Firm innovation and capitalist dialectics: The economics of Nina Shapiro. (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Balakrishnan, Radhika; Milberg, William
• Is Part Of: Economic and labour relations review. Volume 30:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 467
• Page End: 477
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Capitalist competition -- dialectic -- growth -- heterodox economics -- innovation -- Kalecki -- Marshall -- Marx's method -- Post-Keynesian economics -- pricing -- Steindl -- theory of the firm; Australia -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Australia -- Periodicals; Economics -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; 331
• DOI: 10.1177/1035304619880473
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1035-3046

Abstract

This essay is a review of and tribute to the life and contributions of Nina Shapiro, who passed away this year. Shapiro was an American Post-Keynesian economist, who was a bridge figure in radical economics, connecting Marx to Keynes, Schumpeter to Kaldor, the behavior of the firm to the dynamics of the macroeconomy, and the process of innovation to the organization of production and accumulation. She was seminal to important moments in the history of radical economics in the US, including the formation of the Hegel-inspired journal Social Concept in the 1980s and the Rutgers University's Post-Keynesian circle in the 1980s and 1990s. Shapiro's deeply philosophical and dialectical approach to firm behavior, innovation, and business cycles led her to theorize the "revolutionary character" of Post-Keynesian economics and to formulate a critique of the competitive neoclassical firm which, she argued, is at odds with the logic of capitalism in which firms seek to make profit and grow. JEL Codes: B24, B32, B51, B55