Scotland’s Economics Festival
Being held in venues across Leith in March, Scotland's Economics Festival is a unique, public-facing celebration of economic thinking – designed to challenge, inform, and inspire.
About Scotland’s Economics Festival
| 19th Mar 2026 to 21st Mar 2026 | |
| See event website for details | |
| Leith | |
| See event website for details | |
| Event organiser/part of Scotlands Economics Festival | |
| Visit the event website here | |
| Facebook information can be found here |
The festival brings together leading economists, commentators, campaigners, and curious citizens to explore BIG economic ideas.
Bringing Big Economic Ideas To Scotland at three venues in Leith, 19 – 21 March 2026.
If you believe Scotland needs BIG ideas, not just small tweaks, join us in Leith across three days for over twenty talks on future-shaping conversations.
In a time of economic uncertainty and growing inequality, Scotland’s Economics Festival offers a space to step back, ask BIG questions, and hear BIG IDEAS from fresh perspectives.
Supported by a wide range of progressive organisations, the festival is rooted in the belief that the economy should serve people, place, and planet.
We welcome anyone with an interest in community, economics, ecology, politics, or society. Whether you’re frustrated by the status quo, confused by economic jargon, or simply curious about how things could be different – this festival is for you.
Where possible we will update our listings to notify of cancelled, postponed and rescheduled events, however we STRONGLY ADVISE that you check with the venue/organiser in the first instance for updates.
All information (whether in text or photographs) is supplied in good faith but should not be relied upon as being a statement of representation or fact.GOT AN EVENT TO SHARE? It's free to post your events on What's On Edinburgh, click here to find out more!
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Other Events at Various Venues or Scotlands Economics Festival
The Politics of Austerity: How Cuts, Control, and ‘Sound Economics’ Shape Our Lives
This session asks us to see austerity for what it really is: not belt-tightening, but a deliberate restructuring of the economy — one that too often paves the way for authoritarian politics.
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Historical Economic Injustice - Why And How The Past Repeats Itself, And How To Break The Cycle
Delve deeply into the historical origins of how patterns of resource extraction and economic exclusion were ingrained in Scotland's development and discover why they continue to shape our present.
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Economic Myth Busters: Taking Down the Top Ten Myths Holding Back Progress
Expect ten myth-busting moments, covering everything from inflation panic to public debt fearmongering, explained in plain language, with plenty of humour and audience interaction.
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The Cowboy Economist: Riding Through the Wild Frontier of Economic Thought
Expect sharp analysis, straight talk, and a lively conversation about what economics could look like if we let more voices into the room.
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Adam Smith, the man, his morals, and some myths
Dr Gordon Povey FRSA will present some of this work to uncover the real Adam Smith, what he stood for, and how relevant he is.
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Sho Ga Nai - It Is What It Is: The Modern Economic History of Japan
Drawing on his new book A Modern Economic History of Japan: Sho Ga Nai – It Is What It Is, Jones explores how Japan’s unique blend of culture, policy, and determination shaped its economic path.
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Land - Where Ecology and the Economy Collide
This conversation brings together the festival’s recurring themes of power, inequality, and historical injustice and what it means to embed ecology within the economy rather than the other way round
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Sharing Our Wealth: What does the public think about wealth inequality and wealth taxation in Scotland?
Join WEAll Scotland for the launch of our latest research on public attitudes to wealth inequality and wealth taxation in Scotland.
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Economists vs Comedians: Who Are The Real Jokers?
Expect quickfire exchanges, surprising insights, and plenty of laughs as jokes turn into jumping-off points for bigger conversations about how the economy really works.
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Fiscal Rules OK? The Straitjacket of Austerity
Behind every headline about “fiscal headroom” and “black holes in the public finances” lies a story about power — and how economic rules are used to restrict democratic choices.
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Trump’s America and the Crisis: Beyond capitalism to economic democracy
Join us as part of Scotland's Economics Festival to discuss the economic future of America!
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In Conversation with Luke Kemp - Author of Goliath’s Curse
The session will ask whether the world is witnessing the slow unravelling of an old order or the emergence of a new one — and what that means for countries like Scotland.
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Owning Our Future: Community Wealth and Economic Democracy
Participants will leave with a clear understanding of why ownership matters, what structural transformation looks like, and how they can be part of creating an economy that serves people and planet.
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MMT - The Job Guarantee
Political Economist William Thomson and UCL PhD candidate Patricia Pino will explore one of the most transformative — and practical — ideas in economics today: a government Job Guarantee.
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Constraining Corporate Power
The discussion will unpack how ideology and regulatory capture have enabled this rise in power and, most importantly, focus on what can be done to rebalance the system.
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War, Profit, and the Machinery of Capitalism
Drawing connections from the post-Depression arms expansions to today’s devastation in Gaza, this session examines the enduring relationship between capitalism and the military-industrial complex.
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Platform Power and Edinburgh’s Gig Economy
Join the Scottish Left Review and the Workers' Observatory to discuss these frontiers of platformisation and resistance!
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