Speaker: Prof. Ben Ross Schneider, MIT
Date: Monday 21 October May 2013
Time: 6.15-7.45 pm
Location: Kingsway 1.04 (first floor)
Chair: David Soskice, Department of Government
This presentation lays out an argument that Latin America has a distinctive, enduring form of hierarchical capitalism characterized by multinational corporations, diversified business groups, low skills, and segmented labor markets. Over time, institutional complementarities knit features of corporate governance and labor markets together and thus contributed to institutional resiliency. Political systems generally favoured elites and insiders who further reinforced existing institutions and complementarities. Hierarchical capitalism has not promoted rising productivity, good jobs, or equitable development, and the efficacy of development strategies to promote these outcomes depends on tackling negative institutional complementarities, especially the low skill equilibrium.
Speaker Biography:
Ben Ross Schneider is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT and director of the MIT-Brazil program. His books include Reinventing Leviathan: The Politics of Administrative Reform in Developing Countries, Business Politics and the State in 20th Century Latin America, and Hierarchical Capitalism in Latin America: Business, Labor, and the Challenges of Equitable Development (2013, Cambridge University Press). He also has written on topics such as economic reform, democratization, the developmental state, education, industrial policy, labor markets, and business groups.