Summary Spring 2017

This issue of the Summary opens with a policy brief that examines the move by Brazil’s Temer administration to impose a radical, two-decades-long public spending freeze aimed at boosting business confidence and investment, and explains why this fiscal strategy is flawed.

Working papers included in this issue investigate the long-run determinants of government bond yields in India; expansionary austerity theory; the Federal Reserve’s announced policy of “normalization”; money’s role in the modern economy; the effects of the Great Recession on the well-being of different racial groups in the United States; why abstractions are necessary for understanding complex economic and social realities; and the economic impacts of expanding the social care sector in Turkey. The issue closes with a policy brief that argues that the current unemployment rate provides an inaccurate picture of the health of the labor market, and that the common narrative attributing shrinking labor force engagement to aging demographics is overstated.

INSTITUTE RESEARCH

Program: The State of the US and World Economies

• FERNANDO J. CARDIM DE CARVALHO, Brazil Still in Troubled Waters

Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure

• TANWEER AKRAM and ANUPAM DAS, The Long-run Determinants of Indian Government Bond Yields
• ALBERTO BOTTA, The Short- and Long-run Inconsistency of the Expansionary Austerity Theory: A Post-Keynesian/Evolutionist Critique
• JAN KREGEL, Financial Stability and Secure Currency in a Modern Context
• FLAVIA DANTAS, Normalizing the Fed Funds Rate: The Fed’s Unjustified Rationale

Program: Distribution of Income and Wealth

• THOMAS MASTERSON, AJIT ZACHARIAS, FERNANDO RIOS-AVILA, and EDWARD N. WOLFF, The Great Recession and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Measures of Economic Well-Being
• MICHALIS NIKIFOROS, Distribution-led Growth through Methodological Lenses

Program: Gender Equality and the Economy

• KIJONG KIM, İPEK İLKKARACAN, and TOLGA KAYA, Investing in Social Care Infrastructure and Employment Generation: A Distributional Analysis of the Care Economy in Turkey

Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets

• FLAVIA DANTAS and L. RANDALL WRAY, Full Employment: Are We There Yet?

INSTITUTE NEWS

Upcoming Events

• 26th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference
• The Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar

Recent Levy Institute Publications