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Carolina Alves is an Associate Professor in Economics at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).
Research summary
Dr Carolina Alves' research cuts across macroeconomics, political economy, and economic methodology, driven by a deep commitment to understanding how developing countries navigate the pursuit of prosperity, growth, and stability while integrating into global trade and capital markets. Her work is characterised by a critical and constructive engagement with the economics profession, where she explores the interplay of diverse economic approaches through the lenses of heterodox economics and the decolonisation of the field.
Dr Alves current research agenda focusses on three themes:
- Understanding both the development of financial systems in developing countries, with a particular focus on the role of the state, government bond markets and the consequences for macroeconomic policy. This includes the international monetary and financial system, emphasising the hegemonic role of the US dollar, the institutional limitations and economic constraints that developing countries face, and the legacies of colonial and imperial domination of the Global South.
- Exploring the link between political economy and macroeconomics, with particular attention to production and distribution of economic surplus, the role of power relations and institutions in determining economic relationships and inequality and crises. In particular, the continuous search to escape classical economics, à la Veblen, Marshall, Keynes, Joan Robinson and, more recently, Tony Lawson.
- Studying methodology of economics, with the goal of understanding contemporary economics as a practice, as a profession and as a discourse. Specifically, this involves exploring debates on the definition of heterodox economic, the Eurocentric nature of the discipline, economic theorising in relation to policies aimed at achieving social betterment (including the role of the state, the welfare state, and resilience), and ethics and moral economy (particularly how economic behaviour and its outcomes can be morally justified).
Research Areas
- International macro-finance
- Political economy of money and finance
- Macroeconomics dynamics: distributive conflict and power relations
- Uneven economic development
- Heterodox economics
- Decolonisation of economics
- Welfare state
- Biography
Dr Carolina Alves is an economist by training whose influences are rooted in intellectual traditions such as Classical Political Economy, Latin American Structuralism and Dependency Theory, Marxian and Kaleckian macroeconomics, and the new Cambridge Tradition, particularly the contributions of Joan Robinson and Tony Lawson. These foundations firmly place her within the field of heterodox economics. Before joining IIPP at UCL, Carolina was awarded a prestigious and highly competitive five-year Research Fellowship at Girton College, University of Cambridge, UK, where she held the title of Joan Robinson Research Fellow in Heterodox Economics.
Carolina holds a BSc in Economic Science from Unesp (Brazil), an MPhil in Sociology of Labour from Unicamp (Brazil), and a PhD in Economics from SOAS, University of London (England). She is currently a Fellow in Economics at Girton College and a member of both the Cambridge Social Ontology Group and the Alternative Approaches to Economics Research Group at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. Additionally, she is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK.
She is the co-founder of the Diversifying and Decolonising Economics initiative, the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies, and UCL Strategic Economic Alliance. Additionally, she serves as co-editor of The Developing Economics blog. She sits on several advisory boards in the UK, including the Rebuilding Macroeconomics Advisory Board, the Progressive Economy Forum Council, and the Positive Money Advisory Panel. She is also a Trustee for the Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics, and for the Diversifying and Decolonising Economics initiative.PhD Thesis: Stabilisation or financialisation? Examining the dynamics of the Brazilian domestic public debt
MPhil Dissertation: An introduction to the labour theory of value: a study of Karl Marx’s The Poverty of the Philosophy
- Books
- Decolonising Economics: An Introduction by Polity Press, (forthcoming), co-author with Devika Dutt, Surbhi Kesar and Ingrid Kvangraven.
- Labour, Value and Capitalism: A Study of Karl Marx’s Poverty of Philosophy (1847) by Editora Dialética, 2024.
- Projects
Strategic Economics Alliance (SEA)
The Strategic Economics Alliance (SEA) is a global network aiming to create a stronger link between new economic thinking and new practice by elevating new voices that have been historically and structurally marginalized. The initiative sets out to establish a more direct link between women economists who are advancing new economic thinking and change-oriented practitioners, such as heads of state, ministers, and mayors. A critical component of SEA is to ensure that the lessons from these advisory experiences feed back into academic reflection, bringing academics and policymakers together to co-lead the vision and implementation of SEA. This includes collectively identifying opportunities, sharing innovations and learning, developing, and implementing new policies and programs, and analysing their implementation and impact.
SEA is being launched in June 2024 and is led by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Associate Professor Carolina Alves from the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. SEA is currently funded by Co-Impact.- Teaching Summary
New Economic Thinking and Public Value – Module leader
The module equips students with an in-depth understanding of three economic areas and approaches in the context of public value and public purpose, namely, value, market and state, with emphasis on how these concepts have driven the debates and paradigms within economics. Then, students explore the alternative views to these debates, with emphasis on Keynesianism and macroeconomics policies, the entrepreneurial state, public value and theories of market and firm, and the role of finance in supporting an entrepreneurial state.
Rethinking Capitalism – Module co-leader with Dr Joshua Ryan-Collins
The module helps students develop their critical thinking to make the connections between economic theory and real-world policy issues. It includes a range of different economic perspectives, including Neoclassical, post-Keynesian, ecological, evolutionary, and Marxist and institutional economics theories and how their different assumptions link to different public policies.- Current Research Activities
Blog Series on Decolonising Economics - 2024
Dr Alves, in collaboration with Dr Ingrid Kvangraven from King's College London, is editing a series of articles for the Developing Economics Blog on the topics of decolonisation and economics. The Developing Economics Blog adopts a critical and pluralist approach to the field of Development Economics, aiming to foster debate and reflection on economic development among academics and practitioners from various disciplines. To this end, Carolina and Ingrid intend to explore the intersection of decolonisation and economics from multiple perspectives, ultimately discussing the policy implications.
Summer School on Cambridge Social Ontology - 2024
Dr Alves is helping with the organisation of a three-day Summer School on Cambridge Social Ontology led by Dr Yannick Slade-Caffarel, Dr Helen Mussell, Prof Tony Lawson, Prof Stephen Pratten, Dr Phil Faulkner, and Dr Clive Lawson. The summer school will cover topics including (Cambridge) social positioning theory and its bearings on various (topical) ontological issues in modern social theorising, such as the natures of money, gender, the corporation, artefacts, technology and the human social individual. The aim is to provide a learning forum in social ontology for scholars interested in Cambridge social ontology.- Supervision Master and PhD
PhD Supervision, João Pedro Braga (2023-24 cohort)
MPA Dissertation Supervisor, Alexander Reviakin, (2023-24 cohort)
MPA, Dissertation Supervisor, Isabel Sargent, (2032-24 cohort)
MPA, Dissertation Supervisor, Sarina Spiegel,(2023-24 cohort)
MPA Placement Supervisor, Anna Kurth, (2023-24 cohort)
MPA Placement Supervisor, Jerome Lau, (2023-24 cohort)
MPA Placement Supervisor, Cassandra Mah, (2023-24 cohort)- Professional Activities
Head of the IIPP Ethics in Research Committee (2023-)
Associate Editor, Review of Social Economy – RoSE (2023-)
Co-editor Blog A Critical Perspective on Development Economics (2018-)