YSI @ 12th Young Economists Conference

The Chamber of Labor Vienna, the Chamber of Labor Upper Austria, the Young Scholars Initiative Political Economy of Europe Working Group, in collaboration with the Austrian Society for Pluralist Economics is organizing the 12th Young Economists Conference (YEC), October 6th and 7th 2023 in Linz, Austria.

YSI is preparing an exciting pre-conference program, which will take place on the 5th and 6th of October. The program will address the economic development issues in the Global South and discuss more practical topics such as research methods and hurdles of Ph.D. life.
The conference is free of charge and accommodation will be covered by the host organization. YSI will provide a limited number of travel stipends to the selected researchers from the Global South. An outstanding contribution will be awarded the Eduard März Prize of €1,000.

Abstract submission deadline: July 24

The title of this year's conference is: ‘Funding the Welfare State and Social Infrastructure’

Focus of the conference:
The past years have seen a revival of the public sector and broad welfare programs to alleviate the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic and the following inflationary episode. At the same time, recent academic research into monetary economics, public economics and wealth inequality evaluate questions of feasibility and justice in funding the welfare state. The coming years will determine the face of social infrastructure, and how to pay for them.
Heterodox and radical economics as well as social scientists, health experts and philosophers ponder the question of collective responsibility for broad well-being and the social stability. While the state is present in almost every economic interaction, its role is under-developed in economic mainstream theory. Decades of neo-classical and neo-liberal models have neglected the positive question of designing and funding the welfare state by exaggerating abstract categories of efficiency and effectiveness in public spending. Poverty and powerlessness are the lived reality of many but are treated as fringe phenomena in the majority of economic models.
Can a thorough and multi-disciplinary analysis of welfare, regulation, distribution and taxation shape a more realistic understanding of labor, growth and welfare? How about sustainable welfare state funding or a care economy under growth compatible with the 1.5 ° goal? What challenges in registering wealth and measuring poverty obstruct the path to more just funding and re-distribution? And what about welfare state innovations, like employers of last resort or universal inheritance? We are convinced that this is the time and place to discuss both challenges and opportunities ahead.

More details, keynotes, and submissions HERE