznelson
Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University; Deputy Director, Columbia World Projects
Suresh Naidu
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Jack Wang and Echo Ren Professor of Economics, Columbia University
Katharina Pistor
Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation, Columbia Law School
Center Team
David Caughlin
Project Director
Melissa Vargas
Senior Project Officer, Columbia World Projects
Kathryn Burke
Project Officer, Center for Political Economy at Columbia World Projects
Advisory Board
Kate Andrias
Patricia D. and R. Paul Yetter Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Governance, Columbia Law School
Alessandra Casella
Professor of Economics and Political Science, Columbia University
Jeffry Frieden
Incoming Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science
Geoffrey Heal
Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise, Columbia Business School
Olatunde Johnson
Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
M. Victoria Murillo
Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies and Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Columbia University
Premilla Nadasen
Professor of History, Barnard College
Andrea Prat
Richard Paul Richman Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
Joseph E. Stiglitz
University Professor, Columbia University
Bruce Western
Director of the Justice Lab and Bryce Professor of Sociology and Social Justice, Columbia University
Michael Woodford
John Bates Clark Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University
Idea Labs
The Idea Labs function as convening hubs for Columbia faculty and students to advance new thinking, affect graduate training, and incubate ideas. The Labs are designed to develop new intellectual frameworks in economics and related fields that take seriously the concepts of power, equity and uncertainty. To do so, they create opportunities for faculty and students to engage with practitioners and policymakers, and support, identify and advance the most promising recent developments.
The Labs have an intentional cross-disciplinary focus that bring together the disparate fields of economics, history, law, political science, sociology, public health, engineering, data science and other areas of study.
In total, the Center will launch four Idea Labs focused on Work and Labor, Firms and Industrial Policy, Money and Finance and the Political Economy of Climate.
The Work and Labor Idea Lab investigates the forces, institutions and ideas that shape and regulate labor markets. It focuses on modes of collective action and interactions among workers, employers, markets and society at large, paying particular attention to the future of labor movements at home and abroad and how they address and are shaped by technological and other transformations.
The Firms and Industrial Policy Idea Lab engages faculty and students in interdisciplinary and collaborative discussions to gain new insights into firm behavior and what works (and doesn’t work) in industrial policy. Areas of exploration include the factors that shape technology adoption, product innovation, quality upgrading, R&D investments, patenting, and other forms of innovative behavior; how such decisions are influenced by market conditions, network relationships and supply chain architecture; and novel ways to measure such decisions and influences.
The Money and Finance Idea Lab explores the relation of money and finance in theoretical terms and in institutional configurations, including the design of financial and policy instruments employed by central banks, as well as the design of financial intermediaries and their relation to central banks and market regulators.
The Political Economy of Climate Idea Lab will launch in Fall 2024.
As multi-year projects, each Lab:
- Hosts one or more postdoctoral research scholars;
- Provides annual grants to Columbia faculty and graduate students on related topics;
- Organizes conferences, seminars, workshops and other public and semi-public events; and
- Generates scholarly publications, curricular materials and public-facing reports.
We encourage you to join an Idea Lab to shape the next generation of thinking about key issues in political economy. To learn more and get involved, please sign up for our newsletter.
Faculty Grants
The Center's Faculty Grants provide funding to generate new knowledge and new networks, facilitate the exchange of discoveries, accelerate the identification of key challenges, and open up the methods scholars use. Read more about the six Columbia faculty selected for inaugural Center grants here.
The 2024 Faculty Grants program for the Work and Labor, Firms and Industrial Policy and Money and Finance Idea Labs is now closed. Sign up for the Columbia Center for Political Economy newsletter to be notified when the next application becomes available.
Graduate Grants
Now Open: 2025 Graduate Student Grant Opportunity
The Columbia Center for Political Economy is seeking applications for grant funding from Columbia University doctoral candidates to conduct research within the field of political economy, understood broadly.
Center Graduate Student Grants are for one year and are intended to support research and the generation of new knowledge and new networks. We are open to research that uses qualitative and/or quantitative approaches, including those that incorporate historical, ethnographic, interview-based, or policy or legal analysis. Read more about the 20 graduate student projects selected for the inaugural Center grants in 2024.
Read more about the application process
Events
Beyond Neoliberalism: A panel discussion
6 - 7:30 p.m., Oct. 8, 2024
The Forum at Columbia University
The neoliberal era is coming to an end, but what will replace it? Developing a coherent alternative will require fresh thinking that spans philosophy, economics and political science. This timely conversation hosted by the Center for Political Economy at Columbia World Projects will bring together a panel of scholars to explore the ideas that could shape a new economic paradigm.
Join the Columbia Center for Political Economy newsletter to be alerted to upcoming events.
Previous Events:
- May 2-3, 2024: The Non-Market Effects of Market Power Conference
- April 22, 2024: Antimonopoly and American Democracy webinar with Kate Adrias, Tim Wu, Bill Novak, and Richard John
- April 4, 2024: Governing Digital China. Daniela Stockmann and Junyan Jiang on perceptions and realities of digital rule making in China
- Nov. 14, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Amy Finkelstein discussing We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care
- Nov. 13, 2023: Money & Finance Seminar on Monetary Sovereignty and the Elasticity of Liquidity with Viral V. Acharya and Charlotte Rommerskirchen
- Nov. 11, 2023: New Thinking in Industrial, Innovation & Technology Policy: Perspectives from Developed & Developing Countries Conference
- Oct. 23, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with Naomi Oreskes
- Oct. 23, 2023: Money & Finance Seminar on Financial Innovation and Liquidity Management with Richard H. Clarida and Samuel Knafo
- Oct. 12, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with Joy Rohde
- Sept. 19, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with Arthur Lupia and Kenneth Prewitt
- Sept. 18, 2023: Money & Finance Seminar on Liquidity Management in the Private Sector with Charles Calomiris and Noémie Pinardon-Touati
- Sept. 14, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Nelson Lichtenstein discussing A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism
- May 18, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Simon Johnson discussing Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology & Prosperity
- May 5, 2023: State, Local, and Executive Branch Strategies to Build Worker Power Conference
- May 4, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Bradford DeLong discussing Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
- April 18, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with Alondra Nelson
- April 17, 2023: Expertise from the Field: Strengthening knowledge and community engagement
- April 13-14, 2023: The Non-Market Effects of Market Power Conference
- April 6, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Pranab Bardhan discussing A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries
- March 30-31, 2023: Digital Global Futures Policy Forum
- March 21, 2023:Policy Knowledge Workshop with Alice O’Connor
- March 9, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Claudia Goldin discussing Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity
- March 3, 2023: Constitutional Political Economy Conference
- Feb. 28, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with Julia Ott
- Feb. 7, 2023: Policy Knowledge Workshop with K. Sabeel Rahman
- Jan. 19, 2023: Big Ideas Book Series featuring Leah Boustan discussing Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success,
- Oct. 24, 2022: The Legacy of Frances Perkins, Pioneer for Social Justice Conference
- Oct. 21, 2022: Connecting the Dots: Globalization, Intermediation, and Efficiency Conference
- Sept. 30 - Oct. 1, 2022: The Future of the Labor Movement Conference
- Sept. 21, 2022: Legal History Workshop with Gary Gerstle
Postdoctoral Research Scholars
The Center for Political Economy is now accepting applications for its postdoctoral research scholar competition for the 2025-26 year. Learn more and apply here.
The Center for Political Economy’s currently has four postdoctoral research scholars, Dario Laudati (Money and Finance Idea Lab), William O’Connell (Money and Finance Idea Lab), Nils Kupzok (Firms and Industrial Policy Idea Lab), and Michael Gould-Wartofsky (Work and Labor Idea Lab).
The Center sponsors postdoctoral fellowships intended to provide early-career scholars with time to undertake research and/or writing for projects that will make substantial and original contributions to the understanding of political economy. Each lab has at least one postdoctoral fellow whose time is divided between their own research and the lab’s explorations and activities. Fellowships aim to support scholars affiliated with institutions of all types from all regions of the world, and who bring viewpoints and backgrounds that seek to expand the knowledge of the Idea Lab in which they are housed.
Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Work and Labor Idea Lab
Nils Kupzok
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Firms and Industrial Policy Idea Lab
Dario Laudati
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Money and Finance Idea Lab
William O’Connell
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Money and Finance Idea Lab
Get Involved
If you or your organization is interested in supporting the work of the center, please email [email protected] and join our newsletter.