At the 33rd IAFFE Conference 2025, Levy Scholars Thomas Masterson and Aashima Sinha, along with collaborators from the University of Ghana and Stellenbosch University, presented their joint work on Gender Gaps in Employment Quality and Lifetime Earnings in Ghana and South Africa.
"Mandates don’t always mean coverage."
Even when benefits such as pensions, paid leave, or maternity protection are legally guaranteed, they may fail to reach many workers in practice
Characteristics of employment relations such as unionization, written contracts, or permanent employment could act as enablers of non-wage employment benefits (e.g., health insurance, maternity leave, paid time off, retirement security).
Stay tuned for upcoming papers and reports exploring this issue in depth.
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by L. R. Wray
Mainstream economics is in disarray. As Frank Hahn remarked four decades ago, “The most serious challenge that the existence of money poses to the theorist is this: the best developed model of the economy cannot find room for it.” He was speaking of General Equilibrium theory, but his claim applies equally well to Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium theory, which is used by all the major central bankers of the world to model the economy.
Let that sink in. Our central bankers use a model to understand the economy that has no money, no banks, and no financial system. The Queen of England asked why none of the mainstreamers foresaw the Global Financial Crisis. Their failure was baked into their model.
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by Vlassis Missos and Nikolaos Rodousakis
The state of the labor market in Greece exemplifies the socioeconomic damage caused by austerity. More than 15 years into a recession that has proven both deep and enduring, signs of a full recovery remain absent. Vlassis Missos and Research Associate Nikolaos Rodousakis demonstrate in this policy note how Greece's economy remains deeply affected by prolonged austerity, with low wages, high work hours, and minimal recovery in household income despite near-full employment. The authors propose policy changes needed to restore decent living conditions in Greece, including job guarantee programs and instituting a minimum wage that supports a decent standard of living rather than serving merely as a low-cost entry point.
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Reform in the Chinese Banking System: Zhu Rongji’s and Its Aftermath
by Leonardo Burlamaqui
Between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, China’s banking sector underwent a profound yet largely underappreciated transformation—arguably one of the most consequential episodes of financial restructuring in recent economic history. This paper analyzes the Chinese banking reform process through a Minskyian lens, with particular attention to the conceptual ambiguity between financial fragility and financial instability in Minsky’s own formulation. The core contribution lies in demonstrating that the reforms implemented under Zhu Rongji successfully resolved a condition of deep and systemic financial fragility without tipping into full-blown financial instability. In that sense, China’s banking overhaul constitutes a non-Minskyian resolution to what was, in classical terms, a Minsky-type problem. The Chinese case thus provides a rare empirical example of mounting financial fragility managed without crisis—offering critical insights for contemporary efforts at financial stabilization under conditions of systemic vulnerability.
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by Agustín Mario
In this article, Research Associate Agustín Mario considers the rationale for reform of Argentina's Jefes y Jefas de Hogares Desocupados program, a job guarantee case study, within the broader framework of an economic policy based on two fundamental pillars of social inclusion: the expansion of social security and aggregate demand management that would drive economic growth and, thus, job creation. Mario argues that, while the Jefes was faded out of use, it could have been expanded to achieve full employment and an internally stable currency in Argentina, advocating for the re-adoption of a job guarantee program for long-term economic wellbeing, sustainable development, and employment for all.
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