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SUMMARY:St Catharine’s Political Economy Seminar -‘De-unionization and
  the growing Inequality’ - Ahmad Seyf
DTSTART:20181107T180000Z
DTEND:20181107T193000Z
UID:TALK110221@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Philippa Millerchip
DESCRIPTION:*Date:* Wednesday 7 November 2018 \n*Time:* 18:00 -19:30\n*Spe
 aker:* Ahmad Seyf\n*Talk Title:* ‘De-unionization and the growing Inequa
 lity’\n*Location:* Ramsden Room\, St Catharine's College\n\n*Speakers*\n
 Ahmad Seyf is currently a member of the Cambridge Centre of Economic and P
 ublic Policy (CCEPP)\, and has retired from the Department of Management a
 nd Human Resources at Regent’s University.  Prior to Regent’s Universi
 ty\, he taught at the Department of Economics at the University of Staffor
 dshire. His main research interests are international business economics\,
  globalisation and the economic and social history of the Middle East. Rec
 ent publications include\, ‘Population and Agricultural Development in I
 ran\, 1800-1906’ in Middle Eastern Studies\, 2009\, and ‘Iran and the 
 Great Famine\, 1870-1872’ in Middle Eastern Studies\, 2010. \nHis books 
 include Iran’s Contemporary Political Economy (2012)\, the Economy of Ir
 an under Ahmadinejad (2012)\, Crisis in Despotism in Iran (2014)\, Capital
 ism and Democracy (2016) and The Great Recession\, Iranian view ((2017\, A
 nti-Neoliberalism (2018). His recent publications in English are\, The Eme
 rging Economies and the Great Recession (2016)\, and The Need for Relevant
  Policies to Tackle Inequality (2017).\n\n*Talk Overview*\nThis contributi
 on examines the growing inequality and offers a brief historical examinati
 on as to its roots in the last four decades. \nAn important point to make 
 is that this growing divide is not ‘an act of God or nature’ but has b
 een initiated by policy decisions and laws made in the last four decades\,
  e.g. reducing the power and influence of trade unions\, enhancing the imp
 act of the banks\, keeping wages down\, insisting on a rich-man-friendly t
 ax reforms\, which\, in turn\, were passed by legislators who were elected
 . It follows that if there is sufficient political will\, things can chang
 e again through government or legislative action by those we care to elect
  to form the government. \nReversing some of the decisions on taxes and ma
 king them more progressive could help\, but more fundamental reforms\; esp
 ecially on labour market institutions are needed. We need to tackle rising
  inequality in market income by strengthening trade unions which is of par
 amount importance as the recent history of inequality reveals. To enhance 
 the impact\, this measure must be supplemented by relevant fiscal policies
  to make our taxes more progressive and our social expenditures better tar
 geted. This will be the focus of this contribution.\n\nPlease contact the 
 seminar organisers Philip Arestis (pa267@cam.ac.uk) and Michael Kitson (m.
 kitson@jbs.cam.ac.uk) in the event of a query.
LOCATION:The Ramsden Room\, St Catharine's College
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