Press Room

Research

Sellers’ Inflation, Profits, and Conflict: Why Can Large Firms Hike Prices in an Emergency?

Working Paper, February 2023 |

Isabella Weber, Evan Wasner

Research

State Capitalism, Imperialism, and China: Bringing History Back In

Working Paper, February 2023 |

Isabella Weber

PERI researcher Isabella Weber argues that state capitalism is experiencing a revival as a term to capture the current capitalist constellations, increasingly replacing neoliberalism. Unlike neoliberalism, the term state capitalism has a long history reaching back to the age of imperialism in the late 19th century, being used to describe developmentalist and neo-mercantilist projects in reaction to imperialism in the periphery. What is new is that, starting with China, deploying state capitalism as a means for catching up with the West is bearing fruit in ways that could undermine the predominance of Western economies.

Research

The State-Constituted Market Economy: A Conceptual Framework for China’s State–Market Relations

Working Paper, December 2021 |

Isabella Weber, Hao Qi

Although contemporary China has developed a distinct economic system, the analytic foundations underpinning China’s state–market relations remain unclear. PERI researcher Isabella Weber and Hao Qi develop in this paper a conceptual framework of what they term China’s state-constituted market economy. They argue that the Chinese state ‘constitutes’ the market economy by creating, participating, and steering markets for essentials in order to stabilize and guide the economy as a whole. Then then draw on China’s statecraft tradition as well as on proposals for financial policy reform in the U.S. to conceptualize the state-market constitution in China.

Research

The Nature of Money and the Theory of International Trade: Thornton and Ricardo

Working Paper, October 2021 |

Isabella Weber

Research

The (Im-)Possibility of Rational Socialism: Mises in China’s Market Reform Debate

Working Paper, October 2021 |

Isabella Weber

Research

How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate

Routledge Press

Book, May 2021 |

Isabella Weber

China has become deeply integrated into the world economy, but the country’s swift ascent in recent decades was never a forgone conclusion. Reformers after Mao’s death in 1976 agreed to move China towards marketization, but they struggled over the right approach. PERI researcher Isabella Weber’s new book How China Escaped Shock Therapy uncovers the fierce reform debate that shaped China’s path, offering a novel perspective on the origins of China’s distinctive economic model. Weber provides an unprecedented look at the economic policies that supported the country’s rise without leading to wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism.