New Research Scholar
We are pleased to announce Aashima Sinha is joining the Institute as a research scholar in the Gender Equality and the Economy program. Her research interests span the fields of feminist, development, and labor economics. Currently, her research focuses on the micro- and macroeconomic implications of social reproduction. She investigates the gender-differentiated effects of unpaid care work time on the well-being outcomes of care providers in low- and middle-income countries.
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Policy Note 2023/3 | July 2023
In Defense of Low Interest Rates
James K. Galbraith
In recalling John Maynard Keynes’s revolutionary theory of interest, reviewing the doctrines Keynes sought to overthrow, and analyzing the structural transformations of the US economy, Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith maintains there is no alternative to a policy of low interest rates. However, such a policy cannot be effective, he argues, without a radical restructuring of the US economy as a whole.
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Strategic Analysis | July 2023
Will the US Debt Ceiling Deal Derail the Pandemic Recovery?
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Michalis Nikiforos, Giuliano Toshiro Yajima, and Gennaro Zezza
In this Strategic Analysis, Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Research Scholars Michalis Nikiforos and Giuliano Toshiro Yajima, and Senior Scholar Gennaro Zezza discuss how the current state and structural features of the US economy might affect its post-pandemic future. The US economy, the authors contend, is in need of a structural transformation toward modernizing its infrastructure, promoting industrial policy, and investing in the greening of its economy and environmental sustainability.
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Working Paper No. 1023 | July 2023
Climate Change and Fiscal Marksmanship: Evidence From an Emerging Country, India
Lekha S. Chakraborty, Amandeep Kaur, Ajay Narayan Jha, Jitesh Yadav, and Balamuraly B
Fiscal marksmanship—the accuracy of budgetary forecasting—can be one important piece of information that rational agents must consider in forming rational expectations. Against the backdrop of fiscal rules, Research Associate Lekha S. Chakraborty et. al explore the budgetary forecast errors of climate change–related public spending in India. They reveal that disaggregated fiscal space available for developmental spending constitutes around 60 percent of the total, but that identifying the specifically targeted public spending related to climate change across all states and analyzing its fiscal marksmanship can further the subnational inferences.
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Working Paper No. 1022 | July 2023
Has the Time for a European Job Guarantee Policy Arrived?
Rania Antonopoulos
As country after country in the European Union is called to respond to the current challenge of our time—high inflation and declining real wages—governments must engage in a transformative agenda and go beyond emergency energy vouchers and income support cash-transfers.In response to the deterioration of living standards in the European Union, a guarantee of adequate minimum wages is needed; a permanent policy of automatic adjustment of wages to inflation rates should be promoted; and strengthening collective bargaining agreements ought to be re-invigorated. In this paper, Senior Scholar and Program Director Rania Antonopoulos advocates for an EU Job Guarantee to be at the center of this policy transformation.
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Working Paper No. 1021 | June 2023
The Macrodynamics of Indian Rupee Swap Yields
Tanweer Akram and Khawaja Mamun
In this paper, Tanweer Akram and Khawaja Mamum econometrically model the dynamics of Indian rupee (INR) swap yields based on key macroeconomic factors using the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) approach, and examine whether the short-term interest rate has a decisive influence on long-term INR swap yields after controlling for other factors. The estimated models show that the short-term interest rate has an important influence on the swap yields, implying that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can sway borrowing and lending rates not just on Indian government bonds but also INR-denominated private-market financial instruments, such as swaps and swaptions.
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Working Paper No. 1020 | June 2023
Can It Be Prevented This Time? The Role of Profit in Banking Regulation
Lorenzo Esposito and Giuseppe Mastromatteo
Since the nineties, crises have punctuated financial markets, shattering the conventional wisdom about how these markets work and how to regulate them, and forcing a deep rethinking of the supervisory framework that, however, did not change much of the banks’ behavior and incentives. Based on Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis, Esposito and Mastromatteo discuss the literature on banks’ profitability and its relation to the originate-to-distribute model, propose a different strategy for banking regulation—based on a profitability cap that prevents financial innovation from overwhelming supervision—and confirm the importance of profitability as a signal of incoming troubles and the possibility of using the profitability cap to simplify banking regulation in the US case.
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Levy Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy | |
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Backed by over 30 years of proven policy impact, the Levy Institute Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy provide innovative approaches to topics such as time use, poverty, gender, student debt, and employment that other programs neglect, encouraging students to evaluate policies, examine behavior, and dig deeper into the social phenomena that underlie economic outcomes.
Along with a challenging academic environment, the Levy programs also offer a supporting and caring community where students benefit from sharing their research with faculty and their peers to promote academic exchanges and intellectual collaboration.
To find out more, visit bard.edu/levygrad or follow the program’s Facebook page.
Interested students should contact the Institute at [email protected] for more information. Scholarships are available.
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Senior Scholar Rania Antonopolous spoke in support of a European Job Guarantee during the 15th Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation (May 23–26, 2023-Berlin, Germany) by invitation of the European Trade Union Institute. Her presentation was based on her recent publication found here.
At the 2023 Summer Workshop held by the Economic Democracy Initiative of OSUN, Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith was featured as a the keynote speaker. His talk, titled "Tilting at Windmills: The Economics and Politics of Inflation Fighting" can be viewed here.
Research Scholar Yeva Nersisyan was featured on the Real Progressives podcast Macro N Cheese on June 24th on an episode titled "Setting the Bar Low."
Research Scholar Michalis Nikiforos and Levy Graduate Alum Simon Grothe were featured by the Institute for New Econimc Thinking with their article "Markups, Profit Shares, and Cost-Push-Profit-Led Inflation."
Research Scholar Pavlina Tcherneva was also featured on Macro N Cheese during the June 10th episode "Full Employment. She was additionally featured on July 14th for the podcast Funny Money in an episode titled, "The Right to a Job."
Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray was interviewed by Lola Books on the topic of his newly released German translation of Money for Beginners (Geld für Anfänger). Watch the interview here and pick up your copy from Lola Books. Wray was also featured on the Real Progressives podcast Macro N Cheese on episode "Making Money Work for Us," released July 22. On May 18, Wray was additionally interviewed on the podcast Something You Should Know, for a segment titled "What is Money and How Does It Work?" and on June 23, the podcast MMT Radio with 3CR Radical Radio, Wray was interviewed on the episode "The Dirty War Waged by Central Bankers." On March 3, Wray joined Progressive Democrats of America for their town hall as a featured guest.
On July 8th, Senior Scholar Ajit Zacharias spoke during the Closing Plenary at the International Association for Feminist Economics 31st Annual Conference in South Africa on Macroeconomics of Investing in Care: Advances in Research and Policy Implications.
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