Hayek Programme Online Webinar Series
Shrinking Capitalism: Economics, Ethics, and the Governance Triangle
Wendy Carlin (UCL)
Thursday 26 February 2026 18:30 - 20:00
Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events. Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.
Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.
Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.
About this event
Since the 1970s, economic research has undergone a profound but largely unrecognized shift toward "civil society" themes—interactions governed by social norms, identity, and private power rather than complete contracts
Samuel Bowles and Wendy Carlin's proposal for a new political economy paradigm synthesizes incomplete contracts theory (Coase, Arrow, Hart), behavioural economics, and normative political philosophy to argue that contemporary challenges—climate emergency, inequality, knowledge-based work—require governance solutions beyond the traditional market-state continuum.
This lecture examines their "governance triangle" framework, which positions civil society alongside markets and states as a distinct mode of economic coordination. Using their topic-modelling evidence from 27,000 economics papers and principal-agent models revealing systematic inefficiencies, we assess whether this synthesis constitutes a genuine paradigm shift. Critical analysis explores both the comparative advantages of civil society governance (where information asymmetries prevent complete contracting) and its endemic failures (parochialism, exclusion). Can this framework achieve the transformative influence of Keynesianism or neoliberalism?
About the speaker
Wendy Carlin is Professor of Economics in the Economics Department at UCL, Research Fellow of the CEPR and external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Her research is on macroeconomics, institutions and economic performance, the economics of transition, inequality, and the evolution of economic research and education. Her fourth macroeconomics book published in 2024 (co-authored with David Soskice) places inequality at the heart of macroeconomic analysis. She leads the CORE Econ project, which is transforming economics education around the world and is co-director of the Stone Centre on Wealth Concentration, Inequality and the Economy at UCL. In 2026, she was awarded a DBE for services to economics in the Kings’ New Years’ Honours, is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is Vice President of the International Economic Association.
Related
The online webinar series of the LSE Hayek Programme will feature academic scholars or policy experts on a range of interdisciplinary topics that are related in some way to the intellectual contributions of F.A. Hayek.
These include individualism and economic freedom, the nature and future of liberal democracy, social justice and welfare, decision-making under radical uncertainty, macroeconomic management, the rule of law and justice, and others.
All sessions will be conducted on Zoom, lasting 1.5 hours, with a structured format of 45 minutes for speaker presentations followed by a 45-minute Q&A session. Additionally, for those unable to attend live, all webinars will be recorded for later access.
Events in the series will begin in March 2024, usually held one Thursday each month, from 6pm - 7:30pm unless otherwise stated.
For further information please contact Bryan Cheang, by email: b.cheang@lse.ac.uk.