L. Randall Wray

L. Randall Wray is a Professor of Economics at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and Emeritus Professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is one of the developers of Modern Money Theory and his newest book on the topic is Understanding Modern Money Theory: Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies (Elgar).

Recent books include: A Great Leap Forward: Heterodox Economic Policy for the 21st Century; Academic Press; 2020; Making Money Work for Us (Polity, November 2022), a companion illustrated guide, Money For Beginners (Polity, May 2023, with Levy Institute graduate Heske Van Doornen), and the third edition of Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems (Springer, 2024).

He is also the author of Why Minsky Matters (Princeton, 2015).

Along with co-authors he is preparing a new edition of the textbook Macroeconomics; Authors: William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray, Martin Watts; Red Globe Press, Macmillan International; February 2019; and is preparing a Principles version of the textbook Principles of Macroeconomics.

He is the editor (or co-editor) of many books, including most recently: Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers, edited by L. Randall Wray, Phil Armstrong, Sara Holland, Claire Jackson-Prior, Prue Plumridge, Neil Wilson, Edward Elgar, 2023; and Handbook of Economic Stagnation (with Flavia Dantas), Academic Press, Elsevier, 2022.

Forthcoming books include The Vision of Hyman Minsky, Princeton University Press (forthcoming 2026); Why Democrats Lose And How A Progressive Vision Can Win, with Pavlina R. Tcherneva (in progress).

He is the 2022 Veblen-Commons Award winner for lifetime contributions to Institutionalist Thought. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Italy (twice) and to Estonia, and a visiting professor at the Universities of Paris, Bologna, Bergamo, Rome, UNAM in Mexico City, UNICAMP in Brazil, Tallinn University in Estonia, Nankai University, China, and a visiting professor on a continuing basis at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He was the Distinguished Visiting Professor, Willamette University, Oregon 2022-23.

He was the recipient of two large grants:

• Institute for New Economic Thinking Final Report; Project Title: Financing Innovation: An Application of a Keynes-Schumpeter-Minsky Synthesis, Co-Principal Investigators: Mariana Mazzucato (SPRU) and L. Randall Wray (LEVY), January 2015.
• Ford Foundation Grant: A Four Year Research and Policy Dialogue Project on Improving Governance of the Government Safety Net in Financial Crisis, Principal Investigator, 2010-2014. Administered by UMKC with a subgrant administered by the Levy Economics Institute: 4 Research Project Reports, Reforming the Fed’s Policy Response in the Era of Shadow Banking. Results were presented at the National Press Club in Washington DC in April 2015

And several smaller grants:

• Asian Development Bank Small Grant, December 2012-March 2013: Options for China in a Dollar Standard World, Principal Investigator.
• Contract with International Labour Organization to produce working paper on “Employer of last resort”, spring 2007.
• Worked with Ministry of Labor, Government of Bolivia, to prepare a funded research project to study implementation of Employer of Last Resort program.
• Contract with City of Istanbul, Turkey, to study unemployment problem and formulate job creation program, 2003-2004.
• Contract with the Council for Promoting American Business to produce a report, “The adverse economic impact from repeal of the prevailing wage law in Missouri”, approximately $86,000, January 2004. Results have been written-up in Ingram’s Magazine and Cockshaw’s Construction Labor News+Opinion, and in The Kansas City Star. Reports have also been presented before the Missouri State Legislature, before many labor union and business meetings, and at the Association for Institutionalist Thought annual meetings, April 2004.
• Academic Specialist Grant to Lecture in Mexico City, United States Information Agency, May 15-31, 1993.

Associated Research Programs

• Economic Policy for the 21st Century
• Employment Policy and Labor Markets
• Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
• The State of the US and World Economies