Robert Rowthorn

Robert Rowthorn, known as Bob (born 1939, Newport, Monmouthshire) is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and has been elected as a Life Fellow of King’s College. ^[1][2]

Life

He 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 maths. He returned to Oxford and switched to economics taking a two-year B.Phil. He then got a job at Cambridge as an economist.^[3]

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

He has authored many books and academic articles on economic growth, structural change and employment. His work has been influenced by Karl Marx and critics of capitalism. He has worked as 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 Organisation.^[5] Many of his publications have a Marxist slant.^[6]

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

Works

• 'What Remains of Kaldor's Law?', Economic Journal. Vol. 85 (337). p 10-19. March 1975. Reprinted in King, John E., ed., Elgar Reference Collection. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Aldershot, U.K.: Elgar; distributed in the U.S. by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vt.. p 347-56. 1994.
• 'A Reply to Lord Kaldor's Comment', Economic Journal. Vol. 85 (340). p 897-901. December 1975.
• Rowthorn, R. E. 'Economic growth in theory and practice: A Kaldorian perspective', 1975. Reprinted in King, John E., ed., Elgar Reference Collection. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Aldershot, U.K.: Elgar; distributed in the U.S. by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vt.. p 363-67. 1994.
• 'Conflict, Inflation and Money', Cambridge Journal of Economics. Vol. 1 (3). p 215-39. September 1977. Reprinted in The economics of unemployment. Volume 3. Junankar, P. N., ed., International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, vol. 122. Cheltenham, U.K. and Northampton, Mass.: Elgar; distributed by American International Distribution Corporation, Williston, Vt.. p 119-43. 2000.
• 'A Note on Verdoorn's Law', Economic Journal. Vol. 89 (353). p 131-33. March 1979. Reprinted 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, U.K.: Elgar; distributed in the U.S. by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vt.. p 385-87. 1994.
• Capitalism, Conflict and Inflation, Lawrence and Wishart (1980) 274 pp.
• (with J. R. Wells) De-industrialization and foreign trade. Cambridge; New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. p xi, 422. 1987.
• (with J. R. Wells) 'Reply' [De-industrialization and Foreign Trade]. International Review of Applied Economics. Vol. 4 (2). p 224-35. June 1990.
• (with R. Ramaswamy) Efficiency Wages and Wage Dispersion, Cambridge Working Papers in Economics, Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge, 17 pages. 1990.
• 'Intra-industry Trade and Investment under Oligopoly: The Role of Market Size'. Economic Journal. Vol. 102 (411). p 402-14. March 1992.
• 'Centralisation, Employment and Wage Dispersion'. Economic Journal. Vol. 102 (412). p 506-23. May 1992.
• 'Returns to Scale and the Economic Impact of Migration: Some New Considerations'. Spatial Economic Analysis. Vol. 4 (3). p 329-41. September 2009.

References

Further reading

• Mickiewicz, T; Zalewska, A., 'De-industrialisation: Rowthorn and Wells' Model Revisited', Acta Oeconomica Vol. 56 (2). p 143-66. June 2006.
• Ietto-Gillies, Grazia, 'Was Deindustrialization in the UK Inevitable? Some Comments on the Rowthorn-Wells Analysis', 'International Review of Applied Economics Vol. 4 (2). p 209-23. June 1990.
• Thirlwall, A. P., 'Rowthorn's Interpretation of Verdoorn's Law', Economic growth in theory and practice: A Kaldorian perspective. King, John E., ed., Elgar Reference Collection. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Aldershot, U.K.: Elgar; distributed in the U.S. by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vt.. p 392-94. 1994. Previously Published 1980.