Publications

1714 publications found

• Research Project Report
  February 19, 2009

  What Are the Long-Term Trends in Intergroup Economic Disparities?

  Edward N. Wolff, Ajit Zacharias, and Thomas Masterson
  Abstract

  Over the last half century, government policy has had an important hand in alleviating disparities among population subgroups in the United States; for example, special tax treatment for families with…more

  Download LIMEW Report, February 2009 PDF (430.00 KB)
• Research Project Report
  February 03, 2009

  Postwar Trends in Economic Well-Being in the United States,1959–2004

  Edward N. Wolff, Ajit Zacharias, and Thomas Masterson
  Abstract

  The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW) is a more comprehensive measure than either gross money income or extended income because it includes estimates of public consumption and household…more

  Download LIMEW Report, February 2009 PDF (639.69 KB)
• Working Paper No. 556
  January 29, 2009

  Long-Term Trends in the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW), United States, 1959–2004

  Edward N. Wolff, Ajit Zacharias, and Thomas Masterson
  Abstract

  The motivation to construct the LIMEW in lieu of relying on the official measures of well-being is to provide a more comprehensive measure of economic inequality that will also show…more

  Download Working Paper No. 556 PDF (705.76 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 97
  January 29, 2009

  After the Bust

  Thomas I. Palley
  Abstract

  “Change” was the buzzword of the Obama campaign, in response to a political agenda precipitated by financial turmoil and a global economic crisis. According to Research Associate Thomas Palley, the…more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 97, 2009 PDF (543.31 KB)
• Working Paper No. 555
  January 27, 2009

  Financial Stability: The Significance and Distinctiveness of Islamic Banking in Malaysia

  Ewa Karwowski
  Abstract

  This paper explores the significance of Islamic banking in Malaysia for stability in the country’s economy as a whole. Neither conventional theory nor Islamic economics puts forward a systematic explanation…more

  Download Working Paper No. 555 PDF (1,003.19 KB)
• Working Paper No. 554
  January 26, 2009

  Macroeconomic Imbalances in the United States and Their Impact on the International Financial System

  Julia S. Perelstein
  Abstract

  The argument put forward in this paper is twofold. First, the financial crisis of 2007–08 was made global by the current account deficit in the United States; and second, there…more

  Download Working Paper No. 554 PDF (324.78 KB)
• Policy Note No. 1
  January 22, 2009

  Obama’s Job Creation Promise

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  Job creation is once again at the forefront of policy action, and for advocates of pro-employment policies, President Obama’s Keynesian bent is a most welcome change. However, there are concerns…more

  Download Policy Note 2009/1 PDF (141.38 KB)
• Strategic Analysis
  January 06, 2009

  Flow of Funds Figures Show the Largest Drop in Household Borrowing in the Last 40 Years

  Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  The Federal Reserve’s latest flow-of-funds data reveal that household borrowing has fallen sharply lower, bringing about a reversal of the upward trend in household debt. According to the Levy Institute’s…more

  Download Strategic Analysis, January 2009 PDF (97.63 KB)
• Strategic Analysis
  December 24, 2008

  Prospects for the United States and the World: A Crisis That Conventional Remedies Cannot Resolve

  Wynne Godley, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  The economic recovery plans currently under consideration by the United States and many other countries seem to be concentrated on the possibility of using expansionary fiscal and monetary policies alone….more

  Download Strategic Analysis, December 2008 PDF (656.93 KB)
• Working Paper No. 553
  December 22, 2008

  Insuring Against Private Capital Flows

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  Following an analysis of the forces behind the “global capital flows paradox” observed in the era of advancing financial globalization, this paper sets out to investigate the opportunity costs of…more

  Download Working Paper No. 553 PDF (205.72 KB)
• Working Paper No. 552
  December 16, 2008

  Hypothetical Integration in a Social Accounting Matrix and Fixed-price Multiplier Analysis

  Kijong Kim
  Abstract

  This study proposes a simple modification to a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) in order to analyze the multiplier effects of a new sector. A different input composition, or technology, of…more

  Download Working Paper No. 552 PDF (189.14 KB)
• Working Paper No. 551
  December 02, 2008

  Small Is Beautiful

  Fatma Gül Unal
  Abstract

  This paper examines the relationship between farm size and yield per acre in Turkey using heretofore untapped data from a 2002 farm-level survey of 5,003 rural households. After controlling for…more

  Download Working Paper No. 551 PDF (456.19 KB)
• Working Paper No. 550
  November 20, 2008

  An Empirical Analysis of Gender Bias in Education Spending in Paraguay

  Thomas Masterson
  Abstract

  Gender affects household spending in two areas that have been widely studied in the literature. One strand documents that greater female bargaining power within households results in a variety of…more

  Download Working Paper No. 550 PDF (294.47 KB)
• Working Paper No. 549
  November 14, 2008

  Excess Capital and Liquidity Management

  Jan Toporowski
  Abstract

  These notes present a new approach to corporate finance, one in which financing is not determined by prospective income streams but by financing opportunities, liquidity considerations, and prospective capital gains….more

  Download Working Paper No. 549 PDF (181.14 KB)
• Policy Note No. 6
  November 11, 2008

  Time to Bail Out: Alternatives to the Bush-Paulson Plan

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  While serving as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan advocated unsupervised securitization, subprime lending, option ARMs, credit-default swaps, and all manner of financial alchemy in the belief that…more

  Download Policy Note 2008/6 PDF (364.87 KB)
• Working Paper No. 548
  November 10, 2008

  On Democratizing Financial Turmoil

  Fadhel Kaboub, Luisa Fernandez, and Zdravka Todorova
  Abstract

  The paper uses Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis as an analytical framework for understanding the subprime mortgage crisis and for introducing adequate reforms to restore economic stability. We argue that the…more

  Download Working Paper No. 548 PDF (456.31 KB)
• Policy Note No. 5
  October 24, 2008

  Will the Paulson Bailout Produce the Basis for Another Minsky Moment?

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  As the House Committee on Financial Services meets to hear the expert testimony of witnesses concerning the regulation of the financial system, the measures that have been introduced to support…more

  Download Policy Note 2008/5 PDF (174.45 KB)
• Working Paper No. 547
  October 23, 2008

  Minsky and Economic Policy

  Abstract

  Recently, national newspapers all over the world have suggested that we should reread John Maynard Keynes, and that Hyman P. Minsky provides a valuable framework for understanding the world in…more

  Download Working Paper No. 547 PDF (337.78 KB)
• Working Paper No. 546
  October 20, 2008

  Do the Innovations in a Monetary VAR Have Finite Variances?

  Abstract

  Since Christopher Sims’s “Macroeconomics and Reality” (1980), macroeconomists have used structural VARs, or vector autoregressions, for policy analysis. Constructing the impulse-response functions and variance decompositions that are central to this…more

  Download Working Paper No. 546 PDF (315.82 KB)
• Policy Note No. 4
  October 08, 2008

  A Simple Proposal to Resolve the Disruption of Counterparty Risk in Short-Term Credit Markets

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  The impaired risk assessment caused by the collapse of mortgage-backed securities is the major problem threatening the stability of the American financial system, yet it is not clear that removing…more

  Download Policy Note 2008/4 PDF (173.76 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 96
  October 08, 2008

  The Commodities Market Bubble

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Money manager capitalism—characterized by highly leveraged funds seeking maximum returns in an environment that systematically underprices risk—has resulted in a series of boom-and-bust cycles in equities, real estate, and commodities….more

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 96, 2008 PDF (327.99 KB)
• Working Paper No. 545
  October 07, 2008

  Promoting Equality Through an Employment of Last Resort Policy

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou
  Abstract

  Unemployment has far-reaching effects, all leading to an inequitable distribution of well-being. To put an economy on an equitable growth path, economic development must be based on social efficiency, equity—and…more

  Download Working Paper No. 545 PDF (183.76 KB)
• Working Paper No. 544
  September 29, 2008

  Inflation Targeting in Brazil

  Philip Arestis, Luiz Fernando de Paula, and Fernando Ferrari-Filho
  Abstract

  The monetary policy regime of inflation targeting (IT) has been adopted by a significant number of emerging economies. While the focus of this paper is on Brazil, which began inflation…more

  Download Working Paper No. 544 PDF (194.08 KB)
• Working Paper No. 543
  September 01, 2008

  Macroeconomics Meets Hyman P. Minsky

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Expanding on an approach developed by financial economist Hyman Minsky, the authors present an alternative to the standard “efficient markets hypothesis”—the relevance of which Minsky vehemently denied. Minsky recognized that,…more

  Download Working Paper No. 543 PDF (218.71 KB)