Robert Rowthorn (born 20 August 1939) is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and has been elected as a Life Fellow of King’s College. He is also a senior research fellow of the Centre for Population Research at the

Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford The Department of Social Policy and Intervention is an interdisciplinary centre for research and teaching in social policy and the systematic evaluation of social intervention based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. ...

Life

Rowthorn was born in 1939 in

Newport, Monmouthshire Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest au ...

, Wales. He attended

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

reading

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. He took a post-graduate research fellowship at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

again in mathematics. He returned to Oxford and switched to

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

, taking a two-year B.Phil. He then got a job at Cambridge as an economist. He was an editor of the radical newspaper ''

The Black Dwarf ''The Black Dwarf'' (1817–1824) was a satirical radical journal of early 19th century Britain. It was published by Thomas Jonathan Wooler, starting in January 1817 as an eight-page newspaper, then later becoming a 32-page pamphlet. It was pric ...

''. He has authored many books and academic articles on economic growth, structural change and employment. His work has been influenced by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and critics of capitalism. He has worked as a consultant to various UK government departments and private sector firms and organisations, and to international organisations such as the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

, the

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

(UNCTAD) and the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

. Many of his publications have a Marxist slant. Rowthorn has been described by Susan Strange as being one of the few

Marxists Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectic ...

(another being Stephen Hymer) who is read in business schools. Among other things, he has identified the so-called

paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

of costs, whereby higher real

wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...

s lead to higher profit margins.Rowthorn (1981)

Selected works

Books

* * ''Thames Papers in Political Economy''. * *
Pdf.

Book chapters

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Journal articles

* Reprinted in: :: :: * * * ::In response to: ::and: * * * *
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*

Notes

References

* Dworkin, Dennis. ''Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left, and the Origins of Cultural Studies'', Duke University Press Books, 1997, * Glyn, Andrew
Review
of ''Capitalism, Conflict and Inflation'', ''

Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacque ...

'', June 1980 * Ietto-Gillies, Grazia. "Was Deindustrialization in the UK Inevitable? Some Comments on the Rowthorn-Wells Analysis", ''International Review of Applied Economics'' Vol. 4 (2). pp. 209–23. June 1990. * Mickiewicz, T; Zalewska, A. "De-industrialisation: Rowthorn and Wells' Model Revisited", ''Acta Oeconomica'' Vol. 56 (2). pp. 143–66. June 2006. * Strange, Susan. ''Casino Capitalism'', Manchester University Press, 1997, * Thirlwall, A. P. "Rowthorn's Interpretation of Verdoorn's Law", in ''Economic growth in theory and practice: A Kaldorian perspective''. King, John E., ed., Elgar Reference Collection. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. Aldershot, U.K.: Elgar; distributed in the U.S. by Ashgate, Brookfield, Vt. pp. 392–94. 1994. Previously Published 1980. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowthorn, Bob 1939 births Living people Marxist theorists Marxian economists Deutscher Memorial Prize winners Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford People from Newport, Wales People educated at Newport High School