Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
July 30, 2019
Institute News
summersem_19
Levy Institute Hosts 10th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar

Welcoming students from Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the Levy Institute's annual Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar was held at Blithewood on the Bard College campus from Sunday, June 16th through Saturday, June 22nd. The seminar provides a rigorous discussion of both the theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with an examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the current economic and financial outlook, as well as an introduction to Wynne Godley’s stock-flow consistent modeling methods via hands-on workshops.
 
New Publications
op_60
One-Pager No. 60, July 2019
Fighting Inequality Can Strengthen the US Economy
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Michalis Nikiforos, and Gennaro Zezza


Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and Research Scholars Michalis Nikiforos and Gennaro Zezza explain how reducing inequality through increasing the rate of taxation on high incomes and net worth can help create a more robust and stable US economy when paired with equivalent increases in public spending.

» Read complete text (pdf)
 
wp_933
Working Paper 933, July 2019
Defaultnomics: Making Sense of the Barro-Ricardo Equivalence in a Financialized World
Lorenzo Esposito and Giuseppe Mastromatteo

In the context of the worldwide increase in public debt, Lorenzo Esposito and Giuseppe Mastromatteo analyze the Barro-Ricardo equivalence’s theoretical underpinnings—many of which they consider “implausible”—to ascertain its relevance in the modern, financialized economy.

» Read complete text (pdf)
 
wp_932
Working Paper 932, June 2019
Rethinking China’s Local Government Debt in the Frame of Modern Money Theory
He Zengping and Jia Genliang

Noting the rapid growth of the implicit debt of local governments in China and its destabilizing potential, He Zengping and Jia Genliang advocate for stronger regulations and the abandonment of the central government’s fiscal balance target. Framing the argument within Modern Money Theory, the authors observe that China’s central government should bear a greater share of the fiscal burden that is currently concentrated at the local level to achieve economic growth targets and fiscal sustainability.

» Read complete text (pdf)
Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy
grad2017
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.

Our diverse student body comes from Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Gambia, Germany, India, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Nepal, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with research interests focusing on banking regulations, monetary policy in Europe, 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.

Interested students should contact the program recruiter, Martha Tepepa ([email protected]), to discuss their options. Scholarships are available.
Media and Web Coverage

In the continuing debate over the merits of cancelling student loan debt, David Dayen of The American Prospect cites the Institute’s 2018 report, “The Macroeconomic Effects of Student Debt Cancellation,” for its findings that debt cancellation would “create up to one million new jobs per year and increase gross domestic product by around half a percentage point,” as well as “encourage additional consumer spending, skills attainment, and entrepreneurship, while improving access to credit and keeping the public more stable through economic downturns.” Research Associate and report coauthor Stephanie Kelton discusses the particulars with Bloomberg reporters Katia Dmitrieva and Alexandre Tanzi, noting “many students borrowed on an implied promise: that debt-financed degrees would more than pay for themselves, in the form of higher incomes. But the economy hasn’t really delivered.”

Arguing that “it is far more expensive to go on with the status quo than put in place a program that provides decent living wage jobs for those who need them,” Pavlina Tcherneva, research associate and coauthor of the Institute’s research project report, “Public Service Employment: A Path to Full Employment,” presented a lecture before the Newburgh (NY) City Council on the role of a job guarantee in the Green New Deal.

In part two if its series, “The Economics of a Job Guarantee,” Salon’s Ed Dolan focuses on the policy’s wage and employment effects, with Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray noting: “Firms with business models that require that their workers live in abject poverty should find a new business model—or be driven out of business.”

Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann spoke with Jo Bruni of NBC 4 New York to offer his thoughts on the impact of including a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. Read more about his opposition to the question’s inclusion in his recent One-Pager.
 
         
In This Issue
Institute News: 10th Annual Minsky Summer Seminar
Fighting Inequality Can Strengthen the US Economy
Defaultnomics
Rethinking China’s Local Government Debt in the Frame of Modern Money Theory
Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy
Web and Media Coverage
Read Our Blog
Multiplier Effect
Levy Book Series
Visit the Institute’s Book Series webpage for selected books by our scholars.
Quick Links
Visit Our Website
Research Programs
Events
 

You are receiving this e-mail because you either signed up at the Levy Institute website or filled out a request card asking to be placed on this list. If you have trouble accessing the Levy Institute's website, please send a brief description of the problem to [email protected].

Copyright © 1986-2019, Levy Economics Institute, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000. All rights reserved.

No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence, or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
 
Levy InstituteClick to DonateSave

This email was sent to [email protected] by Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Unsubscribe from Levy Institute eNewsletter.