About the Structural Economic Analysis Unit

Goldsmiths has an internationally unique concentration of expertise in Structural Economic Analysis (SEA).

SEA has deep roots in the Physiocratic and Classical approaches, which represented economies as systems of interdependent production processes and social groups, and in the 20^th-century rediscovery and development of those approaches.

SEA represents the economy as a system of components such as industries, sectors, and social groups; it studies the interdependencies between such components; and it derives the system’s features and evolution as resulting from the interaction between changes in components and changes in the system as a whole.

SEA provides a vantage point to understand the conditions under which economies can reproduce their means of production, be sustainable, achieve full employment, maintain stable prices, or grow.

Besides these core issues, SEA has provided distinctive insights on crucial phenomena and challenges of our time:

• The crises of capitalist economies
• The steep rise in inequalities between social groups, the impact of digital technologies on income distribution, the effects of income distribution policies
• The divergencies in economic development paths across countries, the restructuring of international production networks as a result of conflicts and technological innovations
• The inter-industry measurement of productivity
• The energy and pollution embodied in global trade, and how production structure shapes the possible paths of energy transition.

Our areas of focus

Frontiers of Structural Economic Analysis

• Elucidating historical roots
• Developing theory and generalising multisectoral models
• Widening the empirical scope
• Developing political economy dimensions
• Drawing policy implications.

Sustainable economic transitions

• Studying the interplay between the technological, material, environmental, and socio-political factors that shape possible paths of transition to low-carbon economies, with special emphasis on how different paths could address inequalities within and across countries

International supply chains

• Analysing the drivers of their ongoing restructuring and the implications for productivity, ecological transitions and international conflicts

Productivity and innovation

• Exploring the structural and technological drivers of productivity and its effects on income distribution and social and economic transformation more broadly

Three members have editorial roles in journals where structural economic analysis plays a key role:

• Ivano Cardinale (Editor-in-Chief, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics)
• Ragupathy Venkatachalam (Co-Editor, Economia Politica)
• Ariel Wirkierman (Associate Editor, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics)