There is more to national economies than the national economy: extending the Growth Model research programme in comparative political economy

2025/02/07 by Aidan Regan, Mark Blyth · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism #Economic Theory and Policy

paper · doi:10.1093/ser/mwaf003

openalex publication_date 2025/02/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that the Growth Model (GM) research programme in comparative political economy has an ontological and methodological bias towards the national level that generates an implicit functionalist-reductionism. This is a problem because GM research is explicitly designed to be a theory that eschews the functionalist-equilibrium New Keynesian assumptions of Varieties of Capitalism theory. To overcome this problem, we make the case that focusing on the city-regional level within a global-systems level analysis allows for a better integration of comparative political economy with international political economy in GM research. In particular, we argue that focusing on where income growth is produced and concentrated within advanced capitalism (cities-regions) allows us to better explain the political consequences of unequal growth from a post-Keynesian GM-perspective.

Citations

• International regimes, transactions, and change: embedded liberalism in the postwar economic order
• Millionaire Migration and Taxation of the Elite
• The revenge of the places that don’t matter (and what to do about it)
• Did Austerity Cause Brexit?
• Housing and populism
• Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion
• The Comparative Political Economy of Growth Models: Explaining the Continuity of FDI-Led Growth in Ireland and Hungary
• Skill-Biased Liberalization: Germany’s Transition to the Knowledge Economy
• Left-behind versus unequal places: interpersonal inequality, economic decline and the rise of populism in the USA and Europe

Discussions

• Is the National Economy Too Small to Study? Regan and Blyth argue that Growth Model research in Comparative Political Economy is ontologically biased towards the national level.Their solution? Zoom in [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]

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