Publications

Examinations of the policy aspects of contemporary economic issues

169 publications found, searching for 'Public Policy Brief '

• Public Policy Brief No. 158 March 04, 2025

  That “Vision Thing”: Formulating a Winning Policy Agenda

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  For a PDF version of this Public Policy Brief, please click here. There are many ways to lose a presidential election, and pundits have come up with a long list: President Biden hung on too long; voters still weren’t ready for a female of color—too many are racist and sexist; too many leftists supported third […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 158 PDF (2.33 MB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 157 April 12, 2022

  Is It Time for Rate Hikes?

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  Roughly two years into the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the topic of elevated inflation dominates the economic policy discourse in the United States. And the aggressive use of fiscal policy to support demand and incomes has commonly been singled out as the culprit. Equally as prevalent is the clamor for the Federal Reserve […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 157 PDF (638.88 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 156 December 08, 2021

  Still Flying Blind after All These Years

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray contend that the prevailing approach to monetary policy and inflation is influenced by a set of concepts that are a poor guide to action. In this policy brief, they examine two previous cases in which the Federal Reserve misread the data and raised rates […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 156 PDF (1,013.14 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 155 June 30, 2021

  Can Biden Build Back Better?

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  President Biden’s proposals for investing in social and physical infrastructure signal a return to a budget-neutral policymaking framework that has largely been set aside since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. According Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray, this focus on ensuring revenues keep pace with spending increases can undermine the goals internal to both […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 155 PDF (984.38 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 154 February 01, 2021

  Another Bretton Woods Reform Moment

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  This policy brief explores a route to remaking the international financial system that would avoid the contradictions inherent in some of the prevailing reform proposals currently under discussion. Senior Scholar Jan Kregel argues that the willingness of central banks to consider electronic currency provides an opening to reconsider a truly innovative reform of the international […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 154, 2021 PDF (247.14 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 153 September 04, 2020

  Multidimensional Inequality and COVID-19 in Brazil

  Laura Carvalho, Luiza Nassif Pires, and Eduardo Rawet
  Abstract

  After spending over 6 percent of GDP responding to the COVID-19 crisis, Brazil has suffered among the worst per capita numbers in the world in terms of cases and deaths. In this policy brief, Luiza Nassif-Pires, Laura Carvalho, and Eduardo Rawet explore how stark inequalities along racial, regional, and class lines can help account for […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 153, 2020 PDF (970.64 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 152 August 10, 2020

  Moral Hazard in a Modern Federation

  Alex Williams
  Abstract

  The mainstream fiscal federalism literature has led to an instinctive belief that states receiving fiscal aid during a recession are taking advantage of the federal government in pursuit of localized benefits with dispersed costs. This policy brief by Alex Williams challenges this unreflective argument and, in response, offers a novel framework for understanding the relationship […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 152, 2020 PDF (206.35 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 151 June 16, 2020

  Crisis, Austerity, and Fiscal Expenditure in Greece

  Michalis Nikiforos
  Abstract

  This policy brief provides a discussion of the relationships between austerity, Greece’s macroeconomic performance, debt sustainability, and the provision of healthcare and other social services over the last decade. It explains that austerity was imposed in the name of debt sustainability. However, there was a vicious cycle of recession and austerity: each round of austerity […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 151, 2020 PDF (841.90 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 150 June 03, 2020

  The Impact of Technological Innovations on Money and Financial Markets

  Jan Kregel, and Paolo Savona
  Abstract

  According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel and Paolo Savona, attempting to maintain the status quo in the face of the introduction of some recent technological innovations—chiefly cryptocurrencies and associated instruments based on distributed ledger technology, the deployment of artificial intelligence, and the use of data science in financial markets—will create risks that increase instability and […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 150, 2020 PDF (339.66 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 149 April 14, 2020

  Pandemic of Inequality

  Thomas Masterson, Michalis Nikiforos, Fernando Rios-Avila, Luiza Nassif Pires, and Laura de Lima Xavier
  Abstract

  The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic—in terms of both the health risks and economic burdens—will be borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable segments of US society. In this public policy brief, Luiza Nassif-Pires, Laura de Lima Xavier, Thomas Masterson, Michalis Nikiforos, and Fernando Rios-Avila demonstrate that the COVID-19 crisis is likely to widen already-worrisome levels […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 149, 2020 PDF (539.32 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 148 January 31, 2020

  Can We Afford the Green New Deal?

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  In this policy brief, Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argue that assessing the “affordability” of the Green New Deal is a question of whether there are suitable and sufficient real resources than can be mobilized to implement this ambitious approach to climate policy. Only after a careful resource accounting can we address […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 148, 2020 PDF (234.15 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 147 March 18, 2019

  Globalization, Nationalism, and Clearing Systems

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  As global market integration collides with growing demands for national political sovereignty, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel contrasts two diametrically opposed approaches to managing the tensions between international financial coordination and national autonomy. The first, a road not taken, is John Maynard Keynes’s proposal to reform the postwar international financial system. The second is the approach taken […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 147, 2019 PDF (292.21 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 146 August 16, 2018

  Stagnating Economic Well-Being and Unrelenting Inequality

  Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, and Fernando Rios-Avila
  Abstract

  Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, and Fernando Rios-Avila update the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW) for US households for the period 2000–13. The LIMEW—which comprises base income, income from wealth, net government expenditures, and the value of household production—is aimed at achieving a more comprehensive understanding of trends in living standards. This policy brief […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 146, 2018 PDF (1.07 MB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 145 June 08, 2018

  European Sovereign Bond-Backed Securities

  Mario Tonveronachi
  Abstract

  In response to a proposal put forward by the European Commission for the regulation of sovereign bond-backed securities (SBBSs), Mario Tonveronachi provides his analysis of the SBBS scheme and attendant regulatory proposal, and elaborates on an alternative approach to addressing the problems that have motivated this high-level consideration of an SBBS framework. As this policy […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 145, 2018 PDF (236.81 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 144 September 08, 2017

  A Two-Tier Eurozone or a Euro of Regions?

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  In light of the problems besetting the eurozone, this policy brief examines the contributions of John Maynard Keynes and Richard Kahn to early debates over the design of the postwar international financial system. Their critical engagement with the early policy challenges associated with managing international settlements offers a perspective from which to analyze the flaws […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 144, 2017 PDF (165.35 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 143 February 07, 2017

  Brazil Still in Troubled Waters

  Abstract

  Since inheriting the Brazilian presidency five months ago, the new Temer administration has successfully ratified a constitutional amendment imposing a radical, two-decades-long public spending freeze, purportedly aimed at sparking an increase in business confidence and investment. In this policy brief, Fernando Cardim de Carvalho explains why this fiscal strategy is based not only on a […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 143, 2017 PDF (340.91 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 142 February 03, 2017

  Full Employment: Are We There Yet?

  L. Randall Wray, and Flavia Dantas
  Abstract

  Flavia Dantas and L. Randall Wray argue that the emerging conventional wisdom—that the US economy has reached full employment—is flawed. The unemployment rate is not providing an accurate picture of the health of the labor market, and the common narrative attributing shrinking labor force engagement to aging demographics is overstated. Instead, falling prime-age participation rates […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 142, 2017 PDF (1.39 MB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 141 March 25, 2016

  What We Could Have Learned from the New Deal in Confronting the Recent Global Recession

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  To the extent that policymakers have learned anything at all from the Great Depression and the policy responses of the 1930s, the lessons appear to have been the wrong ones. In this public policy brief, Director of Research Jan Kregel explains why there is still a great deal we have to learn from the New […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 141, 2016 PDF (313.69 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 140 November 18, 2015

  The ECB, the Single Financial Market, and a Revision of the Euro Area Fiscal Rules

  Mario Tonveronachi
  Abstract

  Mario Tonveronachi, University of Siena, builds on his earlier proposal (The ECB and the Single European Financial Market) to advance financial market integration in Europe through the creation of a single benchmark yield curve based on debt certificates (DCs) issued by the European Central Bank (ECB). In this policy brief, Tonveronachi discusses potential changes to […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 140, 2015 PDF (381.64 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 139 February 11, 2015

  Emerging Market Economies and the Reform of the International Financial Architecture

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Emerging market economies are taking an ill-targeted and far too limited approach to addressing their ongoing problems with the international financial system, according to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel. In this policy brief, he explains why only a wholesale reform of the international financial architecture can adequately address these countries’ concerns. As a blueprint for reform, […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 139, 2015 PDF (202.84 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 137 September 15, 2014

  The ECB and the Single European Financial Market

  Mario Tonveronachi
  Abstract

  The flaws of the Maastrict Treaty are a frequent object of commentary but, as yet, Europe remains unable—or, perhaps more accurately, unwilling—to address these flaws. The European project will remain unfinished and the ability of the European Central Bank to implement effective monetary policies will continue to be hobbled. As Mario Tonveronachi observes in this […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 137, 2014 PDF (244.67 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 137 September 15, 2014

  Η ΕΚΤ και η ενιαία ευρωπαϊκή χρηματοπιστωτική αγορά

  Mario Tonveronachi
  Abstract

  Οι ατέλειες της Συνθήκης του Maastrict είναι συχνά αντικείμενο σχολιασμού, ωστόσο, όμως, η Ευρώπη παραμένει ανίκανη ή μάλλον απρόθυμη να αντιμετωπίσει αυτές τις αδυναμίες. Το ευρωπαϊκό σχέδιο θα παραμείνει ημιτελές και η ικανότητα της Ευρωπαϊκής Κεντρικής Τράπεζας να εφαρμόζει αποτελεσματικές νομισματικές πολιτικές θα συνεχίσει να αντιμετωπίζει προβλήματα. Όπως παρατηρεί σε αυτό το κείμενο πολιτικής ο […]

  Download Κείμενο (Brief) Δημόσιας Πολιτικής Νο. 137 PDF (645.09 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 136 August 28, 2014

  Can Child-care Subsidies Reduce Poverty?

  Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, and Kijong Kim
  Abstract

  In partnership with the Korea Employment Information Service, Senior Scholar Ajit Zacharias and Research Scholars Thomas Masterson and Kijong Kim investigate the complex issues of gender, changing labor market conditions, and the public provisioning of child care in Korea using the Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty (LIMTIP), an alternative measure that factors […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 136, 2014 PDF (706.36 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 135 August 12, 2014

  Το σχέδιο για ένα ευρω-υπουργείο Οικονομικών

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  Σε αντίθεση με τoν πρόσφατο ισχυρισμό της γερμανίδας καγκελαρίου Άνγκελα Μέρκελ, η ευρω-κρίση δεν έχει σχεδόν τελειώσει, αλλά παραμένει άλυτη, αφήνοντας την ευρωζώνη εξαιρετικά ευάλωτη σε ανανεωμένες πιέσεις. Στην πραγματικότητα, καθώς οι συμφωνηθέντες μεταρρυθμίσεις έχουν αποτύχει μέχρι στιγμής να μετατρέψουν τον ελαττωματικό και δυσλειτουργικό σχεδιασμό του ευρώ σε ένα βιώσιμο καθεστώς, η σημερινή ηρεμία στις […]

  Download Κείμενο (Brief) Δημόσιας Πολιτικής Νο. 135 PDF (522.71 KB)