Robert Boyer

Contemporary capitalism : the embeddedness of institutions

Part I: 1. Coordination of economic actors and social systems of production Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer Part II: Introduction: the variety of institutional arrangements and their complementarity in modern economics Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer 2. The variety and unequal performance of markets Robert Boyer 3. A typology of cooperative interorganizational relationships and networks Jerald Hage and Catherine Alter 4. Weathering the storm: associational governance in a globalizing era William Coleman 5. Constitutional orders: trust building and response to change Charles F. Sabel Part III: Introduction: how and why do social systems of production change? Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth 6. Beneficial constraints: on the economic limits of rational voluntarism Wolfgang Streeck 7. Flexible specialization: theory and evidence in the analysis of industrial change 8. Globalization, variety and mass production: the metamorphosis of mass production in the new competitive age Benjamin Coriat 9. Continuities and changes in social systems of production: the cases of Japan, Germany, and the United States Rogers Hollingsworth Part IV: Introduction: levels of spatial coordination and the embeddedness of institutions Philippe Schmitter 10. Perspectives on globalization and economic coordination Wyn Grant 11. Globalization in question: international economic relations and forms of public governance Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson 12. The formation of international regimes in the absence of a Hegemon: clubs are trump Lorraine Eden and Fen Osler Hampson 13. The emerging Euro-polity and its impact upon national systems of production Philippe Schmitter Part V: Conclusion: from national embeddness to spatial and institutional nestedness Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth.

How and why capitalisms differ

Abstract The variety of capitalism school (VOC) and regulation theory (TR) are both analyses of the diversity of contemporary national economies. If VOC challenges the primacy of liberal market economies (LME) and stresses the existence of an alternative form, i.e. coordinated market economies (CME), TR starts from a long-term analysis of the transformation of capitalism in order to search for alternatives to the Fordist regime that emerged after the post-Second World War era. Both approaches make intensive use of international comparisons, challenge the role of market as the exclusive coordinating mechanism, and raise doubts about the existence of a ‘one best way’ for capitalism. Finally, they stress that globalization does deepen the competitive advantage associated with each institutional architecture. Nevertheless, their methodology differs: VOC stresses private firm governance, whereas TR considers the primacy of systemic and macroeconomic coherence. Whereas for VOC there exist only LME and CME, TR recurrently finds at least four brands of capitalism: market-led, meso-corporatist, social democrat and State-led. VOC seems to consider that the long-term stability of each capitalism can be challenged only by external shocks, but TR stresses the fact that the very success of a regulation mode ends up in a structural crisis, largely endogenous.

How Do Conventions Evolve

The paper argues that, even in the absence of bureaucratic inertia, the transition from one convention to a superior one can be blocked. Because of the self-reinforcing mechanism generated by coordination effects, the economy can be locked-in to an Pareto-inferior convention. In the framework of evolutionary game theory, convention appears to be an evolutionary stable strategy. We show that the endogenous diffusion of a superior convention is possible but requires the presence of some social or cultural differentiation in order that coordination effects can be localized. The social or cultural links provide no information about the structure of the game, but help people to coordinate themselves by providing external points of reference. We construct a model where matching between agents respects a certain localization of interactions related to social or cultural similarity. These results are used to enlighten the surprising success of japanese labor management in US and UK transplants.

Japanese capitalism in crisis : a regulationist interpretation

Is Japan totally exceptional or is it a typical market economy? Is the poor macroeconomic performance of the nineties down to archaic institutions or short term monetary and budgetary policies? The contributions to Japanese Capitalism in Crisis show that there can be a middle ground between these extremes and delivers two benefits: a deeper understanding of long term development and an extension of existing theory. A regulationist approach is used to examine how the periods of growth and crisis can be attributed to the institutions which govern capital accumulation. This book should prove to be invaluable to students and researchers studying the economies of Japan and other east Asian countries as well as all those interested in patterns of boom and recession worldwide.

The Regulation Approach as a Theory of Capitalism: A New Derivation

The possibility, nature and evolution of capitalism have been a major concern for philosophers and political scientists since the very earliest periods of the emergence of markets. In historical retrospect an oscillation between two visions can be observed. For classical and, more recently, neoclassical economists, the market mechanism is basically self-equilibrating, the only source of crises being clumsy interventions on the part of political authorities or the legacy of inadequate and obsolete social relations. But first Marxists and then Keynesians have repeatedly argued the very opposite — that the pure market mechanism may lead to major crises, financial disequilibria, rising inequalities or stagnation and long run unemployment. Therefore state intervention in relation to the nationalization or socialization of investment decisions may help to maintain the viability of a mature capitalist system. This long swing in ideas about the role of the market has been clearly pointed out by Karl Polanyi (1944; 1983).

Europe in the world technological competition

Abstract This paper compares the relative positions of European countries, Japan and the United States regarding competitiveness and growth, and more particularly the links between technology and the economy. Recent performances in the domains of research (both applied and fundamental), external trade and growth are presented and compared with long term productivity growth and market positions. From the long term perspective, European countries have caught up with the US. In many sectors, European productivity levels are broadly similar to US levels. This long run trend must be compared with the more recent erosion of Europes competitive positions in many markets, particularly those related to information technologies or electronics. Europe witnesses a slow weakening of its competitive positions, lacking dynamism in innovation. This paper argues that Europe has difficulties in adjusting to an important structural change related to the emergence of a new production model. The problems specific to Europe illustrate the end of the so-called ‘linear’ concept of innovation and suggests that new interactions between technology and the economy should be considered.

Wage Labor Nexus, Technology and Long Run Dynamics : an Interpretation and Preliminary Tests for US

The deepening of the economic crisis in recent years has not failed to arouse lively discussion of the origins of the problem and the stakes involved. Against this background many analyses have been proposed of the labor movement, union strategies, and industrial relations. This is hardly surprising, given the fact that the effects of the crisis have been felt in almost every sphere of society.

Brexit: understanding the socio-economic origins and consequences

On June 23, 2016, on a turnout of 72.2% of those eligible to vote, a small majority (51.9% vs 48.1%) in UK’s EU referendum voted to leave the EU. UK people will now no longer be citizens of the EU but tourists and visitors to it. However it was an accidental exit. The referendum was called by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to appease his own party’s rebellious backbench MPs. But Brexit was not the intended outcome. Cameron only triggered the referendum because he thought the Government would win it. Neither the Remain nor Leave camps seriously thought that the UK would vote anything other than Remain. Neither camp had any plans for anything else. For the Government there was no Plan B and for Brexiteers there was no Plan A.

Labour Market Flexibility and Decentralisation as Barriers to High Employment? Notes on Employer Collusion, Centralised Wage Bargaining and Aggregate Employment

In the face of massive long-term unemployment, the early 1980s witnessed the resurgence of an old orthodoxy, based on two premises. First, mass unemployment results from the excess of wages with respect to productivity. Secondly, this should be removed, via reforms of industrial relations: enhancing market mechanisms would be the best method to promote the required adjustment towards fuller employment. Academic researches and an impressive array of official reports have promoted (OCDE, 1986) or discussed this general view (BIT, 1987; Boyer, 1988). The related strategies have tentatively been applied in most OECD countries, with varying degrees of intensity and with contrasting results. For example, the outstanding job creation in the USA has been related to the significant flexibility and highly competitive nature of the American labour market, whereas the poor performance of much of Europe is frequently attributed to labour market rigidities, partly linked to the role of unions and state regulations.

Comparative Political Economy

The Comparative political Economy is investigating the long-term transformation of capitalisms defined as a complex web of social, political and economic relations. It is an alternative to economics centered upon pure market mechanisms, which has become more normative than positive and failed to understand contemporary crises. The five institutional forms defined by regulation theory display various complementarities, and this is the origin of the coexistence of contrasted brands of capitalism, based on different hegemonic blocs. Consequently, rationality is context dependant and each socio-economic regime is constantly evolving under both endometabolism and hybridization. Emergence, maturation and crisis of an accumulation regime move the economy away from a steady long-term equilibrium. The contemporary process of globalization has strengthened the interdependance among contrasted regimes and sources of inequality between the USA, China, Europe and Latin America and other rentier regimes based upon the extraction and export of natural resources. This implies that macroeconomic modelling has to abandon the ideal of a grand and simple theory relevant to any country and any historical period. Mixing polity and economy is an imperative for any relevant research agenda on contemporay world. Mixing long-run national historical studies and international comparisons define an avenue for aiming at a general theory of capitalism.