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Short articles designed to reach policymakers as well as business and general audiences

174 publications found, searching for 'Policy Notes '

• Policy Notes No. 2 May 16, 2019

  Global Imbalances and the Trade War

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Against the background of an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel analyzes the potential for achieving international adjustment without producing a negative impact on national and global growth. Once the structure of trade in the current international system is understood (with its global production chains and large imbalances […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 April 16, 2019

  A Proposal to Create a European Safe Asset

  Paolo Savona
  Abstract

  While a consensus has formed that the eurozone’s economic governance mechanisms must be reformed, and some progress has been made on this front, what has been agreed to so far falls short of what is needed to address the central imbalances caused by the eurozone setup, according to Paolo Savona. The key elements that are […]

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• Policy Notes No. 5 November 29, 2018

  Preventing the Last Crisis

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Ten years after the fall of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the US financial system, most commentaries remain overly focused on the proximate causes of the last crisis and the regulations put in place to prevent a repetition. According to Director of Research Jan Kregel, there is a broader set of lessons, which can […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 May 31, 2018

  Wage Employment and the Prospects of Women’s Economic Empowerment

  Ajit Zacharias, and Thomas Masterson
  Abstract

  In this policy note, Thomas Masterson and Ajit Zacharias address the nexus between wage employment, consumption poverty, and time deficits in the context of Ghana and Tanzania. Based on a recently completed research project supported by the Hewlett Foundation, the authors apply the Levy Institute Measure of Time and Consumption Poverty (LIMTCP) to estimate whether […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 May 01, 2018

  A Consensus Strategy for a Universal Job Guarantee Program

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The idea of a universal job guarantee (JG) policy for the United States has become the subject of renewed public debate due to a number of high-profile political endorsements. L. Randall Wray recently coauthored a report that presented a JG proposal—the Public Service Employment program—along with estimates of the economic impact of the plan. However, […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 March 19, 2018

  Guaranteed Jobs through a Public Service Employment Program

  Stephanie A. Kelton, L. Randall Wray, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Scott Fullwiler, and Flavia Dantas
  Abstract

  Amid a recent upsurge in support for a national job guarantee program, L. Randall Wray, Stephanie A. Kelton, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Scott Fullwiler, and Flavia Dantas outline a new proposal for a federally funded program with decentralized administration. Their Public Service Employment (PSE) program would offer a job—paying a uniform living wage with a basic […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 February 06, 2018

  Does the United States Face Another Minsky Moment?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  It is beginning to look a lot like déjà vu in the United States. According to Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, the combination of overvalued stocks, overleveraged banks, an undersupervised financial system, high indebtedness across sectors, and growing inequality together should remind one of the conditions of 1929 and 2007. Comparing the situations of the […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 November 09, 2017

  How Time Deficits and Hidden Poverty Undermine the Sustainable Development Goals

  Ajit Zacharias
  Abstract

  The predominant framework for measuring poverty rests on an implicit assumption that everyone has enough time available to devote to household production or enough resources to compensate for deficits in household production by purchasing market substitutes. Senior Scholar Ajit Zacharias argues that this implicit bias in our official poverty statistics threatens to undermine the Sustainable […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 July 21, 2017

  Why the Compulsive Shift to Single Payer?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The growing political momentum for a universal single-payer healthcare program in the United States is due in part to Republican attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). However, according to Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, it is Obamacare’s successes and its failures that have boosted support for a single-payer system. Even after […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 July 07, 2017

  The Concert of Interests in the Age of Trump

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  If the Trump administration is to fulfill its campaign promises to this age’s “forgotten” men and women, Director of Research Jan Kregel argues, it should embrace the broader lesson of the 1930s: that government regulation and fiscal policy are crucial in addressing changes in the economic and financial structure that have exacerbated the problems faced […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 April 06, 2017

  Inequality Update: Who Gains When Income Grows?

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  Since the 1980s, economic recoveries in the United States have been delivering the vast majority of income growth to the wealthiest households. This policy note updates the analysis in One-Pager No. 47 and Policy Note 2015/4 with the latest data through 2015, looking at the distribution of average income growth (with and without capital gains) […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 August 04, 2016

  The Impact of Immigration on the Native-born Unemployed

  Fernando Rios-Avila, and Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza
  Abstract

  In this policy note, Research Scholar Fernando Rios-Avila and Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, Universidad EAFIT, observe that immigration in the United States has a small but statistically significant impact on the labor market behavior of native-born unemployed workers. Their chances of transitioning from unemployment to employment are not affected by the share of immigrants in their job […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 April 04, 2016

  The Narrow Path for Brazil

  Abstract

  Brazil is mired in a joint economic and political crisis, and the way out is unclear. In 2015 the country experienced a steep contraction of output alongside elevated inflation, all while the fallout from a series of corruption scandals left the policymaking apparatus paralyzed. Looking ahead, implementing a policy strategy that has any hope of […]

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• Policy Notes No. 8 December 17, 2015

  The US Census Asks About Race and Ethnicity: 1980–2020

  Joel Perlmann, and Patrick Nevada
  Abstract

  This policy note examines the formulation and reformulation of questions deployed by the US Census Bureau to gather information on racial and ethnic origin in recent decades. The likely outcome for the 2020 Census is that two older questions on race and Hispanic origin will be combined into a single question on ethno-racial origin. The […]

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• Policy Notes No. 7 November 04, 2015

  Losing Ground

  Fernando Rios-Avila
  Abstract

  US labor force participation has continued to fall in the wake of the Great Recession. Improvements in the US unemployment rate reflect the fact that more people are falling out of the labor force, not a stronger labor market. Controlling for changes in the demographic makeup of the workforce (i.e., gender, age, education, and race), […]

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• Policy Notes No. 5 August 05, 2015

  The BRICS Initiatives in the Current Global Conjuncture

  Sunanda Sen
  Abstract

  Developing countries, led by China and other BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa), have been successfully organizing alternative sources of credit flows, aiming for financial stability, growth, and development. With their goals of avoiding International Monetary Fund loan conditionality and the dominance of the US dollar in global finance, these new BRICS-led institutions […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 March 30, 2015

  Όταν αυτό που είναι καλό για έναν δεν είναι καλό για όλους μας

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  Στη μεταπολεμική περίοδο, κάθε μεταγενέστερη οικονομική επέκταση συνοδεύθηκε από το φαινόμενο ενός όλο και μικρότερου ποσοστού της αύξησης του εισοδήματος να καταλήγει στο 90% των χαμηλότερων εισοδηματικών στρωμάτων.Ακόμη χειρότερα, κατά τη διάρκεια της τελευταίας επέκτασης, ενώ η οικονομία αναπτύχθηκε και το μέσο πραγματικό εισόδημα ανέκαμψε από τα επίπεδα του 2008, το σύνολο της αύξησης του […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 March 30, 2015

  When a Rising Tide Sinks Most Boats

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  In the postwar period, with every subsequent expansion, a smaller and smaller share of the gains in income growth have gone to the bottom 90 percent of families. Worse, in the latest expansion, while the economy has grown and average real income has recovered from its 2008 lows, all of the growth has gone to […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 March 04, 2015

  Μια δεκαετία πτωτικής τάσης των μισθών

  Fernando Rios-Avila
  Abstract

  Σε ένα πρόσφατο κείμενο πολιτικής («A Decade of Flat Wages?») εξετάσαμε την εξέλιξη των μισθών από το 1994 και βρήκαμε ότι ενώ οι μισθοί αυξήθηκαν μεταξύ 1994 και 2002, ο μέσος πραγματικός μισθός από το 2002-03 είτε παρέμεινε στάσιμος είτε μειώθηκε. Η παρούσα μελέτη παρέχει μια πιο λεπτομερή ανάλυση της τάσης των μισθών, επικεντρώνοντας την […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 March 04, 2015

  A Decade of Declining Wages

  Fernando Rios-Avila
  Abstract

  In a recent policy note (A Decade of Flat Wages?) we examined wage trends since 1994, and found that while wages grew between 1994 and 2002, average real wages stagnated or declined after 2002–03. Our latest study provides a more detailed analysis of wage trends for wage-level, age, and education groups, with emphasis on the […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 February 12, 2015

  Europe at the Crossroads

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Given the continuing divergence between progress in the monetary field and political integration in the euro area, the German interest in imposing austerity may be seen as representing an attempt to achieve, de facto, accelerated progress toward political union; progress that has long been regarded by Germany as a precondition for the success of monetary […]

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• Policy Notes No. 1 February 12, 2015

  Η Ευρώπη στο σταυροδρόμι

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Με δεδομένη τη συνεχιζόμενη απόκλιση ανάμεσα στην πρόοδο στον τομέα της νομισματικής και της πολιτικής ολοκλήρωσης στη ζώνη του ευρώ, το ενδιαφέρον της Γερμανίας σχετικά με την επιβολή της λιτότητας μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ότι αντιπροσωπεύει μια προσπάθεια για την επιτάχυνση της προόδου προς την πολιτική ένωση, η πρόοδος της οποίας θεωρείται από τη Γερμανία ως […]

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• Policy Notes No. 6 December 05, 2014

  Γιατί η αύξηση των επιτοκίων μπορεί να επιταχύνει την ανάκαμψη

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Υπάρχουν δύο ειδών επικρίσεις στην «αντισυμβατική» απάντηση της νομισματικής πολιτικής του Ομοσπονδιακού Αποθεματικού (Fed) των ΗΠΑ στην πρόσφατη χρηματοπιστωτική και οικονομική κρίση (Great Recession). Από τη μια μεριά υποστηρίζεται ότι ο τριπλασιασμός του μεγέθους του ισολογισμού της Fed θα προκαλέσει άνοδο του πληθωρισμού εξαιτίας του ότι η μαζική αύξηση των πλεοναζόντων αποθεματικών θα δαπανηθεί σε […]

  Download Σημείωμα Πολιτικής 2014/6 PDF (379.21 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 6 December 05, 2014

  Why Raising Rates May Speed the Recovery

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Criticisms of the Federal Reserve’s “unconventional” monetary policy response to the Great Recession have been of two types. On the one hand, the tripling in the size of the Fed’s balance sheet has led to forecasts of rampant inflation in the belief that the massive increase in excess reserves might be spent on goods and […]

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