June 22, 2020
Institute News

Levy Scholars Present at COVID-related Online Events <[link removed]>

In the inaugural event <[link removed]> of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose's (IIPP) virtual series, "Public Purpose in the Time of COVID-19," Senior Scholar Jan Kregel <[link removed]> joined Research Associate Stephanie Kelton <[link removed]> to discuss macroeconomic responses to COVID-19. Kregel also presented on "Why Stimulus Cannot Solve the Pandemic Depression" <[link removed]> as part of the "COVID-19 Pandemic: Policy Failures and Their Impact on the Lives of the People" event, cohosted by the Society for Social and Economic Research (SSER) and International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs).

Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray <[link removed]> participated in the panel "Financing System Change" <[link removed]> at the "Global Leadership in the 21st Century: Strategies for Transformative Global Leadership" conference, hosted by The World Academy of Art and Science in partnership with the United Nations at Geneva. Wray also presented a talk on "Monetary Finance in the Age of Corona Virus: MMT and the Green New Deal," <[link removed]> one of several talks in the COVID-19-related "Exit Strategy" workshops hosted by the Economic and Social Research Council's "Rebuilding Macroeconomics" <[link removed]> project.

Research Fellow Luiza Nassif Pires <[link removed]> was one of several panelists to present at the International Association of Feminist Economics' event, "Feminist Political Economy and COVID-19." <[link removed]> Her contribution on "Inequality and COVID-19" explores how inequality is shaping the pandemic's social and economic outcomes.


The Case for a Job Guarantee <[link removed]>

Research Associate Pavlina R. Tcherneva's <[link removed]> new book, The Case for A Job Guarantee <[link removed]> (Polity 2020), will be available <[link removed]> this Friday, June 26. Refuting the idea that unemployment is a natural part of a functional economy, she outlines a plan to build a fairer system that provides voluntary public service employment opportunities for all.

Find out more about Tcherneva's plans in the context of the pandemic recovery in her recent interviews with The New Yorker <[link removed]>, Vox <[link removed]>, Fast Company <[link removed]>, Huffington Post <[link removed]>, In These Times <[link removed]>, and NPR's "Marketplace Morning Report." <[link removed]>

New Publications

Strategic Analysis | May 2020
Greece's Economy after COVID-19 <[link removed]>
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou <[link removed]>, Michalis Nikiforos <[link removed]>, and Gennaro Zezza <[link removed]>

This strategic analysis, by Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou <[link removed]> and Research Scholars Michalis Nikiforos <[link removed]> and Gennaro Zezza <[link removed]>, explores the consequences of various assumptions about aggregate demand, producing a baseline projection for Greece's economy and analyzing a more optimistic scenario in which the European Commission's recently announced Recovery Fund materializes. Acknowledging that this would allow increased public consumption and investment, the authors recommend additional measures to alleviate the pandemic shock's impact and help put the economy back on track when the epidemic has died out.

Read complete text (pdf) <[link removed]>


Public Policy Brief No. 151, June 2020
Crisis, Austerity, and Fiscal Expenditure in Greece: Recent Experience and Future Prospects in the post-COVID-19 Era <[link removed]>
Michalis Nikiforos <[link removed]>

Michalis Nikiforos <[link removed]> discusses of the relationships between austerity, Greece's macroeconomic performance, debt sustainability, and the provision of healthcare and other social services over the last decade, explaining that the austerity imposed in the name of debt sustainability led to a vicious cycle where each round of austerity led to a deeper recession and, eventually, more austerity. Predicting that the pandemic shock will lead to an explosion of public debt, he suggests policies to address structural imbalances in Greece and throughout the eurozone.

Read complete text (pdf) <[link removed]>


Public Policy Brief No. 150, June 2020
The Impact of Technological Innovations on Money and Financial Markets <[link removed]>
Jan Kregel <[link removed]> and Paolo Savona

In this policy brief, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel <[link removed]> and Paolo Savona analyze the impacts of some recent technological innovations—such as cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, and data science—on the present institutional environment and outline an appropriate regulatory framework, arguing that a public monopoly on cryptocurrency's issuance could help repair the dissociation between finance and the real economy to decrease the risks of instability that threaten national financial systems.


Read complete text (pdf) <[link removed]>


Working Paper No. 958, June 2020
A Stock-Flow Consistent Quarterly Model of the Italian Economy <[link removed]>
Francesco Zezza <[link removed]> and Gennaro Zezza <[link removed]>

Gennaro Zezza <[link removed]> and Research Associate Francesco Zezza <[link removed]> detail the construction of their quarterly stock-flow consistent (SFC) structural model of the Italian economy, developed within the SFC modeling approach pioneered by Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley <[link removed]>. Their SFC model addresses the missing links between the real and financial sectors within a post-Keynesian framework, expanding the analysis of the private sector by considering separately the interaction between households, nonfinancial corporations, financial businesses, and the central bank.

Read complete text (pdf) <[link removed]>


Working Paper No. 957, June 2020
Notes on Intersectional Political Economy: The Long Period Method, Technical Change, and Gender <[link removed]>
Luiza Nassif Pires <[link removed]>

Luiza Nassif Pires <[link removed]> critiques Karl Marx's labor theory of value and his theory of falling profit rates from an intersectional political economy perspective, relying on social reproduction theory to propose that Marx-biased technical change disrupts the social order and leads to competition between workers. Arguing that technical change increases social conflict, which can counterbalance the long-run tendency of the profit rate to fall, she concludes that class struggle is multilayered and endogenous to the process of accumulation.

Read complete text (pdf) <[link removed]>
Levy Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy Now Accepting Students for Fall 2020

Designed as preparation for a professional career in economic research and policy formulation, the Levy Economics Institute Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy offer an alternative to mainstream programs in economics and finance. With small classes in a dedicated facility, we can also offer more options for social distancing while completing your degree in these uncertain times.

Our diverse student body comes from around the world, with research interests focusing on banking regulations, monetary policy, trade, financial regulations, economic forecasting, poverty, unemployment and exclusion, modern monetary theory, and stock-flow-consistent modeling. To find out more about our innovative programs that combine a rigorous course of study with exceptional opportunity to participate in advanced economics research alongside the Institute's global network of researchers, visit bard.edu/levygrad or follow the program's Facebook <[link removed]> page.

Applications for fall 2020 are now open, with new part-time options in the MA program and generous financial aid available for Bard alumni. Interested students should contact the program recruiter, Martha Tepepa ([email protected]), to discuss their options. Scholarships are available.
Media and Web Coverage


Reflecting on her Project Syndicate op-ed, "What Would Roosevelt Do?," <[link removed]> Pavlina Tcherneva tells Thom Hartmann <[link removed]> that the polices currently put forth fall short of the bold measures this moment calls for, suggesting a more robust public response is necessary to ensure recovery in the post-pandemic era, and discusses <[link removed]> why demand-side solutions will not work for issues caused by the pandemic's supply-side shock with fellow Bardian Elmira Bayrasli.

Employing a framework developed in his M.S. thesis <[link removed]> for the Institute's Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy <[link removed]>, Alex Williams '20 outlines a program of federal block grants for stabilizing state budgets in downturns. In his article for Medium <[link removed]>, he asserts that such grants would shorten recessions, while also creating jobs and guaranteeing funding for vital public services.






In This Issue

Institute News: Scholars Present Online <#senior_scholars>

Institute News: New Book by Pavlina Tcherneva <#pt_book>

Greece's Economy after COVID-19 <#sa_may>

Crisis, Austerity, and Fiscal Expenditure in Greece <#ppb_151>

The Impact of Technological Innovations on Money and Financial Markets <#ppb_150>

A Stock-Flow Consistent Quarterly Model of the Italian Economy <#wp_958>

Notes on Intersectional Political Economy <#wp_957>

Levy Graduate Programs <#grad>

Web and Media Coverage <#media>


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