Publications

In-progress research by Levy Institute scholars as well as outside contributors

1167 publications found, searching for 'Working Paper '

• Working Paper No. 1122
  July 08, 2026

  Plutonomy—the AI Edition—and the Coming Crisis

  Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper examines the rise of the plutonomy—an economy dominated by the new plutocrats—and compares it with the Gilded Age of the 1920s. We show how John Kenneth Galbraith’s analysis…more

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• Working Paper No. 1121
  July 02, 2026

  How an Energy Transition Underlay the Great Depression

  Christopher Kennedy
  Abstract

  This paper explains the mechanisms by which a major energy transition produced the US Great Depression. Stock market indices show the 1927–29 Wall Street Bubble was led by petroleum-based technologies—especially…more

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• Working Paper No. 1120
  June 30, 2026

  Technology Gap and Endogenous Conflict

  Xiyan Gong
  Abstract

  This paper investigates the endogenous mechanism by which decentralized technological imitation in Southern countries transitions from catch-up to competitive conflict with the North. Integrating intermediate goods variety into a North-South…more

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• Working Paper No. 1119
  June 29, 2026

  Keynes, Minsky, and Me

  William H. Janeway
  Abstract

  This paper is based on keynote remarks delivered at the Levy Institute Anniversary Conference, May 8th, 2026.

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• Working Paper No. 1118
  June 22, 2026

  The Role of Production Networks in Price Stability

  Samuel Stockman
  Abstract

  Between the pandemic and the war in Iran, inflation has become a central issue facing the US economy that is compounding a broader affordability crisis. However, the sector-specific nature of…more

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• Working Paper No. 1117
  June 08, 2026

  Money Manager Capitalism and the Growth and Spread of Ponzi Finance, Private Market Version

  Éric Tymoigne
  Abstract

  Read the Policy Note by Tymoigne on this topic here. Private debt and equity markets have been a funding source for nascent and credit constrained businesses for several decades. Following…more

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• Working Paper No. 1116
  May 14, 2026

  Decent Work in the West Bank: Assessing Youth and Women’s Employment Under Fragility and Conflict

  Fadi Daraghmeh and Sameh Hallaq
  Abstract

  This study examines the state of decent work in the West Bank, focusing on the intersection of labor market conditions, gender disparities, and the fragility of legal enforcement. Using a…more

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• Working Paper No. 1115
  May 14, 2026

  Paying a High Premium: How Climate Change Is Crippling Homeowner’s Insurance and Fueling a Housing Crisis

  Alla Semenova
  Abstract

  This paper examines the growing impacts of climate change in the US homeowner’s insurance industry. As climate change–driven weather extremes and natural disasters have accelerated in their frequency and severity,…more

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• Working Paper No. 1114
  May 13, 2026

  Macroeconomic Fragility Effects of Financial Innovation: Behavioral and Decentralized Finance and Artificial Intelligence

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou
  Abstract

  There seems to be a building consensus of global uncertainty and instability. This can be observed not only from surveys, the media, and country reports, but in the recent speeches…more

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• Working Paper No. 1113
  May 12, 2026

  Corporate Finance in the Theory of Innovative Enterprise

  William H. Lazonick
  Abstract

  In my research on innovative enterprise and sustainable prosperity, I use the “theory of innovative enterprise” to examine how modes of corporate finance—founder investments, private placements, initial public offerings, retained…more

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• Working Paper No. 1112
  April 23, 2026

  After the Wreckage: The Job Guarantee as a New Labor Standard

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  The job guarantee (JG) has long been theorized as a cyclical stabilizer, a buffer stock of publicly employed workers that expands in downturns and contracts in booms. That framing was…more

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• Working Paper No. 1111
  April 07, 2026

  Money in Shadow Banking and the Crypto Economy: A Chartalist Perspective

  Hongkil Kim and Éric Tymoigne
  Abstract

  As instructors of Money and Banking, we regularly confront enduring questions: What is money? Is gold money? More recently, students ask whether shadow money, Bitcoin, or stablecoins qualify as money….more

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• Working Paper No. 1110
  March 30, 2026

  Speculation or Fundamentals? European Natural Gas Price Swings Post 2020

  Emanuele Citera and Veronika Dolar
  Abstract

  We investigate the role of speculation in the European natural gas market over the period 2020–2024, a period marked by extreme price volatility driven by the energy crisis following Russia’s…more

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• Working Paper No. 1109
  March 30, 2026

  The Evolution of Income Inequality in the United States, Its Consequences, and Some Policy Measures

  Tanweer Akram and Khawaja Mamun
  Abstract

  This paper discusses the key concepts and main stylized facts concerning household real income and income inequality in the United States in recent decades. It explains the widely used summary…more

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• Working Paper No. 1108
  March 05, 2026

  Monetary Policy Transmission to Consumption: Inequalities by Gender and Race

  Aina Puig
  Abstract

  This paper estimates the causal effects of monetary policy shocks on household consumption, with additional analysis of labor market and income responses, disaggregated by gender and race. I find that…more

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• Working Paper No. 1107
  February 20, 2026

  Artificial Intelligence: Friend, Foe, Fraud

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The over-hyped Dot.com revolution bubbled and crashed at the end of the 1990s, leaving a largely unused physical and virtual infrastructure that eventually supported the rise of social media that…more

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• Working Paper No. 1106
  February 19, 2026

  Monetary Policy, Deposit Funding Shocks, and Bank Credit Supply: Bank-Level IV Evidence

  Chenning Xu
  Abstract

  This paper examines how monetary tightening transmits to bank credit supply through deposit funding conditions during the 2022–23 cycle. Using a quarterly panel of more than 3,800 US commercial banks,…more

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• Working Paper No. 1105
  January 22, 2026

  OPENSIMPLEST: The Smallest SFC Open Economy Model

  Francesco Zezza
  Abstract

  This article introduces OPENSIMPLEST, a highly parsimonious stock-flow consistent (SFC) model of an open economy. The model is designed as a pedagogical and analytical benchmark that preserves the core mechanisms…more

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• Working Paper No. 1104
  January 20, 2026

  Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty: United States, 2007–2022

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

  In this paper, we present the empirical methodology used to estimate the Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty (LIMTIP) for the United States over the period 2007–2022. We…more

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• Working Paper No. 1103
  January 08, 2026

  Legal Tender, Debt, and the Institutional Settlement of Monetary Obligations in English Law

  Neil Wilson, Richard Tye, and Andrew Berkeley
  Abstract

  This paper challenges the widespread public and institutional misconception that legal tender laws in English law compel creditors to accept payment in a specific form. We argue that legal tender…more

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• Working Paper No. 1102
  December 12, 2025

  No More than Double: Can a Single Rule Tame Capitalism?

  Lorenzo Esposito and Giuseppe Mastromatteo
  Abstract

  Capitalism’s defining feature—profit maximization without limits—drives instability, inequality, and environmental degradation. Traditional policies such as taxation and regulation have failed to curb this dynamic because they do not alter firms’…more

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• Working Paper No. 1101
  November 18, 2025

  Currencies Come and Go, but Employment Always Takes Root

  Esteban Cruz-Hidalgo, Stuart Medina-Miltimore, and Agustín Mario
  Abstract

  This paper explores a development strategy for peripheral economies by advocating for a paradigm shift from traditional economic models that rely on accumulating foreign reserves. It proposes the job guarantee…more

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• Working Paper No. 1100
  November 05, 2025

  The Death of the Social Contract and the Enshittification of Jobs

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  This paper employs the concept of “enshittification”—the systematic degradation of a service or product in the pursuit of profit—as a powerful metaphor to analyze the decay of the US labor…more

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• Working Paper No. 1099
  October 22, 2025

  A Stock-Flow Consistent Model of Emulation, Debt, and Personal Income Inequality

  Francesco Ruggeri, Riccardo Pariboni, and Giuliano Toshiro Yajima
  Abstract

  Read the associated blog post here. Divergent trends in income and consumption inequality—with the first increasing substantially more than the latter—are an established, stylized fact for the US economy in…more

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