The 16 member institutions of the Emerging Political Economies (EPE) Network took part in the 2025 Annual Meeting, held at London School of Economics (LSE) London between June 16th and June 18th 2025.
The group of institutions, which includes INET Oxford, was founded in 2023 with a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, as a cross-disciplinary network focused on formulating alternatives to the neoliberal paradigm.
INET Oxford was represented at the Conference by François Lafond, Stefania Innocenti, John Muellbauer, Janine Aron, Eric Beinhocker & Jonathan Martin.
In addition to sharing updates on research endeavours, the meeting featured discussions and presentations from the various centres. Thematic sessions covered topics such as the 'what is a fair and just economy?', 'meeting the challenges of industrial policy', 'the future of work', 'money for a fair and just society', 'what might replace the Washington Consensus as a program for a new political economy', 'technology and AI for a fair and just society', 'what next for globalisation', 'teaching political economy', and 'political challenges for a fair and just economy'.
The London Consensus and Remaking Liberalism
The meeting included sessions of debate and discussion on economic paradigm change.
This included a lively debate on the 'London Consensus', a set of principles put forward by Sir Timothy Besley and Andres Velasco at a public lecture at the LSE and published in a forthcoming volume from LSE Press. A generation ago, the so-called Washington Consensus laid out a series of do’s and don’ts for policymakers around the world, but it fell short by neglecting the social and institutional underpinnings indispensable for achieving sustained growth and building fairer and more cohesive societies. Besley & Velasco’s five core principles for a London Consensus - 'it's not just the money', 'growth still matters', 'the need to build resilience', 'it's the politics stupid', and 'a capable state is the keystone of progress' — provoked debate among delegates on how a new paradigm might emerge from recent economic research and the policy and political impact it might have.
The conference’s keynote lecture was provided by Daron Acemoglu on remaking liberalism and democracy. The 2024 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics wrapped up the conference by presenting his ideas on how we can bolster support for democracy, and what this involves in terms of a new conceptualisation of economic and political liberalism.
About the EPE Network
The Emerging Political Economies (EPE) Network is comprised of leading scholars at 16 universities and policy centres around the world, representing a mix of developed and emerging economies. It is funded by major international philanthropic organisations, including the Ford Foundation, the Global Fund for a New Economy, the Hewlett Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Open Society Foundations.
The EPE Network seeks to reimagine political economy. There is growing recognition that neoliberal economic thinking and policies that have dominated much of the world over the past 50 years have resulted in growing inequality within many countries, “left behind” regions, a climate crisis, and contributed to a loss of trust in democratic institutions. The EPE Network aims to explore new ways of thinking about economics that will produce economies that are more prosperous, fair, and sustainable. The EPE Network is committed to developing new research and encouraging collaborations amongst scholars, policymakers, and civil society organisations to foster alternative economic thinking.
