Robert Rowthorn Explained

Robert Rowthorn
School Tradition:	Marxian economics
Birth Date:	20 August 1939
Birth Place:	Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK
Institution:	University of Cambridge
Alma Mater:	Jesus College, Oxford University of California, Berkeley University of Oxford
Influences:	Karl Marx

Robert Rowthorn FAcSS FLSW (born 20 August 1939) is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and has been elected as a Life Fellow of King’s College.^{[1] [2]} He is also a senior research fellow of the Centre for Population Research at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford.

Life

Rowthorn was born in 1939 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. He attended Jesus College, Oxford reading mathematics. He took a post-graduate research fellowship at Berkeley again in mathematics. He returned to Oxford and switched to economics, taking a two-year B.Phil. He then worked at Cambridge as an economist.^[3]

He was an editor of the radical newspaper The Black Dwarf.^[4]

He wrote many books and academic articles on economic growth, structural change and employment. His work was influenced by Karl Marx and critics of capitalism. He was a consultant to various UK government departments and private sector firms and organisations, and to international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Labour Organization.^[5] Many of his publications have a Marxist slant.^[6]

Rowthorn has been described by Susan Strange as being one of the few Marxists (another being Stephen Hymer) who is read in business schools.^[7]

Among other things, he has identified the so-called paradox of costs, whereby higher real wages lead to higher profit margins.^[8]

In 2011, Rowthorn was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.^[9]

Selected works

Books

• Book: Rowthorn, Bob . Capitalism, conflict, and inflation: essays in political economy . registration . . London . 1980 . 9780853155393 .
• Book: Rowthorne, Bob . Demand real wages and economic growth . Thames Polytechnic . London . Autumn 1981 . 9780902169173 . Thames Papers in Political Economy.
• Book: Rowthorn . Robert E. . Wells . J.R. . De-industrialization and foreign trade . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge Cambridgeshire New York . 1987 . 9780521263603 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Ramaswamy . Ramana . Deindustrialization – its causes and implications . IMF Working Paper . WP/97/42 . . September 1997 . Pdf.

Journal articles

• Rowthorn . Robert E. . What remains of Kaldor's Law? . . 85 . 337 . 10–19 . 10.2307/2230525 . 2230525 . March 1975 . ^[10]

Kaldor . Nicholas . Nicholas Kaldor . Economic growth and the Verdoorn Law - a comment on Mr Rowthorn's article . . 85 . 340 . 891–896 . 10.2307/2230633 . 2230633 . December 1975 . ^[10]

Rowthorn . Robert E. . A reply to Lord Kaldor's comment . . 85 . 340 . 897–901 . 10.2307/2230634 . 2230634 . December 1975 . ^[10]

• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Conflict, inflation and money . . 1 . 3 . 215–239 . . September 1977 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . A note on Verdoorn's Law . . 89 . 353 . 131–133 . 10.2307/2231413 . 2231413 . March 1979 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Wells . J.R. . Reply to Grazia letto-Gillies' 'Was deindustrialization in the UK inevitable? Some comments on the Rowthorn-Wells analysis' and Paul Auerbach's review of Rowthorn-Wells in International Review of Applied Economics . International Review of Applied Economics . 4 . 2 . 224–235 . 10.1080/758523676 . June 1990 .

In response to: letto-Gillies . Grazia . Was deindustrialization in the UK inevitable? Some comments on the Rowthorn-Wells analysis . International Review of Applied Economics . 4 . 2 . 209–223 . 10.1080/758523675 . June 1990 .

and: Auerbach. Paul . Review: Rowthorn, R.E. and Wells, J.R. 1987: De-industrialization and foreign trade . International Review of Applied Economics . 3 . 1 . 115–121 . 10.1080/758532015 . January 1989 .

• Rowthorn . Robert . Ramaswamy . Ramana . Efficiency wages and wage dispersion . . 58 . 232 . 501–514 . 10.2307/2554695 . 2554695 . November 1991 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Intra-industry trade and investment under oligopoly: the role of market size . . 102 . 411 . 402–414 . 10.2307/2234524 . 2234524 . March 1992 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Centralisation, employment and wage dispersion . . 102 . 412 . 506–523 . 10.2307/2234288 . 2234288 . May 1992 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . A Review of W. J. Baumol, S. A. B. Blackman and E. N. Wolff, Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View . . 38 . 4 . 475–495 . 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1992.tb00456.x . December 1992 . Pdf.
• Rowthorn . Robert . Pagano . Ugo . Ugo Pagano . Ownership, technology and institutional stability . Structural Change and Economic Dynamics . 5 . 2 . 221–242 . 934387 . 10.1016/0954-349X(94)90003-5 . December 1994 . 154401089 .
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Ramaswamy . Ramana . Growth, trade, and deindustrialization . IMF Staff Papers . 46 . 1 . 18–41 . . March 1999 . 10.2307/3867633 . 3867633 . Pdf.
• Rowthorn . Robert E. . Returns to scale and the economic impact of migration: some new considerations . . 4 . 3 . 329–341 . 10.1080/17421770903114729 . September 2009 . 2009SpEA....4..329R . 154613561 .

References

• Dworkin, Dennis. Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies, Duke University Press Books, 1997,
• Glyn, Andrew. Review of Capitalism, Conflict and Inflation, Marxism Today, June 1980
• Ietto-Gillies, Grazia. "Was Deindustrialization in the UK Inevitable? Some Comments on the Rowthorn-Wells Analysis", International Review of Applied Economics Vol. 4 (2). pp. 209–23. June 1990.
• Mickiewicz, T; Zalewska, A. "De-industrialisation: Rowthorn and Wells' Model Revisited", Acta Oeconomica Vol. 56 (2). pp. 143–66. June 2006.
• Strange, Susan. Casino Capitalism, Manchester University Press, 1997,
• Thirlwall, A. P. "Rowthorn's Interpretation of Verdoorn's Law", in Economic growth in theory and practice: A Kaldorian perspective. King, John E., ed., Elgar Reference Collection. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Aldershot, UK: Elgar; distributed in the US by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vermont, pp. 392–94. 1994. Previously published 1980.

Notes and References

1. http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/crsid.html?crsid=rer3&group=emeritus Emeritus Faculty
2. http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/about/annual-report-2009.pdf Annual Report
3. https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1130035 Interview of Robert Rowthorn
4. Dworkin (1997) p. 282
5. http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2008/speaker_detail/1573/ Bob Rowthorn bio
6. Glyn (1980)
7. Strange (1997) p. 93
8. Rowthorn (1981)
9. Web site: Wales . The Learned Society of . Robert Rowthorn . 2023-08-31 . The Learned Society of Wales . en-US.
10. Reprinted in: Book: King, John E. . John E. King . Economic growth in theory and practice: a Kaldorian perspective . E. Elgar Pub . Aldershot, England Brookfield, Vermont, USA . 1994 . 9781852789558 .