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  Summary No. 1

  Summary Winter 2007

  The Winter Summary provides an overview of the Institute’s October conference on employment guarantee policies, which focused on government policy initiatives that can create a safety net through public service employment for individuals who are ready, willing, and able to work. Also in this issue: a new Strategic Analysis and Public Policy Brief address the […]
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  Working Paper No. 485

  The Balance Sheet Approach to Financial Crises in Emerging Markets

  This paper contrasts the conventional balance sheet approach to the analysis of economic disturbances in emerging markets with the alternative balance sheet approach that applies and extends Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis to (open) emerging market economies. Earlier balance sheet studies are found to be flawed because of a failure to disaggregate firms’ balance sheets. Examination […]
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  Working Paper No. 484

  Expensive Living

  Apart from its widely accepted direct advantages, the introduction of the euro has been accompanied by a surge of inflation in most of the EU member states. At the same time, wages–in part, wages of the unskilled–are relatively losing ground, while the purchasing power of the average European seems also to have weakened since the […]
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  Research Project Report

  Wealth and Economic Inequality

  This report argues that wealth is an integral aspect of economic well-being. The authors combine income and net worth to demonstrate the importance of wealth inequalities in shaping overall economic inequality and defining the disparities among population subgroups. Conventional measures of household economic well-being do not adequately reflect the advantages of asset ownership or the […]
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  Press Release

  Rapidly Cooling US Housing Market Could Trigger Growth Recession, New Levy Economics Institute Study Says

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  Public Policy Brief No. 88

  US Household Deficit Spending

  Over the past decade, deficit spending by consumers has supported the United States economy. Research Associate Robert Parenteau analyzes the financial balance of American households and finds that the pace of deficit spending is likely to stall and, possibly, reverse course. This reversion will jeopardize US profit and economic growth, as well as the growth […]
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  Working Paper No. 483

  Fisher’s Theory of Interest Rates and the Notion of “Real”

  By providing five different criticisms of the notion of real rate, the paper argues that this concept, as Fisher defined it or as a definition, is not relevant to economic analysis. Following Keynes and other post-Keynesians, the article shows that the notion of real rate is microeconomically and macroeconomically unfounded. Adjusting interest rates for inflation […]
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  Public Policy Brief No. 87

  Maastricht 2042 and the Fate of Europe

  Unemployment in the European Union (EU) is a serious problem that threatens to disrupt the integration of accession countries, the character of individual countries, and the continued existence of the EU. European integration poses a huge conundrum for European employment because the conventional theory explaining unemployment in Europe—labor market rigidities—is wrong. According to Senior Scholar […]
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  Working Paper No. 482

  Net Intergenerational Transfers from an Increase in Social Security Benefits

  When the age of death is uncertain, individuals will leave bequests–even if they have no desired bequests–simply because they will hold wealth against the possibility of living longer. Bequests are accidental. Starting from a baseline level of Social Security benefits, an increase in benefits will cause consumption to increase. However, consumption may not increase by […]
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  Working Paper No. 481

  An Inquiry into the Nature of Money

  The paper argues that the functional approach of money does not provide a good method to study monetary history and monetary mechanisms. An alternative approach is developed and illustrated by analyzing the role of tobacco and cowry shells in past monetary systems. It is shown that any monetary system has specific properties that most students […]
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  Working Paper No. 480

  Methodology and Microeconomics in the Early Work of Hyman P. Minsky

  This paper reviews the recently published doctoral thesis of Hyman P. Minsky, summarizing its main contributions to methodology and microeconomics. These were aspects of economics with which Minsky is not usually associated, but which lie at the foundation of his later work. They include critical remarks on Cambridge economics. The paper then draws out some […]
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  Working Paper No. 479

  European Welfare State Regimes and Their Generosity toward the Elderly

  This paper examines the generosity of the European welfare state toward the elderly. It shows how various dimensions of the welfare regimes have changed during the past 10 to 15 years and how this evolution is related to the process of economic integration. Dimensions include general generosity toward the elderly and, more specifically, generosity toward […]