Professor Stephen Bell
Emeritus Professor
School of Political Science and International Studies
Researcher biography
Stephen Bell is Professor of political economy in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. Prior to joining UQ in 1999, he held positions at Griffith University, the University of New England, and the University of Tasmania, as well as a visiting position at the ANU and at the Copenhagen Business School. He served as Head of the School of Government at the University of Tasmania and has been Head of School at UQ. His main teaching and research interests focus on questions of governance and institutional development with special reference to the politics of economic policy and the political economy of monetary polcy and banking. He is the author or editor of nine books and has published widely in leading national and international journals. His latest books deals with the rise of the People's Bank of China whilsy another deals with the 2008 banking crisis. Both are published by Harvard University Press. Stephen is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Research Interests:
- The politics of economic policy focussed on the state and its institutional capacities, specifically on the political economy of industry policy, macroeconomic policy and employment policy. More recent work has focused on changing forms and institutional dynamics of central banking and more recently on banking and financial crises.
- Business politics focussing on the role of business associations in public policy and on business power.
- Institutional theory and empirical application
Publications
Books
Bell, Stephen and Keating, Michael (2018). Fair share: competing claims and Australia's economic future. Melbourne, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2015). Masters of the Universe, Slaves of the Market. London, United Kingdom: Harvard University Press. doi: 10.4159/9780674425590
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2013). The rise of the People's Bank of China : the politics of institutional change. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.
Bell, S. R. and Hindmoor, A. M. (2009). Rethinking governance : the centrality of the state in modern society. New York, United States: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511814617
Bell, S. R. (2004). Australia's Money Mandarins. The Reserve Bank and the politics of money. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511550737
Bell, Stephen (1997). Ungoverning the Economy: The Political Economy of Australian Economic Policy. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Bell, Stephen (1993). Australian Manufacturing and the State: The Politics of Industry Policy in Post-War Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Book Chapters
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2019). Avoiding the Global Financial Crisis in Australia: A policy success?. Successful Public Policy: Lessons From Australia and New Zealand. (pp. 279-301) edited by Luetjens, J, Mintrom, M and THart, P. Canberra, ACT Australia: Australian National University. doi: 10.22459/SPP.2019
Beeson, Mark and Bell, Stephen (2017). The impact of economic structures on institutions and states. The globalization of international society. (pp. 284-303) edited by Tim Dunne and Christian Reus-Smit. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198793427.003.0015
Bell, Stephen (2015). Business Associations and Policy Analysis. Policy Analysis in Australia. (pp. 217-230) edited by Brian Head and Kate Crowley. Bristol: Policy Press.
Bell, Stephen (2013). How governments mediate the structural power of international business. The handbook of global companies. (pp. 113-133) edited by John Mikler. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781118326152.ch7
Bell, Stephen and Quiggin, John (2010). Unemployment policy: Unemployment, underemployment and labour market insecurity. Social policy in Australia: Understanding for action. (pp. 145-157) edited by Alison McClelland and Paul Smyth. South Melbourne, Vic., Australia: Oxford University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2009). The challenges of business leadership: CEO's and the case of the Business Council of Australia. Dispersed democratic leadership : Origins, dynamics, and implications. (pp. 177-191) edited by John Kane, Haig Patapan and Paul 't Hart. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562992.003.0010
Bell, S. R. and Quiggin, J. C. (2006). Unemployment, Labour Market Insecurity and Policy Options. Social Policy in Australia: Understanding for Action. (pp. 147-160) edited by A. McClelland and P. Smyth. Australia: Oxford University Press.
Beeson, Mark and Bell, Stephen (2005). Structures, Institutions and Agency in the Models of Capitalism Debate. Globalizing International Political Economy. (pp. 116-140) edited by Nicola Phillips. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York: Palgrave.
Bell, S. R. (2004). The role of the state: Welfare state or competitive state?. The politics of Australian society: Political issues for the new century. (pp. 220-238) edited by Paul Boreham, Geoffrey Stokes and Richard Hall. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.
Bell, S. R. (2003). Great ideas of central banking: Values, ideas and the transformation of central banking and monetary policy. Government Reformed: Values and New Political Institutions. (pp. 23-42) edited by I. Holland and J. Fleming. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate Publishing.
Bell, S. R. and Carr, N. (2003). Governance Limits of the Australian State. Economic Governance & Institutional Dynamics. (pp. 304-320) edited by S. Bell. Victoria, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Bell, S. R. and Ravenhill, J. (2003). Australian Political Economy. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Sciences in Australia. (pp. 374-405) edited by I. McAllister, S. Dowrick and R. Hassan. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2002). The contours and dynamics of unemployment. The price of prosperity, the economical and social costs of unemployment. (pp. 13-43) edited by Peter Saunders and Richard Taylor. NSW, Australia: UNSW Press.
Bell, S. R. (2002). The new technocracy, monetary governance and the reserve bank of Australia. Economic governance and institutional dynamics. (pp. 121-138) edited by Stephen Bell. Victoria, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Bell, Stephen (2002). Institutionalism. Government, Politics, Power And Policy In Australia. (pp. 363-380) edited by John Summers. NSW Australia: Pearson Education Australia.
Bell, Stephen (2002). Economic Governance and Why Institutions Matter. The Institutional Dynamics of Australian Economic Governance. (pp. 285-303) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2002). The market, the state, and networks. Economic Governance and Institutional Dynamics. (pp. 1-33) edited by Stephen Bell. Victoria, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2000). The unemployment crisis and economic policy. The Unemployment Crisis in Australia: Which Way Out?. (pp. 1-20) edited by S. Bell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2000). Unemployment, inequality and the politics of redistribution. The Unemployment Crisis in Australia: Which Way Out?. (pp. 252-270) edited by S. Bell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, S. R., Green, R. and Burgess, J. (2000). Speed limits to growth and the quality of jobs: Economic structure and the current account. The Unemployment Crisis in Australia: Which Way Out?. (pp. 173-195) edited by S. Bell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bell, S. R. (2000). The role of the state: Welfare state or competitive state?. The politics of Australian society: Political issues for the new century. (pp. 192-206) edited by Paul Boreham, Geoffrey Stokes and Richard Hall. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.
Journal Articles
Bell, Stephen (2022). The limits of federal state capacity in managing Australia’s Murray-Darling River Basin. Water Alternatives, 15 (1), 129-149.
Bell, Stephen and Keating, Michael (2019). Low wage growth: Why it matters and how to fix it. Australian Economic Review, 52 (4), 377-392. doi: 10.1111/1467-8462.12343
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2019). Rethinking critical juncture analysis: institutional change in Chinese banking and finance. Review of International Political Economy, 28 (1), 1-23. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2019.1655083
Bell, Stephen (2019). The renewable energy transition energy path divergence, increasing returns and mutually reinforcing leads in the state-market symbiosis. New Political Economy, 25 (1), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/13563467.2018.1562430
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2019). Policy diffusion as empowerment: domestic agency and the institutional dynamics of monetary policy diffusion in China. Globalizations, 16 (6), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2018.1560190
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2017). Are the major global banks now safer? Structural continuities and change in banking and finance since the 2008 crisis. Review of International Political Economy, 25 (1), 1-27. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2017.1414070
Bell, Stephen (2017). Historical institutionalism and new dimensions of agency: bankers, institutions and the 2008 financial crisis. Political Studies, 65 (3), 724-739. doi: 10.1177/0032321716675884
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2016). Structural power and the politics of bank capital regulation in the United Kingdom. Political Studies, 65 (1), 103-121. doi: 10.1177/0032321716629479
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2014). Taming the City? Ideas, Structural Power and the Evolution of British Banking Policy Amidst the Great Financial Meltdown. New Political Economy, 20 (3), 454-474. doi: 10.1080/13563467.2014.951426
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2014). The ideational shaping of state power and capacity: winning battles but losing the war over bank reform in the US and UK. Government and Opposition, 49 (3), 342-368. doi: 10.1017/gov.2014.2
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2014). Masters of the universe but slaves of the market: bankers and the great financial meltdown. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 17 (1), 1-22. doi: 10.1111/1467-856X.12044
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2014). The structural power of business and the power of ideas: the strange case of the Australian Mining Tax. New Political Economy, 19 (3), 470-486. doi: 10.1080/13563467.2013.796452
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2014). The politics of Australia's Mining Tax: a response to Marsh and Lewis. New Political Economy, 19 (4), 634-637. doi: 10.1080/13563467.2013.849677
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2014). How proximate and 'meta-institutional' contexts shape institutional change: explaining the rise of the People's Bank of China. Political Studies, 62 (1), 197-215. doi: 10.1111/1467-9248.12005
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2013). PBOC’s rise to top a story of deft politics amid turmoil. Bloomberg
Bell, Stephen (2012). The power of ideas: the ideational shaping of the structural power of business. International Studies Quarterly, 56 (4), 661-673. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2012.00743.x
Bell, Stephen (2012). Where are the institutions? The limits of Vivien Schmidt's constructivism. British Journal of Political Science, 42 (3), 714-719. doi: 10.1017/S0007123411000469
Bell, Stephen and Hindmoor, Andrew (2012). Governance without Government? The case of the forest stewardship council. Public Administration, 90 (1), 144-159. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01954.x
Bell, Stephen (2011). Do we really need a new constructivist institutionalism to explain institutional change?. British Journal of Political Science, 41 (4), 883-906. doi: 10.1017/S0007123411000147
Bell, Stephen, Hindmoor, Andrew and Mols, Frank (2010). Persuasion as governance: A state-centric relational perspective. Public Administration, 88 (3), 851-870. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01838.x
Bell, S. R. and Hindmoor, A. M. (2009). The Governance of Public Affairs. Journal of Public Affairs, 9 (2), 149-159. doi: 10.1002/pa.306
Beeson, Mark and Bell, Stephen (2009). The G-20 and International Economic Governance: Hegemony, Collectivism, or Both?. Global Governance, 15 (1), 67-86. doi: 10.1163/19426720-01501005
Bell, S. and Feng, H. (2009). Reforming China's Stock Market: Institutional Change Chinese Style. Political Studies, 57 (1), 117-140. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2008.00726.x
Bell, Stephen and Quiggin, John (2008). The limits of markets: the politics of water management in rural Australia. Environmental Politics, 17 (5), 712-729. doi: 10.1080/09644010802421448
Bell, Stephen R. (2008). Rethinking the role of the state: Explaining business collective action at the Business Council of Australia. Polity, 40 (4), 464-487. doi: 10.1057/pol.2008.21
Bell, Stephen and Quiggin, John (2008). Beyond stop/go? Explaining Australia's long boom. Journal of Australian Political Economy, 61 (61), 71-87.
Bell, Stephen and Feng, Hui (2007). Made in China: IT infrastructure policy and the politics of trade opening in post-WTO China. Review of International Political Economy, 14 (1), 49-76. doi: 10.1080/09692290601081343
Bell, Stephen (2006). A victim of its own success: Internationalization, neoliberalism, and organizational involution at the Business Council of Australia. Politics and Society, 34 (4), 543-570. doi: 10.1177/0032329206293643
Bell, Stephen and Quiggin, John (2006). Asset Price Instability and Policy Responses: The Legacy of Liberalization. Journal of Economic Issues, 40 (3), 629-649. doi: 10.1080/00213624.2006.11506938
Bell, S. R. and Park, A. (2006). The problematic metagovernance of networks: Water reform in New South Wales. Journal of Public Policy, 26 (1), 63-83. doi: 10.1017/S0143814X06000432
Bell, Stephen (2006). Probando la camisa de fuerza dorada: las fuentes internas de política monetaria en Australia. Investigacion Economica, LXV (256), 13-44.
Bell, S. R. (2006). Institutional Influences on the Power of Business: How 'Privileged' is the Business Council of Australia. Journal of Public Affairs, 6 (2), 156-167. doi: 10.1002/pa.221
Bell, S. R. (2005). Book Review: M. Keating, Who Rules? How Government Retains Control of a Privatised Economy. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 40 (2), 323-323.
Bell, Stephen (2005). How tight are the policy constraints? The policy convergence thesis, institutionally situated actors and expansionary monetary policy in Australia. New Political Economy, 10 (1), 65-89. doi: 10.1080/13563460500031263
Bell, S. R. (2005). Rethinking the RBA Board. Australian Financial Review (9 December 2005)
Bell, Stephen (2004). Inflation-plus targeting at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Australian Economic Review, 37 (4), 391-401. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8462.2004.00340.x
Bell, S. R. (2004). How Australia's central bank won its independence. Central Banking, XV (1), 69-73.
Bell, S. R. (2004). Pushing the growth envelope. Australian Financial Review (Friday 4 June 2004), 6-7.
Bell, S. R. (2004). Bubble trouble. BRW, 26 (6), 54-55.
Bell, S. (2002). The Limits of Rational Choice: New Institutionalism in the Test Bed of Central Banking Politics in Australia. Political Studies, 50 (3), 477-496. doi: 10.1111/1467-9248.00380
Bell, S (2001). Open-economy central banking: Explaining Australia's recommitment to central bank independence. Australian Journal of Political Science, 36 (3), 459-480. doi: 10.1080/10361140120100668
Bell, S. R. (2000). Is the third way the right way?. Just Policy (18), 52-55.
Bell, Stephen (1999). The scourge of inflation?: unemployment and orthodox monetary policy. The Australian Economic Review, 32 (1), 74-82. doi: 10.1111/1467-8462.00095
Bell, Stephen (1997). Globalisation, neoliberalism and the transformation of the Australian state. Australian Journal of Political Science, 32 (3), 345-368. doi: 10.1080/10361149750797
Bell, Stephen (1995). Between the market and the state: the role of Australian business associations in public policy. Comparative Politics, 28 (1), 25-53. doi: 10.2307/421996
Bell, Stephen (1995). The collective capitalism of Northeast Asia and the limits of orthodox economics. Australian Journal of Political Science, 30 (2), 264-287. doi: 10.1080/00323269508402336
Bell, Stephen (1995). The politics of economic adjustment: explaining the transformation of industry-state relationships in Australia. Political Studies, 43 (1), 22-47. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1995.tb01698.x
Bell, Stephen and Warhurst, John (1993). Business political activism and government relations in large companies in Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 28 (2), 201-220. doi: 10.1080/00323269308402237
Bell, Stephen (1992). Policy responses to manufacturing decline: the limits of state economic intervention, 1974-83. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38 (1), 41-61. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8497.1992.tb01207.x
Bell, Stephen (1991). Unequal partner: trade unions and industry policy under the Hawke government. Labour and Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 4 (1), 119-137. doi: 10.1080/10301763.1991.10669103
Bell, Stephen (1991). The travails of industry policy in Australia. The Australian Quarterly, 63 (1), 24-35. doi: 10.2307/20635612
Conference Papers
Bell, Stephen Ross (2004). ‘Appropriate’ Policy Knowledge, and Institutional and Governance Implications. Richmond, Victoria: Blackwell. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8500.2004.00356.x
Bell, S. R. (2000). Unemployment, inequality and the political economy of redistribution. Conference to Mark Founding of CofFEE, Newcastle, NSW, 3-4 December 1998. Sydney: Industrial Relations Research Centre, University of NSW.
Working Paper
Bell, Stephen and Quiggin, John (2004). Asset Price Instability and Policy Responses: The Legacy of Liberalisation. Australian Public Policy Program Working Papers. WPP04_3. School of Political Science & International Studies and School of Economics.
Preprint
Research Reports
Western, M. C., Laffan, W. S., Prangnell, J. M., Bell, S. R., Pettitt, J. and Arts, D.A.G. (2005). Final Combined Report Pre-Feasibility Comparison of the Central Queensland Regional Water Supply Study Options. The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus: The University of Queensland Social Research Centre.
Bell, S. and Quiggin, J. C. (2005). Unemployment, labour market insecurity and policy options, Australian Public Policy Program Working Paper PO5-2, Risk and Sustainable Management Group. Australia: The University of Queensland.