The William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance

Breadcrumb

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
CV
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

Lonely Empire (by Mark Blyth)

The Trump administration’s overt imperialism has unraveled the global order of shared norms and institutions faster than anyone expected. We now find ourselves at a juncture where everyone must either follow the US back into the jungle or refuse, leaving the America to its own devices.
Read Article
On the Media, WNYC Studios

Trump's War on the Fed, Explained (interview with Mark Blyth)

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation against the Federal Reserve and its chairman. On this week’s On the Media, hear how the Trump administration’s pressure campaign plays into a larger trend chipping away at central banks. Plus, how a teacher in Russia stood up to Putin’s propaganda.
Read Article
Project Syndicate

The Three Technologies Disrupting the Global Order (by Mark Blyth and Daniel Driscoll)

The great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that you could spot a fundamental economic transition by the arrival of new types of goods, new production methods, and new forms of industrial organization. The spread of cheap drones, phones, and solar checks all of these boxes.
Read Article
Project Syndicate

Lower Interest Rates Are the Right Policy for the Wrong Reasons (by Mark Blyth and Nicolò Fraccaroli)

There is strong evidence to support the case for interest-rate cuts in the United States, given the disproportionate impact of higher rates on the most vulnerable. Yet with Donald Trump loudly demanding that the US Federal Reserve lower borrowing costs, the situation has become more complicated than it needed to be.
Read Article