Publications

1681 publications found

• Working Paper No. 430 November 22, 2005

  Are Long-run Price Stability and Short-run Output Stabilization All That Monetary Policy Can Aim For?

  Giuseppe Fontana, and Alfonso Palacio-Vera
  Abstract

  A central tenet of the so-called "new consensus" view in macroeconomics is that there is no long-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment. The main policy implication of this principle is that all monetary policy can aim for is (modest) short-run output stabilization and long-run price stability—i.e., monetary policy is neutral with respect to output and […]

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• Working Paper No. 429 November 14, 2005

  Bad for Euroland, Worse for Germany

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This paper assesses the contribution of the European Central Bank (ECB) to Germany’s ongoing economic crisis, a vicious circle of decline in which the country has become stuck since the early 1990s. It is argued that the ECB continues the Bundesbank tradition of asymmetric policymaking: the bank is quick to hike, but slow to ease. […]

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• Policy Notes No. 6 September 28, 2005

  Social Security’s 70th Anniversary

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Social Security turned 70 on August 14, although no national celebration marked the occasion. Rather, our top policymakers in Washington continue to suggest that the system is “unsustainable.” While our nation’s most successful social program, and among its longest lived, has allowed generations of Americans to live with dignity in retirement, many think it is […]

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• Strategic Analysis September 06, 2005

  The United States and Her Creditors

  Claudio H. Dos Santos, Wynne Godley, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  The main arguments in this paper can be simply stated: 1) If output in the United States grows fast enough to keep unemployment constant between now and 2010, and if there is no further depreciation in the dollar, the deficit in the balance of trade is likely to get worse, perhaps reaching 7.5 per cent […]

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• Working Paper No. 428 August 25, 2005

  Europe’s Quest for Monetary Stability

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This paper provides an overview of central banking arrangements in those European countries that have adopted the euro. Issues addressed include the structure of the “Eurosystem” and its central banking functions, the kind of independence granted to the system and the role of monetary policy that central bankers have adopted for themselves, the “two-pillar policy […]

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• Working Paper No. 427 August 12, 2005

  Liquidity Preference Theory Revisited

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This paper revisits Keynes’s liquidity preference theory as it evolved from the Treatise on Money to The General Theory and after, with a view of assessing the theory’s ongoing relevance and applicability to issues of both monetary theory and policy. Contrary to the neoclassical “special case” interpretation, Keynes considered his liquidity preference theory of interest […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 82 August 03, 2005

  The Ownership Society

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  As his new term begins, President George W. Bush has been trying to focus his domestic agenda on what he calls the “ownership society,” a sweeping vision of an America in which more citizens would hold significant assets and be free to make their own choices about providing for their health care and retirement, and […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 82, 2005 PDF (488.89 KB)
• Working Paper No. 426 July 20, 2005

  Gender Inequality in a Globalizing World

  Stephanie Seguino
  Abstract

  Emphasis on market-friendly macroeconomic and development strategies in recent years has resulted in deleterious effects on growth and well-being, and has done little to promote greater gender equality. This paper argues that the example of East Asia states, which recognized their position as “late industrializers,” relied on a managed-market approach with the state that employed […]

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• Working Paper No. 425 July 11, 2005

  Refocusing the ECB on Output Stabilization and Growth through Inflation Targeting?

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  Challenging the conventional wisdom that structural problems are to blame for the euro area’s protracted domestic demand stagnation, this paper sets out to shed some fresh light on the role of the ECB in the ongoing EMU crisis. Contrary to the widely held interpretation of the ECB as an inflation targeter—and a rather soft one, […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 81 June 27, 2005

  Breaking Out of the Deficit Trap

  James K. Galbraith
  Abstract

  For some time, Levy Institute scholars have been engaged with issues related to the current account, government, and private sector balances. We have argued that the existing imbalances in these accounts are unsustainable and will ultimately present a serious challenge to the performance of the American economy. Other scholars are also concerned, but for reasons […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 81, 2005 PDF (561.02 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 5 June 16, 2005

  Some Unpleasant American Arithmetic

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  Is it sufficiently realized how intractable those account imbalances—and how dangerous their potential consequences at home and abroad—have now become?

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• Working Paper No. 424 June 15, 2005

  Macroeconomics of Speculation

  Korkut A. Ertürk
  Abstract

  Despite his emphasis on the speculative character of investment decisions, Minsky paid little attention to asset price speculation per se, ignoring asset price bubbles and their macroeconomic effects. That is perhaps because his views were formed during the era of financial regulation, when speculation “could do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of […]

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• Working Paper No. 423 May 06, 2005

  Is More Mobility Good? Firm Mobility and the Low Wage–Low Productivity Trap

  Stephanie Seguino
  Abstract

  This paper explores the possibility that unregulated FDI flows are causally implicated in the decline in labor productivity growth in semi-industrialized economies. These effects are hypothesized to operate through the negative impact of firm mobility on worker bargaining power and thus affecting wages. Downward pressure on wages can reduce the pressure on firms to raise […]

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• Research Project Report May 01, 2005

  Interim Report

  Hyunsub Kum, Edward N. Wolff, and Ajit Zacharias
  Abstract

  This interim report compares the LIMEW and official measures of economic well-being for 1989–2002, a period marked by the economic boom of the late 1990s and a mild recession in 2001–02. All measures show that the well-being of the average American household was significantly higher in 2000 than in 1989, with most of the improvement […]

  Download LIMEW Report, May 2005 PDF (342.81 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 4 April 29, 2005

  Imbalances Looking for a Policy

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  The latest batch of numbers from the United States makes for a disturbing read. The GDP growth rate of GDP has been adequate. However, the current account deficit was 6.3 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2004, and the terrible trade figures for January and February promise an even bigger deficit in the […]

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• Working Paper No. 422 April 29, 2005

  The Disutility of International Debt

  Abstract

  In dealing with the problematic relationship of morality to rational choice theory, neoclassical economists since Lionel Robbins have often argued that they can incorporate moral values into consumer theory by putting those values into the utility function. This paper tests the viability of such an approach in the context of international finance. The moral value […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 April 26, 2005

  Is the Dollar at Risk?

  Korkut A. Ertürk
  Abstract

  A massive fiscal stimulus and, until recently, aggressive monetary easing have been successful in raising bond and real estate prices to unprecedented levels, inducing a credit boom that has prevented private consumption from falling. While it might still be too early to say that it worked, the strategy has indeed, for the time being, prevented […]

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• Working Paper No. 421 April 07, 2005

  A Simplified Stock-flow Consistent Post-Keynesian Growth Model

  Claudio H. Dos Santos, and Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  Despite being arguably the most rigorous form of structuralist/post-Keynesian macroeconomics, stock-flow consistent models are quite often complex and difficult to deal with. This paper presents a model that, despite retaining the methodological advantages of the stock-flow consistent method, is intuitive enough to be taught at an undergraduate level. Moreover, the model can easily be made […]

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• Working Paper No. 420 March 25, 2005

  Is the Equalizing Effect of Retirement Wealth Wearing Off?

  Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  Retirement wealth is often viewed as a great equalizer, offsetting the inequality in standard household net worth. One of the most dramatic changes in the retirement income system over the last two decades has been a decline in traditional Defined Benefit (DB) pension plans and a sharp rise in Defined Contribution (DC) pensions. Using data […]

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• Working Paper No. 419 March 08, 2005

  FDIC-sponsored Self-Insured Depositors

  Panos Konstas
  Abstract

  Insured depositors have no reason to care how their banks perform or how safe they are.  Only uninsured depositors have that incentive.  This paper offers a plan to replace some insured deposits with uninsured deposits.  The plan: the FDIC would guarantee loan contracts if the loan takers deposited the proceeds exclusively in uninsured deposits and […]

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• Strategic Analysis March 01, 2005

  How Fragile Is the US Economy?

  Claudio H. Dos Santos, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Anwar M. Shaikh, and Gennaro Zezza
  Abstract

  As we projected in a previous Strategic Analysis, the United States’ economy experienced growth rates higher than 4 percent in 2004. The question we want to raise in this Strategic Analysis is whether these rates will persist or come back down. We believe that several signs point in the latter direction. In what follows, we […]

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• Research Project Report March 01, 2005

  Economic Well-Being in US Regions and the Red and Blue States

  Edward N. Wolff, and Ajit Zacharias
  Abstract

  This report analyzes regional aspects of economic well-being according to four regions identified by the United States Census Bureau: the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. Using the official measures and the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW), the authors examine how the average American household fared from 1989 to 2001 and discuss disparities in […]

  Download LIMEW Report, March 2005 PDF (1.59 MB)
• Working Paper No. 418 February 24, 2005

  Asset Ownership along Gender Lines

  Rania Antonopoulos, and Maria Sagrario Floro
  Abstract

  Gender differences have long been documented in earnings, employment opportunities, and time spent within the unpaid care economy. This paper joins the recent efforts in the economics literature on gender differences in asset ownership. Specifically, it investigates whether a gender-specific composition in asset ownership between heads of households and spouses can be detected among low-income, […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 February 08, 2005

  Manufacturing a Crisis

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  For seven decades, the far right has never veered from its avowed mission to gut America’s most comprehensive, successful, and popular safety net: Social Security. While it had won a few small battles (most notably, the Greenspan Commission’s huge 1983 payroll tax hikes and two-year increase in the normal retirement age), its efforts never gained […]

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