In a new Public Policy Brief, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel reviews Hyman P. Minsky’s concept of financial fragility, and concludes that the current financial crisis is the result of insufficient margins, or "cushions," of safety based on how creditworthiness is assessed in the new originate-and-distribute financial system.

Contents:

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• Minsky’s Cushions of Safety: Systemic Risk and the Crisis in the US Subprime Mortgage Market

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Public Employment and Women: The Impact of Argentina’s Jefes Program on Female Heads of Poor Households
• Nurkse and the Role of Finance in Development Economics
• Earnings Functions and the Measurement of the Determinants of Wage Dispersion: Extending Oaxaca’s Approach
• Lessons from the Subprime Meltdown
• The Natural Instability of Financial Markets
• Promotion Nationale: Forty-Five Years of Experience of Public Works in Morocco
• Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters
• American Jewish Opinion about the Future of the West Bank: A Reanalysis of American Jewish Committee Surveys
• Financing Job Guarantee Schemes by Oil Revenue: The Case of Iran
• Financial Flows and International Imbalances—The Role of Catching Up by Late-industrializing Developing Countries

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• Upcoming Event: 17th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 17–18, 2008

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 18, No. 2 PDF (215.89 KB)

This issue highlights a series of working papers under the Monetary Policy and Financial Structure program that analyze the current instability within the financial industry in the United States. In each case, the author calls for policy and political reform in order to prevent "it" (the Great Depression) from happening again.

Contents:

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure

• L. RANDALL WRAY, Lessons from the Subprime Meltdown
• JAN KREGEL, The Natural Instability of Financial Markets
• THOMAS I. PALLEY, Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters
• JAN KREGEL, Financial Flows and International Imbalances—The Role of Catching Up by Late-industrializing Developing Countries
• JAN KREGEL, Minsky’s Cushions of Safety: Systemic Risk and the Crisis in the US Subprime Mortgage Market

Program: The Distribution of Income and Wealth

• JOSEPH DEUTSCH and JACQUES SILBER, Earnings Functions and the Measurement of the Determinants of Wage Dispersion: Extending Oaxaca’s Approach

Program: Gender Equality and the Economy

• PAVLINA R. TCHERNEVA and L. RANDALL WRAY, Public Employment and Women: The Impact of Argentina’s Jefes Program on Female Heads of Poor Households

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• JAN KREGEL, Nurkse and the Role of Finance in Development Economics
• HIND JALAL, Promotion Nationale: Forty-Five Years of Experience of PublicWorks in Morocco
• ZAHRA KARIMI, Financing Job Guarantee Schemes by Oil Revenue: The Case of Iran

Program: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure

• JOEL PERLMANN, American Jewish Opinion about the Future of the West Bank: A Reanalysis of American Jewish Committee Surveys

INSTITUTE NEWS

• Upcoming Event: 17th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 17–18

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 17, No. 2 PDF (343.58 KB)

In this brief, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel reviews Hyman P. Minsky’s concept of financial fragility—in short, that the structure of a capitalist economy becomes more fragile over a period of prosperity—and concludes that the current crisis is in fact the result of insufficient margins of safety based on how creditworthiness is assessed in the new “originate and distribute” financial system.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 93A, 2008 PDF ()

A new Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team reviews the domestic economy and where things might be headed. It argues that a significant drop in borrowing is likely to take place in the coming quarters unless the dollar is allowed to continue its fall and thus complete the recovery in the external imbalance, and fiscal policy shifts its course—as it did in the 2001 recession.

Contents:

NEW STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

• The US Economy: Is There a Way Out of the Woods?

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEFS

• Globalization and the Changing Trade Debate: Suggestions for a New Agenda
• The US Credit Crunch of 2007: A Minsky Moment

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Endogenous Money: Structuralist and Horizontalist
• Inequality of Life Chances and the Measurement of Social Immobility
• The Continuing Legacy of John Maynard Keynes
• Minsky’s Approach to Employment Policy and Poverty: Employer of Last Resort and the War on Poverty
• The Right to a Job, the Right Types of Projects: Employment Guarantee Policies from a Gender Perspective
• What Are the Relative Macroeconomic Merits and Environmental Impacts of Direct Job Creation and Basic Income Guarantees?
• Fiscal Deficit, Capital Formation, and Crowding Out in India: Evidence from an Asymmetric VAR Model

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• Workshop: International Comparisons of Well-Being

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 18, No. 1 PDF (139.10 KB)

In their latest Strategic Analysis, Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley, Research Scholars Greg Hannsgen and Gennaro Zezza, and President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou forecast a significant drop in borrowing and private expenditure in the coming quarters, with severe consequences for growth and unemployment—unless the dollar continues to fall and fiscal policy shifts its course.

 

Contents:

 

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies

• Strategic Analysis
  WYNNE GODLEY, DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, GREG HANNSGEN, and GENNARO ZEZZA, The US Economy: Is There a Way Out of the Woods?

Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure

• L. RANDALL WRAY, A Post-Keynesian View of Central Bank Independence, Policy Targets, and the Rules-versus-Discretion Debate
• JAMES K. GALBRAITH, OLIVIER GIOVANNONI, and ANN J. RUSSO, The Fed’s Real Reaction Function: Monetary Policy, Inflation, Unemployment, Inequality—and Presidential Politics
• L. RANDALL WRAY, Endogenous Money: Structuralist and Horizontalist
• CHARLES J. WHALEN, The US Credit Crunch of 2007: A Minsky Moment

Program: The Distribution of Income and Wealth

• JACQUES SILBER and AMEDEO SPADARO, Inequality of Life Chances and the Measurement of Social Immobility

Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being

• WORKSHOP: International Comparisons of Economic Well-Being

Program: Gender Equality and the Economy

• RANIA ANTONOPOULOS, The Right to a Job, the Right Types of Projects: Employment Guarantee Policies from a Gender Perspective

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• JOSEPH DEUTSCH, YVES FLÜCKIGER, and JACQUES SILBER, On Various Ways of Measuring Unemployment, with Applications to Switzerland
• L. RANDALL WRAY, Minsky’s Approach to Employment Policy and Poverty: Employer of Last Resort and the War on Poverty
• PAVLINA R. TCHERNEVA, What Are the Relative Macroeconomic Merits and Environmental Impacts of Direct Job Creation and Basic Income Guarantees?

Program: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure

• JOEL PERLMANN, Who’s a Jew in an Era of High Intermarriage? Surveys, Operational Definitions, and the Contemporary American Context
• JOEL PERLMANN, The American Jewish Committee’s Annual Opinion Surveys: An Assessment of Sample Quality

Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century

• THOMAS I. PALLEY, Globalization and the Changing Trade Debate: Suggestions for a New Agenda
• LEKHA S. CHAKRABORTY, Fiscal Deficit, Capital Formation, and Crowding Out in India: Evidence from an Asymmetric VAR Model

Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis

• L. RANDALL WRAY, The Continuing Legacy of John Maynard Keynes

INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Research Scholar
• New Levy Institute Book

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars

Download Volume 17, No. 1 PDF (226.95 KB)

It is now clear that most economists underestimated the widening economic impact of the credit crunch that has shaken American financial markets since at least mid-July. A credit crunch is an economic condition in which loans and investment capital are difficult to obtain; in such a period, banks and other lenders become wary of issuing loans, so the price of borrowing rises, often to the point where deals simply do not get done. Financial economist Hyman P. Minsky (1919–1996) was the foremost expert on such crunches, and his ideas remain relevant to understanding the current situation.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 92A, 2007 PDF (160.12 KB)

The optimistic view of the subprime mortgage sector is that it makes the availability of credit for home purchases more egalitarian, extending it to those otherwise regarded as a high credit risk. The authors of a new Levy Institute Public Policiy Brief, however, are not as sanguine about such developments.

Contents:

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• Cracks in the Foundations of Growth: What Will the Housing Debacle Mean for the US Economy?

CONFERENCE

• Economists for Peace and Security: War and Poverty, Peace and Prosperity

WORKSHOP

• Future National Survey of American Jews

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze
• A Simplified “Benchmark” Stock-flow Consistent (SFC) Post-Keynesian Growth Model
• Female Land Rights, Crop Specialization, and Productivity in Paraguayan Agriculture
• Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India: Spatial Dimensions and Fiscal Implications
• The Effects of a Declining Housing Market on the US Economy
• Who’s a Jew in an Era of High Intermarriage? Surveys, Operational Definitions, and the Contemporary American Context
• The American Jewish Committee’s Annual Opinion Surveys: An Assessment of Sample Quality
• On Various Ways of Measuring Unemployment, with Applications to Switzerland
• A Post-Keynesian View of Central Bank Independence, Policy Targets, and the Rules-versus-Discretion Debate
• The Fed’s Real Reaction Function: Monetary Policy, Inflation, Unemployment, Inequality—and Presidential Politics

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Research Scholar
• Upcoming Event
• Workshop: International Comparisons of EconomicWell-Being

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars

Download Volume 17, No. 4 PDF (684.09 KB)

The failure of the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in July 2006 was the first major collapse of a multilateral trade round since World War II. Research Associate Thomas Palley sees the failure as an event that could mark the close of a 60-year era of trade policy largely centered on increasing market access and reducing tariffs, quotas, and subsidies. Doha’s demise represents an opportunity to challenge the intellectual dominance of the current WTO paradigm, to expose the failings of the neoliberal model of economic development, and to reposition the global trade debate.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 91A, 2007 PDF (160.22 KB)

The Fall issue leads off with the 16th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, in which top policymakers, economists, and analysts explored the impact of global imbalances and whether or not the United States economy was headed for a hard or a soft landing.

 

Contents:

 

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies

• THE 16TH ANNUAL HYMAN P. MINSKY CONFERENCE
  Global Imbalances: Prospects for the US and World Economies
• WYNNE GODLEY and MARC LAVOIE, Fiscal Policy in a Stock-flow Consistent (SFC) Model
• DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, GREG HANNSGEN, and GENNARO ZEZZA, The Effects of a Declining Housing Market on the US Economy

  Strategic Analysis

• WYNNE GODLEY, DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, and GENNARO ZEZZA, The US Economy: What’s Next?

Program: The Distribution of Income and Wealth

• DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, Economic Perspectives on Aging
• EDWARD N. WOLFF, Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze

  Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being

• EDWARD N. WOLFF, AJIT ZACHARIAS, and HYUNSUB KUM, How Well Off Are America’s Elderly? A New Perspective

Program: Gender Equality and the Economy

• WORKSHOP: From Unpaid Work to Employment Guarantee Policy: A Social Accounting Matrix Exercise
• RANIA ANTONOPOULOS and FRANCISCO COS-MONTIEL, State, Difference, and Diversity: Toward a Path of Expanded Democracy and Gender Equality
• MARCELO MEDEIROS, RAFAEL GUERREIRO OS�RIO, and JOANA COSTA, Gender Inequalities in Allocating Time to Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from Bolivia
• MELISSA MAHONEY and AJIT ZACHARIAS, Gender Disparities in Employment and Aggregate Profitability in the United States
• THOMAS MASTERSON, Female Land Rights, Crop Specialization, and Productivity in Paraguayan Agriculture
• FADHEL KABOUB, Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences
• FADHEL KABOUB, ELR-led Economic Development: A Plan for Tunisia
• PINAKI CHAKRABORTY, Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India: Spatial Dimensions and Fiscal Implications

Program: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure

• JOEL PERLMANN, Surveying American Jews and Their Views on Middle East Politics: The Current Situation and a Proposal for a New Approach
• JOEL PERLMANN, Two National Surveys of American Jews, 2000–01: A Comparison of the NJPS and AJIS Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century

Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis

• GREG HANNSGEN, Are the Costs of the Business Cycle “Trivially Small”? Lucas’s Calculus of Hardship and Chooser-dependent, Non–Expected Utility Preferences
• CLAUDIO H. DOS SANTOS and GENNARO ZEZZA, A Simplified “Benchmark” Stock-flow Consistent (SFC) Post-Keynesian Growth Model

INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Board Member
• New Research Associates
• Event: Economists for Peace and Security Conference

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 16, No. 3 PDF (406.35 KB)

In April, scholars, policymakers, and financial analysts gathered at the Levy Institute’s headquarters in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, to explore themes from the work of the late Levy Institute economist Hyman Minsky. A summary of their discussions appears in this issue of the Report.

Contents:

CONFERENCE

• 16th Annual Hyman P.Minsky Conference on the State of the US and World Economies
  Global Imbalances: Prospects for the US and World Economies

NEW STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

• The US Economy: What’s Next?

NEW LEVY INSTITUTE MEASURE OF ECONOMIC WELL-BEING REPORT

• How Well Off Are America’s Elderly? A New Perspective

WORKSHOP

• From Unpaid Work to Employment Guarantee Policy: A Social Accounting Matrix Exercise

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Are the Costs of the Business Cycle “Trivially Small”? Lucas’s Calculus of Hardship and Chooser-dependent, Non–Expected Utility Preferences
• State, Difference, and Diversity: Toward a Path of Expanded Democracy and Gender Equality
• Fiscal Policy in a Stock-Flow Consistent (SFC) Model
• Gender Inequalities in Allocating Time to Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from Bolivia
• Gender Disparities in Employment and Aggregate Profitability in the United States
• Surveying American Jews and Their Views on Middle East Politics: The Current Situation and a Proposal for a New Approach
• Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences
• ELR-led Economic Development: A Plan for Tunisia
• Economic Perspectives on Aging
• Two National Surveys of American Jews, 2000–01: A Comparison of the NJPS and AJIS

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Board Member
• New Appointments
• Candidates Sought
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 17, No. 3 PDF (388.14 KB)

With economic growth having cooled to less than 1 percent in the first quarter of 2007, the economy can ill afford a slump in consumption by the American household. But it now appears that the household sector could finally give in to the pressures of rising gasoline prices, a weakening home market, and a large debt burden.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 90A, 2007 PDF (324.52 KB)

In this issue: a new Policy Note recommends reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax while retaining some tax cuts in order to reduce the growing tax burden on middle-class families. A related paper criticizes orthodox policymaking that calls for fiscally austere budgets when the real engine of economic growth is government spending.

Contents:

 

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies

• DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU and L. RANDALL WRAY, The April AMT Shock: Tax Reform Advice for the New Majority
• JÖRG BIBOW, Global Imbalances, Bretton Woods II, and Euroland’s Role in All This
• L. RANDALL WRAY, Demand Constraints and Big Government

Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure

• THOMAS I. PALLEY, The Economics of Outsourcing: How Should Policy Respond?
• ALFONSO PALACIO-VERA, On Lower-bound Traps: A Framework for the Analysis of Monetary Policy in the “Age” of Central Banks
• ÉRIC TYMOIGNE, An Inquiry into the Nature of Money: An Alternative to the Functional Approach
• ÉRIC TYMOIGNE, Fisher’s Theory of Interest Rates and the Notion of “Real”: A Critique
• GIOVANNI COZZI and JAN TOPOROWSKI, The Balance Sheet Approach to Financial Crises in Emerging Markets
• CLAUDIO SARDONI and L. RANDALL WRAY, Fixed and Flexible Exchange Rates and Currency Sovereignty

Program: The Distribution of Income and Wealth

• AXEL BÖRSCH-SUPAN, European Welfare States and Their Generosity toward the Elderly
• LI GAN, GUAN GONG, and MICHAEL HURD, Net Intergenerational Transfers from and Increase in Social Security Benefits
• EDWARD N. WOLFF and AJIT ZACHARIAS, Class Structure and Economic Inequality

Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being

• EDWARD N. WOLFF and AJIT ZACHARIAS, Wealth and Economic Inequality: Who’s at the Top of the Economic Ladder?

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• JAMES B. REBITZER and LOWELL J. TAYLOR, When Knowledge Is an Asset: Explaining the Organizational Structure of Large Law Firms

Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century

• THEODORE PELAGIDIS and TAUN N. TOAY, Expensive Living: The Greek Experience under the Euro
• THOMAS MASTERSON, Productivity, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size in Paraguayan Agriculture
• THOMAS MASTERSON, Land Rental and Sales Markets in Paraguay

Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis

• JAN TOPOROWSKI, Methodology and Microeconomics in the Early Work of Hyman P.Minsky

INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Senior Scholars
• New Research Scholar
• New Editor
• Upcoming Event: 16th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 19–20

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 16, No. 2 PDF (636.24 KB)

The 2007 Hyman P. Minsky Conference drew upon public discussions on the state of the United States and world economies in the context of prevailing economic trends and their implications. Topics included fiscal and monetary policies for continued growth and employment; currency markets fluctuations and the consequent exchange-rate misalignments, as well as possible cures; and the US households and trade deficits, their implications for growth and employment, and their effect on the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy. The United States’ role in the global marketplace was examined in view of the current international economic landscape.

 

The conference was held April 19–20, 2007, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood, on the campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

 

The 2007 Hyman P. Minsky Conference focused on monetary and fiscal policies for continued growth and employment; currency markets fluctuations and the consequent exchange-rate misalignments, as well as possible cures; and the United States’ households and trade deficits, their implications for growth and employment, and their effect on the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy. The US role in the global marketplace was examined in view of the current international economic landscape.

 

The conference was held April 19–20, 2007, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood on the campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Download Conference Proceedings, April 19–20, 2007 PDF (3.89 MB)

Who’s really at the top of the economic ladder? A new Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being report by Senior Scholars Edward N. Wolff and Ajit Zacharias examines how comparisons of economic well-being are affected by the inclusion of an accurate measure of well-being derived from wealth.

Contents:

NEW LEVY INSTITUTE MEASURE OF ECONOMIC WELL-BEING REPORT

• Wealth and Economic Inequality: Who’s at the Top of the
  Economic Ladder?

NEW POLICY NOTE

• The April AMT Shock: Tax Reform Advice for the New Majority

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEFS

• Maastricht 2042 and the Fate of Europe: Toward Convergence and
  Full Employment
• US Household Deficit Spending: A Rendezvous with Reality
• The Economics of Outsourcing: How Should Policy Respond?

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Methodology and Microeconomics in the Early Work of Hyman P. Minsky
• An Inquiry into the Nature of Money: An Alternative to the Functional
  Approach
• Net Intergenerational Transfers from an Increase in Social Security
  Benefits
• Fisher’s Theory of Interest Rates and the Notion of “Real”:
  A Critique
• Expensive Living: The Greek Experience under the Euro
• The Balance Sheet Approach to Financial Crises in Emerging Markets
• Global Imbalances, Bretton Woods II, and Euroland’s Role
  in All This
• Class Structure and Economic Inequality
• Demand Constraints and Big Government
• Fixed and Flexible Exchange Rates and Currency Sovereignty
• Productivity, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size in Paraguayan
  Agriculture
• Land Rental and Sales Markets in Paraguay

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Senior Scholars
• New Research Scholar
• New Editor

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars

Download Volume 17, No. 2 PDF (637.07 KB)

Many believe that the value of the dollar will eventually collapse, succumbing to pressure from the deficit in the current account. A new Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute Macro-modeling Team finds that further devaluation is inevitable, but they emphasize its beneficial effects.

Contents:

NEW STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

• Can Global Imbalances Continue? Policies for the US Economy

CONFERENCE

• Employment Guarantee Policies: Theory and Practice

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• Rethinking Trade and Trade Policy: Gomory, Baumol, and Samuelson on Comparative Advantage

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Capital Stock and Unemployment: Searching for the Missing Link
• The “New Consensus” View of Monetary Policy: A New Wicksellian Connection?
• When Knowledge Is an Asset: Explaining the Organizational Structure of Large Law Firms
• On Lower-bound Traps: A Framework for the Analysis of Monetary Policy in the “Age” of Central Banks
• European Welfare State Regimes and Their Generosity toward the Elderly

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Research Associates
• Levy Institute Awarded Grant from UNDP
• New Levy Institute Book

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 17, No. 1 PDF (993.66 KB)

According to Research Associate Thomas I. Palley, global outsourcing represents a new economic challenge that calls for a new set of institutions. Palley expands upon the problems of offshore outsourcing as outlined in Public Policy Brief No. 86 and focuses on the microeconomic foundations. He argues that outsourcing is a central element of globalization that is best understood as a new form of competition. Palley urges policymakers to understand the economic basis of outsourcing in order to develop effective policies, and suggests that they focus on enhancing national competitiveness and establishing new rules that govern the nature of global competition.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 89A, 2007 PDF (290.64 KB)

The Winter Summary provides an overview of the Institute’s October conference on employment guarantee policies, which focused on government policy initiatives that can create a safety net through public service employment for individuals who are ready, willing, and able to work. Also in this issue: a new Strategic Analysis and Public Policy Brief address the consequences of the current imbalances in the American economy.

 

Contents:

 

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies, and Strategic Analysis

• DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, GENNARO ZEZZA, and GREG HANNSGEN, Can Global Imbalances Continue? Policies for the US Economy
• ROBERT W. PARENTEAU, US Household Deficit Spending: A Rendezvous with Reality Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
• L. RANDALL WRAY, Banking, Finance, and Money: A Socioeconomics Approach
• JÖRG BIBOW, How the Maastricht Regime Fosters Divergence as Well as Fragility
• THOMAS I. PALLEY, Rethinking Trade and Trade Policy: Gomory, Baumol, and Samuelson on Comparative Advantage
• GIUSEPPE FONTANA, The “New Consensus” View of Monetary Policy: A New Wicksellian Connection?

Program: Distribution of Income and Wealth, and the LIMEW

• APRIL 2006 CONFERENCE, Government Spending on the Elderly, Working Papers

Program: Gender Equality and the Economy

• CAREN A. GROWN, Quick Impact Initiatives for Gender Equality: A Menu of Options
• CAREN A. GROWN, CHANDRIKA BAHADUR, JESSIE HANDBURY, and DIANE ELSON, The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• CONFERENCE, Employment Guarantee Policies: Theory and Practice
• JAMES K. GALBRAITH, Maastricht 2042 and the Fate of Europe: Toward Convergence and Full Employment
• ALFONSO PALACIO-VERA, ANA ROSA MARTÍNEZ-CAÑETE, ELENA MÁRQUEZ DE LA CRUZ, and INÉS PÉREZ-SOBA AGUILAR, Capital Stock and Unemployment: Searching for the Missing Link

Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis

• KORKUT A. ERTÜRK, On the Minskyan Business Cycle

INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Research Associates
• New Levy Institute Book
• Levy Institute Awarded Grant from UNDP

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 16, No. 1 PDF (530.90 KB)

Unemployment in the European Union (EU) is a serious problem that threatens to disrupt the integration of accession countries, the character of individual countries, and the continued existence of the EU. European integration poses a huge conundrum for European employment because the conventional theory explaining unemployment in Europe—labor market rigidities—is wrong. According to Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith, the application of this policy will not cure European unemployment, but it could destroy the economic promise of the EU for its poorer regions and the accession countries.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 87A, 2006 PDF (373.74 KB)

Over the past decade, deficit spending by consumers has supported the United States economy. Research Associate Robert Parenteau analyzes the financial balance of American households and finds that the pace of deficit spending is likely to stall and, possibly, reverse course. This reversion will jeopardize US profit and economic growth, as well as the growth of countries dependent on export-led development strategies. His research supports the position of other Levy Institute scholars who have urged policymakers to recognize the consequences of current imbalances in the US economy.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 88A, 2006 PDF (334.71 KB)

Most people are not accustomed to thinking of taxation as a gender issue. But research presented at the recent Levy Institute conference on gender equality, tax policies, and tax reform, summarized in this issue, show that taxes affect men and women quite differently.

Contents:

CONFERENCE

• Gender Equality, Tax Policies, and Tax Reform in Comparative Perspective

NEW POLICY NOTES

• The Burden of Aging: Much Ado About Nothing, or Little to Do About Something?

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• The Fallacy of the Revised Bretton Woods Hypothesis: Why Today’s International Financial System Is Unsustainable

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Extending Minsky’s Classifications of Fragility to Government and the Open Economy
• Time and Money: Substitutes in Real Terms and Complements in Satisfactions
• The Minskyan System, Part I: Properties of the Minskyan Analysis and How to Theorize and Model a Monetary Production Economy
• The Minskyan System, Part II: Dynamics of the Minskyan Analysis and the Financial Fragility Hypothesis
• How Does Household Production Affect Earnings Inequality? Evidence from the American Time Use Survey
• The Minskyan System, Part III: System Dynamics Modeling of a Stock Flow–Consistent Minskyan Model
• Asset Prices, Financial Fragility, and Central Banking 14 Why Central Banks (and Money) "Rule the Roost"
• Dissent and Discipline in Ben Gurion’s Labor Party: 1930–32 15 Banking, Finance, and Money: A Socioeconomics Approach
• How the Maastricht Regime Fosters Divergence as Well as Fragility
• Wage Growth and the Measurement of Social Security’s Financial Condition
• Quick Impact Initiatives for Gender Equality: A Menu of Options
• Working for a Good Retirement
• Differing Prospects for Women and Men: Young Old-Age, Old Old-Age, and Elder Care
• The Local Geographic Origins of Russian-Jewish Immigrants, Circa 1900
• Net Government Expenditures and the Economic Well-Being of the Elderly in the United States, 1989–2001
• The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
• Global Demographic Trends and Provisioning for the Future 19 The Changing Role of Employer Pensions: Tax Expenditures, Costs, and Implications for Middle-Class Elderly
• Retiree Health Benefit Coverage and Retirement
• Population Forecasts, Fiscal Policy, and Risk
• The Adequacy of Retirement Resources among the Soon-to-Retire, 1983–2001
• The American Jewish Periphery: An Overview
• On the Minskyan Business Cycle

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• New Grants
• Upcoming Symposium: Employment Guarantee Policies: Theory and Practice
• New Levy Institute Book
• Publications and Presentations
• Recent Levy Institute Publications

Download Volume 16, No. 4 PDF (495.78 KB)

The focus of this conference is on government policy initiatives that can create a safety net through public service employment for individuals who are ready, willing, and able to work but find themselves in an economic environment that does not offer employment opportunities.

Our premise is that unemployment and involuntary "inactivity" are structural macroeconomic problems of both developed and developing economies. The negative effects of unemployment reach beyond the immediate economic losses to individuals and their families and to the potential growth of the economy. Joblessness is often accompanied by poor health and psychological problems, depreciation of human capital, social exclusion, and overall lack of motivation for future work.

Protracted periods of unemployment lead to multidimensional poverty, deterioration of communities, erosion of decent job conditions, and intolerance along racial and gender divides. There appears a connection, then, between the right to work and the role of government in guaranteeing employment, and this ought to be part of the public policy dialogue

In this conference academics and policy analysts present research findings and exchange views on:

• Past and current country-level experiences of employment guarantee programs
• Public service employment and price stability
• Public job creation programs that can substitute for unpaid work disproportionately carried out by women and children
• Feasibility of implementing public service employment programs
• Improving the design and effectiveness of existing programs
• Designing tools useful for policy and impact analysis including time-use surveys and economic modeling
• The effects of public service employment in promoting gender equality and pro poor growth

Access to employment is important for all countries in that it can be a contributing factor in ameliorating poverty and social exclusion and in promoting economic development. For other countries, achieving the Millennium Development Goals provides a timely opportunity to assess the impact that employment guarantee schemes have had thus far, and analyze their potential impact for the future.

Download Conference Proceedings Friday, October 13–14, 2006 PDF (253.70 KB)

The Levy Institute draws inspiration and guidance not only from its founders and scholars but from a world facing many new and daunting challenges. Our efforts to redefine economics and public policy continue to attract notice and exert influence, nationally and internationally. As we begin our 20th year, we can look back on the Institute’s accomplishments in 2004 and 2005. The Institute continued to provide leadership in its long-standing core programs, in addition to launching a number of new initiatives that will shape its agenda for years to come.

Download Biennial Report, 2004–2005 PDF (1.81 MB)

This conference focused on those government policy initiatives that can create a safety net through public service employment for individuals who are ready, willing, and able to work but who find themselves in an economic environment that does not offer job opportunities.

 

Unemployment and involuntary “inactivity” are structural macroeconomic problems of both developed and developing economies. The negative effects of unemployment reach beyond the immediate economic losses to individuals and their families. The effects extend to the potential growth of the economy. Protracted periods of unemployment lead to multidimensional poverty, deterioration of communities, erosion of decent job conditions, and intolerance along racial and gender divides. There appears a connection, then, between the right to work and the role of government in guaranteeing employment. This connection ought to be part of the public policy dialogue.

 

The conference was held October 13–14, 2006, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood on the campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. The International Working Group on Gender, Macroeconomics, and International Economics (GEM-IWG), a global knowledge-sharing and capacity-building network, generously provided support for the conference by securing the participation and contributions of several GEM-IWG members.