Summary Spring 2007

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