The role of Chinese industrial policy (especially subsidies) is always emphasized in this story. We acknowledge its importance, but our findings highlight an equally crucial element: firm-level technological effort; and how these efforts interacted positively with policies.

Great lecture by @kenohaverkamp.bsky.social on industrial policy & supply chain strategy at @iipp-ucl.bsky.social

Great opportunity for a rare fully-funded PhD at UCL IIPP!

My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026! This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system. UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...

3/15 China focuses on "physical and industrial AI" rather than large language models. Xiaomi's fully automated dark factories can produce one smartphone per second. BYD surpassed Tesla in EV production using AI-driven manufacturing.

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

We're close to a huge moment in the UK car market: Chinese EV firm BYD is about to overtake Tesla

New infant industry protection case study

R̶u̶l̶e̶s̶-b̶a̶s̶e̶d̶ Vibes-based international order

Sander is right. If the Commission doesn’t think it can use state aid rules to steer member states toward common priorities, then the financial leg of the Clean Industrial Deal boils down to praying for a miracle in the next EU budget. Not exactly a strategy.

@dieworkwear.bsky.social x @thedigradio.bsky.social is a collaboration I didn't know we needed!

Seems like a great day to broadcast this chart in the UK...

Batteries were the dominant driver of IRA investment, accounting for 69% of all clean technology manufacturing investment. Now these seem to lead the charge on cancellations of announced investments.

Got the Spanish grid operator data on generation by source type working now too. Confirms the ENTSOE data that it remains solar/wind/hydro that is still operating. Nuclear/gas/coal remain basically offline for now - presumably tripped off when demand fell (or vice versa depending on the root cause).

scrapping it would add GBP 2.5bn yearly to government spending. That is 25bn over ten years. Only last year, the Treasury paid the Bank of England around 40bn for its 'losses' on the QE gilt portfolio. It didnt have to. No other central bank expects to be compensated.

cityofsound.medium.com/growth-as-th... Really enjoyed reading this review of Saito's Slow Down by @cityofsound.bsky.social with beautiful pictures from Kagoshima where he offers an alternative to Degrowth and (implicitly) Abundance through organic growth of commons

Apparently the "realist" position is to ... ignore this?

Varieties of Economic Elites: "Pale, stale, and male" This is such a timely project with fascinating insights on the global distribution on the distribution of organisational, market, and regulatory power across countries

Very pleased (and surprised) to see this. Given current geopolitics, understanding of #manufacturing has never been more important. amzn.eu/d/90Q7Fbh #books #booksky 💙📚

Suddenly found yourself having all sorts of questions about tariffs? Are they bad? (not always) Can they bring back US jobs? (not automatically, and certainly not any time soon) Look no further and let Ha-Joon Chang explain it to you @garyseconomics.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shz3...

What sort of owner might KKR be? The following (from Our Lives in their Portfolios) is what happened when KKR took over the municipal water network of Bayonne New Jersey.....

This is such a great list of resources by the ever great @benbraun.bsky.social!

What DOES work? Targeted investments via tax credits, subsidies and grants - like those in the IRA, CHIPS Act and Infrastructure Law. Factory construction has already doubled from 2019-2024. Strategic investment beats broad tariffs for boosting domestic production. 5/

BYD now attempting to move beyond price war stage of China's EV market, and move to profits based on product differentiation. BYD’s annual sales top $100bn for first time www.ft.com/content/dc59...

For those speaking German, Aline and I wrote this piece on digital sovereignty based on the Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty white paper that I co-authored with @cedricdurand.bsky.social @parismarx.com @paologerbaudo.bsky.social & Edemilson Paraná Read the report here: www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/pub...

My latest on Project Syndicate - what more do we want Merz asked today? Scrap the debt break entirely is the answer .

Great threat by @jonasalgers.bsky.social on Northvolt's collapse! "The problem was not competition, but production"

That Europe’s biggest battery project is going bust is bad. That it’s happening just as the EU scrambles to ramp up defense production—where batteries are key—makes it even worse. The EU should think hard about how to pick up the pieces. on.ft.com/43IbmQH

Lots of great positions at @mpifg.bsky.social, pls share! - 2yr postdoc in wealth research - 2yr postdoc in technology & sovereignty - 3+3yr senior researcher in political economy - 3+3yr senior researcher in economic sociology - tenure/director-track group leader digitalization & society

To help Germany finally snap out its macroeconomic hibernation, the planned changers to the debt brake must help plug the country’s huge investments needs. Early results in the coalition talks now show that there’s a real risk that the incoming government could still squander this. 1/X

Europe seems to be preparing to run a war economy. It will have a choice of going down the path of WWI when free market principles were applied to wartime challenges, or WWII when planning delivered a broad-based economic success in the US. See: How China Escaped Shock Therapy.

Just seeing the RCT 'scandal' brewing among econs again. This is not a question about some bad apples or some instances of malpractice. The RCT industry has been completely distorted from its inception in Econ and this is closely tied to the incentive structure of the discipline.

Die Forderungen, die Veranstaltung mit Dr. @franceskalbs.bsky.social und Dr. Eyal Weizmann @forensicarchi.bsky.social abzusagen, werden lauter und schriller. Sie werden von Personen artikuliert, die über die letzten Monate immer wieder mit Impulsen aufgefallen sind, ihnen unliebsame Veranstaltungen

Equinor, renamed from Statoil in 2018, said on Wednesday that it was planning to increase production of fossil fuels and halve its spending on renewables, with chief executive Anders Opedal saying it was aiming to “create shareholder value for decades to come” www.ft.com/content/be71...

This looks great! Can't wait to read it later this year

📣Today's discussion focuses on the unequal distribution of benefits in energy transitions. Today's guest speaker @silviaweko.bsky.social draws on her research on attitudes toward the energy transition in Jordan, a lower-middle-income country rapidly transitioning to renewables.

💭Sustainable Energy for Some? Join us on 21st Jan for the first #IIPPInConversation Event of 2025. IIPP's @ceciliarikap.bsky.social welcomes @silviaweko.bsky.social & @kenohaverkamp.bsky.social for a roundtable discussion. 🔗Register here: https://buff.ly/4fNBADT

I made a political economy & climate crisis starter pack! 💸🏝️⛽️🌲 It’s incomplete - who else is on here? go.bsky.app/GJLn7zk

Made a Starter Pack of people who've contributed / participated in @thepolycrisis.bsky.social (Still missing a few folks, though, I'm working on it.) go.bsky.app/QTt2mKR

I’m working on an industrial policy starter pack — here’s a first stab. Send suggestions! go.bsky.app/Ej9XsNu

The Ørsted pull-out from New Jersey indicates that the costs of this hiking cycle for the energy transition are going to be massive. Exactly what @jvtk.bsky.social has been warning of for two years. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

ft.com/content/a793... Ørsted shares tumble after company ditches two US wind projects. The decision [was] blamed on supply chain delays, higher interest rates and changes to its assumptions around tax credits and construction permits, underlines the mounting challenges facing the wind industry.

The struggles of the offshore wind industry www.ft.com/content/00e8... Governments around the world have set ambitious targets to tackle climate change, but developers say power prices will have to rise to pay for it

31. The US Inflation Reduction Act includes a licence to print money for solar manufacturers and hydrogen firms. It’s good for clean energy, but it's also like hitting the accelerator on a car with the handbrake on. The handbrake is trade barriers, grid and permitting issues.

15. We oughtta be building more wind. Seriously, solar will get built anyway, but wind needs some help, and wind blows in the dark and in the winter. It doesn’t help that solar pushes down power prices and generates renewable energy credits, which hurts wind farm economics.