Research Programs
The independent and nonpartisan research conducted at the Levy Institute maintains a focus on issues central to achieving society’s goals in an environment of changing domestic and global challenges. Research projects combine critical policy and research questions with the specific interests of research staff.
The work of the Levy Institute is organized into eight primary research programs. Within each program, a variety of study areas are explored:
The State of the US and World Economies
The central focus in this program area is the use of Levy Institute macroeconomic models in generating strategic analyses of the US and world economies. The outcomes of alternative scenarios are projected and analyzed, with the results—published as Strategic Analysis reports—serving to help policymakers understand the implications of various policy options.
Research Group
Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
This program explores the structure of markets and institutions operating in the financial sector. Research builds on the work of the late Distinguished Scholar Hyman P. Minsky—notably, his financial instability hypothesis—and explores the institutional, regulatory, and market arrangements that contribute to financial instability. Research also examines policies—such as changes to the regulatory structure and the development of new types of institutions—necessary to contain instability.
Research Group
The Distribution of Income and Wealth
The persistent inequalities within nations and across nations raise several key issues that demand scholarship and innovative policies to aid in their resolution. Recognizing this, the Levy Institute has maintained, since its inception, an active research program on the distribution of earnings, income, and wealth. Research in this area includes studies on the economic well-being of the elderly, public and private pensions, well-being over the life course, the role of assets in economic well-being, and the determinants of the accumulation of wealth.
Research Group
Associated Programs:
The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW)
The LIMEW is informed by the view that three key institutions—the market, state, and household—mediate the access of the members of the household to the goods and services produced in a modern market economy. The magnitude of the access that can be exercised by the household is approximated by a well-being measure that reflects the resources that the household can command for facilitating current consumption or acquiring physical or financial assets.Research Group
Gender Equality and the Economy
The Levy Institute's Gender Equality and the Economy (GEE) program focuses on the ways in which economic processes and policies affect gender equality, and examines the influence of gender inequalities on economic outcomes. GEE’s goal is to stimulate reexamination of key economic concepts, models, and indicators—with a particular view to reformulating policy.
Research Group
Employment Policy and Labor Markets
This research area encompasses the Institute’s proposed full-employment, or job opportunity, program, as well as research into the effects of technology on earnings and trends in productivity; policies to promote full employment; and the effects of an increase in the minimum wage on hiring practices and earnings.
Research Group
Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure
This program is led by Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann, who guides a research initiative, “Ethnicity and Economy in America—Past and Present,” that focuses on the processes by which immigrants and their descendants are assimilated into US economic life. The Levy Institute believes that this work will shed light on current policy issues related to immigration, such as international competitiveness, the labor market, income distribution, and poverty.
Research Group
Economic Policy for the 21st Century
This program includes research on those macroeconomic policy areas most closely associated with public sector activities: monetary policy and financial institutions, federal budget policy, and the labor market.
Research Group
Associated Programs:
Federal Budget Policy
This portion of the program deals with Social Security and Medicaid issues, as well as analysis of specific budgetary issues such as tax-cut proposals and evaluation of the causes and effects of federal budget surpluses.Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis
Work in this area constitutes research by Levy Institute scholars that does not fall within a current program or general topic area. Such study might include an examination of a subject of particular policy interest, empirical research that has grown out of work in a current program area, or initial research in an area being considered for a new research program.Equality of Educational Opportunity in the 21st Century
The Project on Equality of Educational Opportunity in the 21st Century will serve as an umbrella for a variety of projects at the interface of demography, schooling, and labor markets, including “Assessments of the Bard Prison Initiative,” the “Seminar on Youth Education and Employment,” and “Social Science and Social Policy since Coleman.”
Research Group
News and Events
Conference
21st Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference: Debt, Deficits, and Financial Instability.Ford Foundation,
New York City April 11–12, 2012
Conference
The Wynne Godley Memorial Conference.Blithewood,
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY May 25–26, 2011
Conference
20th Annual Minsky Conference: Financial Reform and the Real Economy.Ford Foundation,
New York City April 13–15, 2011
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