Publications

Sofia Adam

• Research Project Reports | May 2015

  Responding to the Unemployment Challenge: A Job Guarantee Proposal for Greece—An Addendum

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  This addendum to our June 2014 report, “Responding to the Unemployment Challenge: A Job Guarantee Proposal for Greece,” updates labor market data through 2014Q3 and identifies emerging employment and unemployment trends. The overarching aim of the report, the outcome of a study undertaken in 2013 by the Levy Institute in collaboration with the Observatory of Economic and Social Developments of the Labour Institute of the Greek General Confederation of Labour, is to provide policymakers and the general public research-based evidence of the macroeconomic and employment effects of a large-scale direct job creation program in Greece, and to invite critical rethinking of the austerity-driven macro policy instituted in 2010 as a condition of the loans made to Greece by its eurozone partners. 

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  Research Project Report, May 2015

  Associated Program(s):

  Employment Policy and Labor Markets Gender Equality and the Economy

  Author(s):

  Rania Antonopoulos Sofia Adam Kijong Kim Thomas Masterson Dimitri B. Papadimitriou

  Related Topic(s):

  Direct job creation Employer of Last Resort (ELR) policy Employment guarantee Employment policy Eurozone debt crisis Greece Greek economic crisis Job guarantee Labor markets Public service jobs

  

• Public Policy Brief No. 138 | October 2014

  After Austerity: Measuring the Impact of a Job Guarantee Policy for Greece

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  To mobilize Greece’s severely underemployed labor potential and confront the social and economic dangers of persistent unemployment, we propose the immediate implementation of a direct public benefit job creation program—a Greek “New Deal.” The Job Guarantee (JG) program would offer the unemployed jobs, at a minimum wage, on work projects providing public goods and services. This policy would have substantial positive economic impacts in terms of output and employment, and when newly accrued tax revenue is taken into account, which substantially reduces the net cost of the program, it makes for a comparatively modest fiscal stimulus. At a net cost of roughly 1 percent to 1.2 percent of GDP (depending on the wage level offered), a midrange JG program featuring the direct creation of 300,000 jobs has the potential to reduce the unemployed population by a third or more, once indirect employment effects are taken into account. And our research indicates that the policy would do all this while reducing Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio—which leaves little room for excuses.

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  Public Policy Brief No. 138, 2014

  Associated Program(s):

  Employment Policy and Labor Markets Gender Equality and the Economy

  Author(s):

  Rania Antonopoulos Sofia Adam Kijong Kim Thomas Masterson Dimitri B. Papadimitriou

  Related Topic(s):

  Austerity Direct job creation Employer of Last Resort (ELR) policy Employment guarantee Employment policy Eurozone debt crisis Greece Greek economic crisis Job guarantee Labor markets Public service jobs

  

• Research Project Reports | June 2014

  Responding to the Unemployment Challenge: A Job Guarantee Proposal for Greece

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  This report presents the findings from a study undertaken by the Levy Institute in 2013 in collaboration with the Observatory of Economic and Social Developments of the Labour Institute of the Greek General Confederation of Labour. It uses as background the 2011 Levy Institute study “Direct Job Creation for Turbulent Times in Greece,” which focused on the need for direct job creation to address rising unemployment. The focus in this report, however, is different. Here, the aim is to make available to policymakers and the broader public research-based evidence of the macroeconomic and employment effects of a large-scale program of direct job creation program—a cost-effective and proven policy response. The ultimate goal of this undertaking is to draw urgently needed attention to the worsening levels of unemployment in Greece, and to invite critical rethinking of the austerity-driven macro policy instituted in 2010.

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  Research Project Report, April 2014

  Associated Program(s):

  Employment Policy and Labor Markets Gender Equality and the Economy

  Author(s):

  Rania Antonopoulos Sofia Adam Kijong Kim Thomas Masterson Dimitri B. Papadimitriou

  Related Topic(s):

  Direct job creation Employer of Last Resort (ELR) policy Employment guarantee Employment policy Eurozone debt crisis Greece Greek economic crisis Job guarantee Labor markets Public service jobs