The Circulation of Gross Value Added as a Conceptual and Instrumental Basis of Productivism

Proposals of the 47th President of the United States, D.J. Trump, to introduce unprecedented import duties in trade with other countries and the need for global corporations to return their production to the country contradict the neoliberal “Washington Consensus” that has been preached in recent decades and has shaped the architecture of modern international trade and the global economy as a whole. However, the reaction to them from the political and economic establishment, not only in the United States but also in other countries, turned out to be quite restrained. The world has been surprised to discover that views on how the economy works have changed significantly, and scientists are actively searching for an appropriate political economic paradigm. For this role in 2022, Harvard University professor Dani Rodrik proposed the not widely known concept of productivism, with a succinct explanation of its content through the policy of providing “good jobs.” The catchy name was not supported by a coherent theory. In fact, a number of countries, most notably China, are already implementing such a strategy, which has radically changed the structure of international trade and led to increased tension in international relations. This paradigm of economic policy has de facto taken place and will determine in the coming decades, if not the ideology, then at least the external conditions for the development of any economy, without exception. President Trump and D. Rodrik, each in his own way, is only belatedly reflecting on the challenges that have arisen on the part of developed countries, as a result of which a new doctrine is literally institutionalized before our eyes. The article offers the author’s view on these ideas with a change of perspective to basic economic categories, which allows one to understand the conceptual basis, master the tools of analysis, and learn to properly formulate the goals and objectives of the new economic doctrine.