Rentier capitalism: contemporary forms of rent and its effects on capital

New date: November 7th and 8th. City, University of London.

The rise of intangible over tangible assets, real estate bubbles and financialisation are among the stylized facts of what could be called rentier capitalism. An era within capitalism where capital accumulation is increasingly driven (and hampered) by rent-seeking and predation. Everywhere in the economy we see various forms of rents becoming increasingly prominent: from ground rents in urban economics, to intellectual and innovation rents in pharmaceutical and ICT industries (among others) and, to a greater extent, the so-called financialisation of the economy that has restored at the center of the stage the old financial rentiers. Coming ahead of the resilience of traditional natural resources rents, the expansion of these rising rents considerably weight on the trajectory of capitalism.
What are the overall effects of these rents on global and national economies? Are these rents changing the nature of contemporary capitalism? What are the similarities and differences with other moments in history? What type of legal measures and policies could revert rentierism? What are –if any- the differential effects of rentier capitalism between core and peripheral regions? These and other questions motivate this proposal. Not only contemporary analysis will be welcomed but also explorations on how the concept of rent has evolved throughout economic thought and in economic history.
This workshop will be aimed at gathering young and senior scholars working on these topics in order to present our findings and, by using knowledge stations, build a joint research agenda that will be followed up with a webinar series after the workshop.