Summary Spring 2016
This issue includes two strategic analyses: one for the United States and one for Greece. The first reports that the US recovery continues to be hampered by structural weaknesses—rising income inequality, weak demand for US exports, and fiscal conservatism—while external risks include sluggish growth in US trading partners, dollar appreciation, and asset price declines. Turning to Greece, the medium-term outlook under the current policy regime continues to be bleak, and while efforts to spur investment could provide a measure of growth, these will not produce the levels of growth and employment needed to put the country on a sustainable path. The authors argue for a complementary currency (the Geuro) to fund a job creation program while honoring Greece’s commitments. A related policy note investigates Switzerland’s successful use of a complementary currency, emphasizing its countercyclical role in stabilizing the economy and supporting demand.
The Summaryalso includes new research on trends associated with economic stagnation and economic inequality in the United States, the current upheaval in the Brazilian economy, and the impacts of austerity on the redistribution of income in Europe. Other publications address the factors driving low central bank interest rates globally, the emergence of financial Dutch disease in Colombia, and arguments supporting functional finance as a pragmatic alternative to mainstream policy prescriptions. Gender equality issues are explored in an analysis of the conditions in Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Western CIS, and in a second paper examining methods to measure gender inequality. Prospective changes to the US Census’s collection of information on race, ancestry, and ethnicity are discussed in a policy note. The issue closes with a new paper on the application of graph theory to stock-flow consistent modeling.
INSTITUTE RESEARCH
Program: The State of the US and World Economies
Strategic Analysis
- DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, MICHALIS NIKIFOROS, and GENNARO ZEZZA, Destabilizing an Unstable Economy
- DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, MICHALIS NIKIFOROS, and GENNARO ZEZZA, How Long Before Growth and Employment Are Restored in Greece?
- DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, Complementary Currencies and Economic Stability
- JORDAN BRENNAN, Rising Corporate Concentration, Declining Trade Union Power, and the Growing Income Gap: American Prosperity in Historical Perspective FERNANDO J. CARDIM DE CARVALHO, Looking Into the Abyss? Brazil at the Mid-2010s
- MARKUS P. A. SCHNEIDER, STEPHEN KINSELLA, and ANTOINE GODIN, Redistribution in the Age of Austerity: Evidence from Europe, 2006–13
Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
- TANWEER AKRAM, The Malady of Low Global Interest Rates
- ALBERTO BOTTA, ANTOINE GODIN, AND MARCO MISSAGLIA, Finance, Foreign Direct Investment, and Dutch Disease: The Case of Colombia
- GIUSEPPE MASTROMATTEO and LORENZO ESPOSITO, The Two Approaches to Money: Debt, Central Banks, and Functional Finance
Program: Gender Equality and the Economy
- BHAVYA AGGARWAL and LEKHA S. CHAKRABORTY, The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and Measuring Gender Inequality: A Technical Articulation for Asia-Pacific
- TAMAR KHITARISHVILI, Gender Dimensions of Inequality in the Countries of Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Western CIS
Program: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure
- JOEL PERLMANN and PATRICK NEVADA, The US Census Asks About Race and Ethnicity: 1980–2020
Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century
Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis
- MIGUEL CARRIÓN ÂLVAREZ and DIRK EHNTS, The Roads Not Taken: Graph Theory and Macroeconomic Regimes in Stock-flow Consistent Modeling
INSTITUTE NEWS
Workshop
- Gender and Macroeconomics: Current State of Research and Future Directions
Upcoming Events
- 25th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference
- The Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
- Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
- Recent Levy Institute Publications