Professor Robert Dur interviewed on the capitalistic system and the need for a strong government

The Professor remarks that he is not aware of a system that is necessarily better than a capitalistic system. For instance, Dur questions whether we should blame the capitalistic system for the current climate crisis: ‘Suppose we did not have capitalism worldwide, would we not have coal-fired power plants? Wouldn't we have had diesel cars? Would we have had no CO2 emissions? I don't know.' Exactly these kinds of speculative questions characterize the debate on capitalism, according to Dur.

Capital and power

A capitalistic system should operate hand in hand with a strong public sector, Dur believes. Firstly, to prevent concentrations of power which might benefit businesses and shareholders, but not so much for the rest of society. For this, Dur thinks a government is needed since consumers or employees won’t be able to stand up to these concentrations of power. Secondly, a government is needed in virtue of redistribution: to take care of people at the lower end of society. Finally, to price in externalities so that the negative external effects of choices made by individuals will be internalized.

Professor Dur’s area of research

According to Dur, his research focuses on incentives. This includes investigating the effects of higher rewards for CEOs, but also for employees and other issues related to organising and maintaining human resources.  He remarks that in the public sector organisations are more eager to cooperate with academic studies than in the private sector. However, he believes both sectors should be more curious in learning more via participating in academic studies.