Forum for Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies
Exploring Economics is pleased to cooperate with the Forum for Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies (FMM). The FMM is an outstanding source of content on pluralist economics that we would like to present on our platform. Therefore, FMM’s work is important for our activities in sharing and promoting pluralist economic approaches.
Since 1996 the FMM has existed as a platform for analysis, research and discussion of macroeconomic issues. The FMM is a non-partisan network of economists and other social scientists that organizes conferences, workshops and summer schools. It is organisationally based at the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) of Hans-Böckler-Foundation. A coordination committee takes care of all organisational issues and since 2016 has been represented by two speakers. The FMM awards fellowships to distinguished researchers that are closely related to the network and its activities. The Forum is not a membership organisation, but rather an open association of people interested in similar issues. It is open to anyone who is interested in discussions around the topics outlined above.
The FMM aims to be both a platform for discussions about economic theory as well as a forum for economic policy debates: Macroeconomic theory is seen as the basis for policies which aim at high employment, environmentally sustainable growth, price stability, reduced inequality, and the elimination of poverty. In particular, the Forum seeks to promote an exchange between competing theoretical paradigms.
The evolution of the FMM began in Germany in the mid-1990s (For the history of the FMM, see Hein/Priewe 2009). With support provided by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, a network was founded that started to organize annual conferences. Invented as a small forum for exchange within a German-speaking community, it soon developed into a well-established international institution. Since its establishment it serves as a forum for macroeconomic issues and policy debates from alternative points of view to the dominant paradigm in economics. The network has a footing in the post-Keynesian tradition but explicitly invites contributions from other schools of thought. The thematic focus is on macroeconomics, financial markets, distribution and development.
The 1st conference on the renaissance of macroeconomics was organised in October 1997, featuring about 20 presentations. Regular annual conferences have taken place in Berlin since then. Each conference is devoted to a specific topic, which is reflected in the plenary sessions, but parallel sessions are open to topics in the general scope of the network. Nowadays, the conference lasts for three days and welcomes about 400 international participants. Besides plenary and parallel sessions with around 130 presentations in sum, graduate student sessions were introduced in 2006 to allow young researchers to present their work and get feedback from peers and seniors. Moreover, the conference’s first day hosts introductory lectures (since 2010) on varying topics. Live streams and video documentations of the plenary sessions and intro workshops of the more recent years are available on the FMM’s homepage.
Apart from the main event, the FMM regularly organises smaller workshops and conferences on current macroeconomic policy issues, often in close cooperation with other networks and organisations. As part of its ambition to promote young scholars, in 2008 the FMM established a summer school on Keynesian macroeconomics that has since 2009 been run every uneven year in the first week of August in Berlin.
In more recent years, the FMM has leveraged its increasing popularity and successfully invited leading open-minded mainstream economists to discuss potentials for paradigm change within economics. At the same time, the network has allied with student initiatives campaigning for a more pluralist economics to organize joint events.
References
Hein, E., Priewe, J. (2009): The Research Network Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies (FMM) – Past, Present and Future, in: Intervention. European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies, 6(2), 166–173.