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  • Working Paper No. 947 February 06, 2020

    Ages of Financial Instability

    Mario Tonveronachi
    Abstract

    Starting from the mid-nineteenth century, this paper analyzes two periods of financial instability connected with financial globalization. The first culminates with the 1929 crisis, while the second characterizes the more recent experience starting from the 1970s. The period in between is divided into two subperiods. The first goes up to World War II and sees […]

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  • Working Paper No. 946 February 03, 2020

    The Relationship between Technical Progress and Employment

    Jesus Felipe, Gemma Estrada, Donna Faye Bajaro, and John McCombie
    Abstract

    We show that Autor and Salomons’ (2017, 2018) analysis of the impact of technical progress on employment growth is problematic. When they use labor productivity growth as a proxy for technical progress, their regressions are quasi-accounting identities that omit one variable of the identity. Consequently, the coefficient of labor productivity growth suffers from omitted-variable bias, […]

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  • Working Paper No. 945 January 31, 2020

    Demand, Distribution, Productivity, Structural Change, and (Secular?) Stagnation

    Michalis Nikiforos
    Abstract

    The present paper emphasizes the role of demand, income distribution, endogenous productivity reactions, and other structural changes in the slowdown of the growth rate of output and productivity that has been observed in the United States over the last four decades. In particular, it is explained that weak net export demand, fiscal conservatism, and the […]

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  • Public Policy Brief No. 148 January 31, 2020

    Can We Afford the Green New Deal?

    L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
    Abstract

    In this policy brief, Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argue that assessing the “affordability” of the Green New Deal is a question of whether there are suitable and sufficient real resources than can be mobilized to implement this ambitious approach to climate policy. Only after a careful resource accounting can we address […]

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  • Strategic Analysis January 23, 2020

    Prospects and Challenges for the US Economy

    Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Michalis Nikiforos
    Abstract

    This Strategic Analysis examines the US economy’s prospects for 2020–23 and the risks that lie ahead. The baseline projection generated by the Levy Institute’s stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model shows that, given current fiscal arrangements and the slowdown in the global economy, the pace of the US recovery will slacken somewhat, with a growth rate that […]

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  • Strategic Analysis January 17, 2020

    Greece: In Search of Investors

    Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Michalis Nikiforos
    Abstract

    2019 marked the third year of the continuing economic recovery in Greece, with real GDP and employment rising, albeit at modest rates. In this Strategic Analysis we note that the expansion has mainly been driven by net exports, with tourism playing a dominant role. However, household consumption and investment are still too far below their […]

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  • Working Paper No. 944 January 16, 2020

    The Empirics of Canadian Government Securities Yields

    Tanweer Akram, and Anupam Das
    Abstract

    Keynes argued that the short-term interest rate is the main driver of the long-term interest rate. This paper empirically models the relationship between short-term interest rates and long-term government securities yields in Canada, after controlling for other important financial variables. The statistical analysis uses high-frequency daily data from 1990 to 2018. It applies both the […]

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  • Working Paper No. 943 January 15, 2020

    Is China’s Low Fertility Rate Caused by the Population Control Policy?

    Fernando Rios-Avila, Liu Qiang, and Han Jiqin
    Abstract

    Whether China’s low fertility rate is the consequence of the country’s strict population control policy is a puzzling question. This paper attempts to disentangle the Chinese population control policy’s impacts on the fertility rate from socioeconomic factors using the synthetic control method proposed by Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003). The results indicate that the population control […]

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  • Book Series January 10, 2020

    A Great Leap Forward

    L. Randall Wray
    Abstract

    A Great Leap Forward: Heterodox Economic Policy for the 21st Century investigates economic policy from a heterodox and progressive perspective. Author Randall Wray uses relatively short chapters arranged around several macroeconomic policy themes to present an integrated survey of progressive policy on topics of interest today that are likely to remain topics of interest for […]

  • Working Paper No. 942 January 07, 2020

    An Empirical Stock-Flow Consistent Macroeconomic Model for Denmark

    Mikael Randrup Byrialsen, and Hamid Raza
    Abstract

    This paper emphasizes the need for understanding the interdependencies between the real and financial sides of the economy in macroeconomic models. While the real side of the economy is generally well explained in macroeconomic models, the financial side and its interaction with the real economy remains poorly understood. This paper makes an attempt to model […]

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  • Working Paper No. 941 December 12, 2019

    Wage Differential between Palestinian Non-refugees and Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank and Gaza

    Sameh Hallaq
    Abstract

    This paper measures the wage differential between Palestinian non-refugees and Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza over the years 1999–2012. First, the main individual and occupational differences between the two groups in the two regions are presented. Then, the wage differential is decomposed into two components: a “human capital effect, explained part” and […]

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  • Working Paper No. 940 November 21, 2019

    On the “Utilization Controversy”

    Michalis Nikiforos
    Abstract

    The critique by Gahn and González (2019) of the conclusions in Nikiforos (2016) regarding what data should be used to evaluate whether capacity utilization is endogenous to demand is weak for the following reasons: (i) The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) measure of utilization is not appropriate for measuring long-run variations of utilization because of the […]

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  • Testimony November 20, 2019

    Statement of Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray to the House Budget Committee, US House of Representatives

    L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
    Abstract

    On November 20, 2019, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray testified before the House Committee on the Budget on the topic of reexamining the economic costs of debt: "In recent months a new approach to national government budgets, deficits, and debts—Modern Money Theory (MMT)—has been the subject of discussion and controversy. [. . .] In this […]

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  • Working Paper No. 939 October 18, 2019

    The Macroeconomic Loss Due to Violence against Women and Girls

    Kijong Kim, Srinivas Raghavendra, Sinead Ashe, Mrinal Chadha, Felix Asante, Petri T. Piiroinen, and Nata Duvvury
    Abstract

    Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a widely recognized human rights violation with serious consequences for the health and well-being of women and their families. However, the wider ramifications of VAWG for businesses, communities, economies, and societies are only recently being recognized. Despite this recognition, there are few studies exploring how the economic and social […]

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  • Working Paper No. 938 October 15, 2019

    The Impact of the Bank of Japan’s Monetary Policy on Japanese Government Bonds’ Low Nominal Yields

    Tanweer Akram, and Huiqing Li
    Abstract

    Nominal yields for Japanese government bonds (JGBs) have been remarkably low for several decades. Japanese government debt ratios have continued to increase amid a protracted period of stagnant nominal GDP, low inflation, and deflationary pressures. Many analysts are puzzled by the phenomenon of JGBs’ low nominal yields because Japanese government debt ratios are elevated. However, […]

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  • Working Paper No. 937 October 04, 2019

    Indian Fiscal Federalism at the Crossroads

    Lekha S. Chakraborty
    Abstract

    There is a growing recognition that fundamental changes are happening in Indian fiscal federalism ex post the abolition of the Planning Commission, the creation of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, the constitutional amendment to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the establishment of the GST Council, and the historically high tax […]

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  • Book Series October 01, 2019

    Challenges to Indian Fiscal Federalism

    Abstract

    The principle of fiscal federalism enshrined in India’s Constitution is under severe strain today. This book is a key addition to understanding the challenges involved. The authors capture the implications of the abolition of the Planning Commission, the introduction of the controversial Goods and Services Tax regime, and formulation of Terms of Reference of the […]

  • Research Project Report September 17, 2019

    Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Impacts of Improving Physical and Social Infrastructure

    Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, Kijong Kim, Tamar Khitarishvili, Michalis Nikiforos, and Fernando Rios-Avila
    Abstract

    Feminist economics has long emphasized the role of physical and social infrastructure as determinants of the time women spend on household production (the provision of unpaid domestic services and care). Surprisingly, there is a lack of studies that directly investigate how infrastructure improvements affect the time spent on household production and commuting to work, which […]

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  • Working Paper No. 936 September 04, 2019

    Fiscal Reform to Benefit State and Local Governments

    L. Randall Wray
    Abstract

    This paper will present the Modern Money Theory approach to government finance. In short, a national government that chooses its own money of account, imposes a tax in that money of account, and issues currency in that money of account cannot face a financial constraint. It can make all payments as they come due. It […]

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  • Working Paper No. 935 August 22, 2019

    Evolving International Monetary and Financial Architecture and the Development Challenge

    Jörg Bibow
    Abstract

    This paper investigates the peculiar macroeconomic policy challenges faced by emerging economies in today’s monetary (non)order and globalized finance. It reviews the evolution of the international monetary and financial architecture against the background of Keynes’s original Bretton Woods vision, highlighting the US dollar’s hegemonic status. Keynes’s liquidity preference theory informs the analysis of the loss […]

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  • Working Paper No. 934 August 22, 2019

    An Analysis of the Daily Changes in US Treasury Security Yields

    Tanweer Akram, and Anupam Das
    Abstract

    This paper analyzes the dynamics of long-term US Treasury security yields from a Keynesian perspective using daily data. Keynes held that the short-term interest rate is the main driver of the long-term interest rate. In this paper, the daily changes in long-term Treasury security yields are empirically modeled as a function of the daily changes […]

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  • One-Pager No. 60 July 26, 2019

    Fighting Inequality Can Strengthen the US Economy

    Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Gennaro Zezza, and Michalis Nikiforos
    Abstract

    Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recently proposed to increase the rate of taxation on very high incomes and net worth. One of the primary justifications for such policies is that reducing inequality would help safeguard political equality. However, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Michalis Nikiforos, and Gennaro Zezza show how these […]

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  • Working Paper No. 933 July 08, 2019

    Defaultnomics

    Giuseppe Mastromatteo, and Lorenzo Esposito
    Abstract

    The 2008 crisis created a need to rethink many aspects of economic theory, including the role of public intervention in the economy. On this issue, we explore the Barro-Ricardo equivalence, which has played a decisive role in molding the economic policies that fostered the crisis. We analyze the equivalence and its theoretical underpinnings, concluding that: […]

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  • Working Paper No. 932 June 26, 2019

    Rethinking China’s Local Government Debt in the Frame of Modern Money Theory

    Zengping He, and Genliang Jia
    Abstract

    Local government debt in China is increasing and presents a great threat to China’s financial stability. In China’s fiscal system, the central government often prioritizes reducing its fiscal deficit and can determine to a great extent the distribution of revenue and expenditure between itself and local governments. There is therefore a tendency for the fiscal […]

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Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
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The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, founded in 1986 through the generous support of Bard College trustee Leon Levy, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. The Levy Institute is independent of any political or other affiliation, and encourages diversity of opinion in the examination of economic policy issues while striving to transform ideological arguments into informed debate.