Publications

1696 publications found

• Working Paper No. 847 October 16, 2015

  Integration, Spurious Convergence, and Financial Fragility

  Matías Vernengo, and Esteban Pérez-Caldentey
  Abstract

  The Spanish crisis is generally portrayed as resulting from excessive spending by households, associated with a housing bubble and/or excessive welfare spending beyond the economic possibilities of the country. We put forward a different hypothesis. We argue that the Spanish crisis resulted, in the main, from a widening deficit position in the nonfinancial corporate sector—the […]

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• Working Paper No. 846 October 09, 2015

  Secular Stagnation or Stagnation Policy?

  Eckhard Hein
  Abstract

  The current debate on secular stagnation is suffering from some vagueness and several shortcomings. The same is true for the economic policy implications. Therefore, we provide an alternative view on stagnation tendencies based on Josef Steindl’s contributions. In particular, Steindl (1952) can be viewed as a pioneering work in the area of stagnation in modern […]

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• Working Paper No. 845 September 30, 2015

  The Euro’s Savior?

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This study assesses the European Central Bank’s (ECB) crisis management performance and potential for crisis resolution. The study investigates the institutional and functional constraints that delineate the ECB’s scope for policy action under crisis conditions, and how the bank has actually used its leeway since 2007—or might do so in the future. The study finds […]

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• Book Series September 29, 2015

  Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems, Second Edition

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  In a completely revised second edition, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray presents the key principles of Modern Money Theory, exploring macro accounting, monetary and fiscal policy, currency regimes, and exchange rates in developed and developing nations. Wray examines how misunderstandings about the nature of money caused the recent global financial meltdown, and provides fresh ideas […]

• Research Project Report September 22, 2015

  The Impact of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality, and Poverty

  Kijong Kim, İpek Ilkkaracan, and Tolga Kaya
  Abstract

  Produced in partnership with the International Labour Organization, United Nations Development Programme, and UN Women, this report examines the demand-side rationale for a public investment in the social care sector—specifically, early childhood care and preschool education (ECCPE)—by comparing its potential for job creation, pro-women allocation of jobs, and poverty reduction with an equivalent investment in […]

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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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• Working Paper No. 844 July 29, 2015

  A Nonbehavioral Theory of Saving

  Michalis Nikiforos
  Abstract

  We present a model where the saving rate of the household sector, especially households at the bottom of the income distribution, becomes the endogenous variable that adjusts in order for full employment to be maintained over time. An increase in income inequality and the current account deficit and a consolidation of the government budget lead […]

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• Working Paper No. 843 July 27, 2015

  Is a Very High Public Debt a Problem?

  Pedro Leao
  Abstract

  This paper has two main objectives. The first is to propose a policy architecture that can prevent a very high public debt from resulting in a high tax burden, a government default, or inflation. The second objective is to show that government deficits do not face a financing problem. After these deficits are initially financed […]

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• Working Paper No. 842 July 24, 2015

  Making the Euro Viable

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  The euro crisis remains unresolved and the euro currency union incomplete and extraordinarily vulnerable. The euro regime’s essential flaw and ultimate source of vulnerability is the decoupling of central bank and treasury institutions in the euro currency union. We propose a “Euro Treasury” scheme to properly fix the regime and resolve the euro crisis. This […]

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• Working Paper No. 841 July 24, 2015

  Marx’s Theory of Money and 21st-century Macrodynamics

  Tai Young-Taft
  Abstract

  Marx’s theory of money is critiqued relative to the advent of fiat and electronic currencies and the development of financial markets. Specific topics of concern include (1) today’s identity of the money commodity, (2) possible heterogeneity of the money commodity, (3) the categories of land and rent as they pertain to the financial economy, (4) […]

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• Working Paper No. 840 July 02, 2015

  The Effects of a Euro Exit on Growth, Employment, and Wages

  Riccardo Realfonzo, and Angelantonio Viscione
  Abstract

  A technical analysis shows that the doomsayers who support the euro at all costs and those who naively theorize that a single currency is the root of all evil are both wrong. A euro exit could be a way of getting back to growth, but at the same time it would entail serious risks, especially […]

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• Working Paper No. 839 June 01, 2015

  Inside Money in a Kaldor-Kalecki-Steindl Fiscal Policy Model

  Tai Young-Taft
  Abstract

  We hope to model financial fragility and money in a way that captures much of what is crucial in Hyman Minsky’s financial fragility hypothesis. This approach to modeling Minsky may be unique in the formal Minskyan literature. Namely, we adopt a model in which a psychological variable we call financial prudence (P) declines over time […]

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• Working Paper No. 838 May 28, 2015

  Unpaid Work and the Economy

  Indira Hirway
  Abstract

  Unpaid work, which falls outside of the national income accounts but within the general production boundary, is viewed as either “care” or as “work” by experts. This work is almost always unequally distributed between men and women, and if one includes both paid and unpaid work, women carry much more of the burden of work […]

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• Working Paper No. 838 May 28, 2015

  Οικονομία και μη αμειβόμενη εργασία

  Indira Hirway
  Abstract

  Η μη αμειβόμενη εργασία, η οποία εμπίπτει εντός των γενικών ορίων παραγωγής, αλλά εκτός των λογαριασμών εθνικού εισοδήματος, θεωρείται από τους εμπειρογνώμονες είτε ως «φροντίδα» είτε ως «εργασία». Η μη αμειβόμενη εργασία κατανέμεται σχεδόν πάντα άνισα μεταξύ ανδρών και γυναικών ενώ, αν συμπεριλάβει κανείς τόσο την αμειβόμενη όσο και την μη αμειβόμενη εργασία, οι γυναίκες […]

  Download Επιστημονική Εργασία υπό Εξέλιξη (Working Paper) No. 838 PDF (604.92 KB)
• Strategic Analysis May 14, 2015

  Fiscal Austerity, Dollar Appreciation, and Maldistribution Will Derail the US Economy

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Michalis Nikiforos
  Abstract

  In this latest Strategic Analysis, the Institute’s Macro Modeling Team examines the current, anemic recovery of the US economy. The authors identify three structural obstacles—the weak performance of net exports, a prevailing fiscal conservatism, and high income inequality—that, in combination with continued household sector deleveraging, explain the recovery’s slow pace. Their baseline macro scenario shows […]

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• Strategic Analysis May 14, 2015

  Η δημοσιονομική λιτότητα, η ανατίμηση του δολαρίου και τα προβλήματα κατανομής θα οδηγήσουν στον εκτροχιασμό της οικονομίας των ΗΠΑ

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Michalis Nikiforos
  Abstract

  Στην τελευταία στρατηγική ανάλυση, η ομάδα του μακροοικονομετρικού υποδείγματος του Ινστιτούτου εξετάζει την πρόσφατη, αναιμική ανάκαμψη της αμερικανικής οικονομίας. Οι συγγραφείς εντοπίζουν τρία διαρθρωτικά εμπόδια—την αδύναμη απόδοση των καθαρών εξαγωγών, την επικράτηση του δημοσιονομικού συντηρητισμού και τα υψηλά επίπεδα εισοδηματικής ανισότητας, τα οποία, σε συνδυασμό με τη συνεχιζόμενη απομόχλευση του τομέα των νοικοκυριών, εξηγούν τον […]

  Download Στρατηγικη Αναλυση, Μάιος 2015 PDF (1.01 MB)
• Working Paper No. 837 May 06, 2015

  Χρηματοδότηση της κεφαλαιακής ανάπτυξης της οικονομίας

  L. Randall Wray, and Mariana Mazzucato
  Abstract

  Η παρούσα εργασία εξετάζει το ρόλο που διαδραματίζει η χρηματοδότηση στην προώθηση της κεφαλαιακής ανάπτυξης της οικονομίας, με ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στην τρέχουσα κατάσταση στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες και το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο. Ορίζουμε τόσο την έννοια της «χρηματοδότησης» όσο και αυτή της «κεφαλαιακής ανάπτυξης» της οικονομίας με αρκετά ευρύ τρόπο. Ξεκινάμε με την παρατήρηση ότι το χρηματοπιστωτικό […]

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• Working Paper No. 837 May 06, 2015

  Financing the Capital Development of the Economy

  L. Randall Wray, and Mariana Mazzucato
  Abstract

  This paper discusses the role that finance plays in promoting the capital development of the economy, with particular emphasis on the current situation of the United States and the United Kingdom. We define both “finance” and “capital development” very broadly. We begin with the observation that the financial system evolved over the postwar period, from […]

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• One-Pager No. 49 May 01, 2015

  Δανείζοντας στα τυφλά

  Matthew Berg
  Abstract

  Τα πρακτικά του 2008 της Ομοσπονδιακής Επιτροπής Ανοικτής Αγοράς παρέχουν ένα σπάνιο πορτραίτο του τρόπου με τον οποίον οι χαράκτες πολιτικής ανταποκρίθηκαν στην εξέλιξη της μεγαλύτερης χρηματοπιστωτικής κρίσης στον κόσμο μετά τη Μεγάλη Ύφεση του ΄30. Τα πρακτικά αποκαλύπτουν ότι η Ομοσπονδιακή Επιτροπή Ανοικτής Αγοράς δεν είχε ικανοποιητική κατανόηση των τεραστίων διαστάσεων που είχε λάβει […]

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• One-Pager No. 49 May 01, 2015

  Lending Blind

  Matthew Berg
  Abstract

  The 2008 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcripts provide a rare portrait of how policymakers responded to the unfolding of the world’s largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The transcripts reveal an FOMC that lacked a satisfactory understanding of a shadow banking system that had grown to enormous proportions—an FOMC that neither comprehended the […]

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• Working Paper No. 836 April 13, 2015

  Direct Estimates of Food and Eating Production Function Parameters for 2004–12 Using an ATUS/CE Synthetic Dataset

  Kijong Kim, Tamar Khitarishvili, and Fernando Rios-Avila
  Abstract

  This paper evaluates the presence of heterogeneity, by household type, in the elasticity of substitution between food expenditures and time and in the goods intensity parameter in the household food and eating production functions. We use a synthetic dataset constructed by statistically matching the American Time Use Survey and the Consumer Expenditure Survey. We establish […]

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• Research Project Report April 06, 2015

  Reforming the Fed’s Policy Response in the Era of Shadow Banking

  Abstract

  This monograph is part of the Levy Institute’s Research and Policy Dialogue Project on Improving Governance of the Government Safety Net in Financial Crisis, a two-year project funded by the Ford Foundation. This is the fourth in a series of reports summarizing the findings of the Research and Policy Dialogue Project on Improving Governance of […]

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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. 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 […]

  Download Σημείωμα Πολιτικής 2015/4 PDF (547.61 KB)