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Public Policy Brief No. 115What Should Banks Do?
September 13, 2010 In this new brief, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray examines the later works of Hyman P. Minsky, with a focus on Minsky’s general approach to financial institutions and policy. The...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 616Product Complexity and Economic Development
September 09, 2010 We rank 5,107 products and 124 countries according to the Hidalgo and Hausmann (2009) measures of complexity. We find that: (1) the most complex products are in machinery, chemicals, and...more Publication -
BlogNew report JOLTS claim that extended benefits breed unemployment
September 08, 2010 Last week, my colleague Tom Masterson commented on an op-ed piece by Robert Barro, which argued that much of the U.S. unemployment problem―perhaps 2.7 percentage points of the June unemployment rate of 9.5 percent―could be attributed to the availability of extended unemployment insurance benefits. According to Barro’s argument, huge numbers of people are out of [...] Blog -
Blog
Less stimulating than it should be
September 07, 2010 The Free Exchange blog calls President Obama’s proposed $50 billion infrastructure stimulus “A New Hope.” Our research begs to differ. We find that spending $50 billion on infrastructure would create little more than half a million new jobs. That’s not an inconsiderable number, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 14.9 million [...] Blog -
Blog
Wray on Minsky
September 03, 2010 Levy Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray explains the foresight of Hyman Minsky in this video. Blog -
Blog
A way out for the Euro zone
September 01, 2010 Suggestions a few months back by Germany’s chancellor that countries running consistently high deficits be expelled from the Euro zone evidently haven’t fallen on deaf ears. Even though almost everyone thinks of expulsion as a remote possibility, the notion does get factored into the thinking of bankers and investors in a way that may ultimately [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 615
Quality of Match for Statistical Matches Used in the 1999 and 2005 LIMEW Estimates for Canada
September 01, 2010 The quality of match of four statistical matches used in the LIMEW estimates for Canada for 1999 and 2005 is described. The first match combines the 1999 Survey of Financial...more Publication -
Blog
For the jobless, a feast of assumptions
August 31, 2010 The only way that extending unemployment benefits could actually increase the unemployment rate above what it would otherwise be (other than just assuming it will, as Barro does) is to assume that the people receiving those benefits, rather than spending them on food and rent, use the checks to set fires to businesses that are [...] Blog -
Blog
What’s new about QE?
August 30, 2010 After its last meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, which makes decisions about Federal Reserve monetary policy, decided to keep its holdings of long-term securities constant. The Fed was forced to look again at this issue because borrowers have been paying off the long-term debt securities already in its portfolio. This maturing debt consists mostly [...] Blog -
Blog
How costly is child care?
August 26, 2010 You may already know that women’s workforce participation has increased and gender wage gaps have been closing gradually, although we still have a long way to go. Work-life balance can be costly, and raising children is rewarding yet financially challenging. A new report by the congressional Joint Economic Committee gives an excellent description on the [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 614
The “Keynesian Moment” in Policymaking, the Perils Ahead, and a Flow-of-funds Interpretation of Fiscal Policy
August 25, 2010 With the global crisis, the policy stance around the world has been shaken by massive government and central bank efforts to prevent the meltdown of markets, banks, and the economy....more Publication -
Working Paper No. 613
As You Sow So Shall You Reap
August 23, 2010 We develop an Index of Opportunities for 130 countries based on their capabilities to undergo structural transformation. The Index of Opportunities has four dimensions, all of them characteristic of a...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 612
What Do Banks Do? What Should Banks Do?
August 20, 2010 Before we can reform the financial system, we need to understand what banks do; or, better, what banks should do. This paper will examine the later work of Hyman Minsky...more Publication -
Blog
Social Security remains affordable, even in long run
August 18, 2010 In Paul Krugman’s blog, a bit of good news from the August 2010 Social Security Trustees’ Report on the finances of the Social Security entitlement programs (retirement, survivors, and disability): Given the apocalyptic rhetoric we’re hearing, once again, about Social Security finances, it comes as something of a shock—even to me—to look at the actual [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 611
Why China Has Succeeded—and Why It Will Continue to Do So
August 17, 2010 The key factor underlying China’s fast development during the last 50 years is its ability to master and accumulate new and more complex capabilities, reflected in the increase in diversification...more Publication -
Blog
A Levy scholar on the financial crisis
August 13, 2010 Over the course of the summer, Levy senior scholar James K. Galbraith gave a series of lectures in Europe laying out his view of the financial crisis that originated on this side of the Atlantic. At the most recent of these, in July, he emphasized the role of fraud: It’s important to recognize that at [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 610
Investing in Care
August 13, 2010 Massive job losses in the United States, over eight million since the onset of the “Great Recession,” call for job creation measures through fiscal expansion. In this paper we analyze...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 609
Using Capabilities to Project Growth, 2010–30
August 11, 2010 We forecast average annual GDP growth for 147 countries for 2010–30. We use a cross-country regression model where the long-run fundamentals are determined by countries’ accumulated capabilities and the capacity...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 608
Assessing the Returns to Education in Georgia
August 09, 2010 The economic returns to education in transition countries have been extensively evaluated in the literature. The present study contributes to this literature by estimating the returns to education in Georgia...more Publication -
Public Policy Brief No. 114
Debts, Deficits, Economic Recovery, and the US Government
August 06, 2010 In this new brief, President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen evaluate the current path of fiscal deficits in the United States in the context of government debt...more Publication -
Blog
High unemployment puts poor families at risk
August 06, 2010 Scholars at the Levy Institute have supported the creation of an employer-of-last-resort (ELR) program in the United States for many years. Such a program would provide a government job to any American who needed one and met a few basic requirements. (This readable policy note, along with many other Levy publications, explains the case for [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 607
Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives
August 03, 2010 Employers structure pay and employment relationships to mitigate agency problems. A large literature in economics documents how the resolution of these problems shapes personnel policies and labor markets. For the...more Publication -
Blog
Making jobs Job One
August 03, 2010 On The Daily Beast, Levy senior scholar James K. Galbraith urges action to get people working again, and smites deficit hawks who might oppose it. In the debate over stimulus versus austerity, he warns of two traps: The first is the idea that we need another “stimulus package.” How I hate that phrase! The message [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 606
Changes in Central Bank Procedures during the Subprime Crisis and Their Repercussions on Monetary Theory
August 02, 2010 The subprime financial crisis has forced several North American and European central banks to take extraordinary measures and to modify some of their operational procedures. These changes have made even...more Publication