The William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance

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Mark Blyth

Director, The William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance, The William R. Rhodes ’57 Professor of International Economics, Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs
mark_blyth@brown.edu
+1 401 863 1567
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Research Interests International and comparative political economy, banks and finance, Europe, monetary policy

Biography

Mark Blyth is a political economist whose research focuses upon how uncertainty and randomness impact complex systems, particularly economic systems, and why people continue to believe stupid economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary. He is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press 2013, and The Future of the Euro (with Matthias Matthijs) (Oxford University Press 2015).

Recent News

Project Syndicate

Trump, Tariffs, and the Fate of the Dollar (written by Mark Blyth)

Donald Trump’s attempt to reindustrialize the US economy by eliminating trade deficits will undoubtedly cause pain and disruption on a massive scale. But it is important to remember that both major US political parties have abandoned free trade in pursuit of similar goals.
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Marketplace

How bad would a recession be right now? (interview with Mark Blyth)

Mark Blyth discusses what will happen in the short and long term if the U.S. economy goes into recession due to the Trump administration's attempt to produce a "once-in-a-generation shift in how we run the global economy."
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WNYC On the Media (podcast)

Trump’s On-and-Off-Again Tariffs (interview with Mark Blyth)

President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff announcements sent stock markets plunging. On the Media interviews Mark Blyth to make sense of the ever-changing news about the economy.
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Project Syndicate

Austerity Is Back – and More Dangerous Than Ever (written by Mark Blyth)

A decade and a half after the global financial crisis, austerity has returned. But this time it is not just an economically dangerous idea that promises to make a bad situation worse; in the hands of Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei, it is also a political weapon and a redistributive tool.
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