levyinstitute.org Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700:3032::ac43:8385  Public Scan

URL: http://levyinstitute.org/
Submission Tags: tranco_l324
Submission: On November 11 via api from DE — Scanned from DE

Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM

Name: topSearchGET https://www.levyinstitute.org/search/website.php

<form method="get" action="https://www.levyinstitute.org/search/website.php" name="topSearch">
  <input type="text" name="q" value="Search Levy" size="20" class="text" onfocus="this.value='';">
  <input type="submit" value="Go" class="submit">
</form>

Text Content

Advanced Search >



 * About Us
   * About the Levy Economics Institute
   * Board of Governors
   * Blithewood
   * Staff Directory
   * Employment at the Levy Institute
   * Visit the Levy Institute

 * Research
   * Research Programs:
   * The State of the US and World Economies
   * Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
   * The Distribution of Income and Wealth
   *   • Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being
   *   • Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty
   * Gender Equality and the Economy
   *   • Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty
   * Employment Policy and Labor Markets
   * Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Structure
   * Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   *   • Federal Budget Policy
   *   • Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis
   *   • INET–Levy Institute Project
     

 * Network
     
   * Economics Program at Bard
   * Bard Program in Economics and Finance
   * Greek Labour Institute Partnership
   * Economists for Peace and Security
   * Economists for Full Employment
   * GEM-IWG

 * Topics
   * Current Research Topics:
   * COVID-19
   * Greek economic crisis
   * Labor force participation
   * Income inequality
   * Job guarantee
   * Employment policy
   * Financial instability
   * Stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling
   * Time deficits
   * Fiscal austerity
   * VIEW ALL

 * Scholars
   * By Name
   * By Program

 * Publications
   * 
   * Research Project Reports
   * Strategic Analysis
   * Public Policy Briefs
   * Policy Notes
   * One-Pagers
   * Working Papers
   * LIMEW Reports
   * LIMTIP Reports
   * Testimony
   * e-pamphlets
   * Book Series
   * Summary
   * Conference Proceedings
   * Biennial Reports
   * Public Policy Brief Highlights
   * In TranslationΔημοσιεύσεις στα
     Ελληνικά

 * Events

 * Support Us

 * Press Room
   * Press Releases
   * In the Media
     
   * Sign Up for eNews

 * Ford-Levy Institute Projects

 * Στα Ελληνικά

 * Levy-UNDP

 * Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy

 * LIMEW

 * LIMTIP

 * Minsky Archive

 * Blog

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 




The Pandemic, the Stimulus, and the Future Prospects for the US Economy
 MORE >>



LEVY INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS

 * THE PANDEMIC, THE STIMULUS, AND THE FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR THE US ECONOMY
   
   View More View Less
   
   Strategic Analysis, June 2021 | June 2021 | Dimitri B. Papadimitriou,
   Michalis Nikiforos, Gennaro Zezza
   In this report, Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research
   Scholars Michalis Nikiforos and Gennaro Zezza analyze how the US economy was
   affected by the pandemic and its prospects for recovery.
    
   Their baseline simulation using the Institute’s stock-flow macroeconometric
   model shows a significant pickup in the growth rate in 2021 as a result of
   the American Rescue Plan Act. The report includes two additional scenarios
   simulated on top of the baseline, finding that President Biden’s
   infrastructure and families plans—whether paired with offsetting tax
   increases on high-earners or “deficit financed”—would have positive
   macroeconomic effects. Additionally, Papadimitriou, Nikiforos, and Zezza warn
   that if US policymakers do not prioritize decreasing the trade deficit,
   maintaining growth will require either continuous and very high government
   deficits or the private sector once again becoming a net borrower.
    
   Finally, they argue that concerns about a sharp increase in inflation spurred
   by the fiscal stimulus are unwarranted: the US economy was not close to full
   employment or full utilization of resources before the pandemic, and the
   propagation mechanisms that could lead to accelerating inflation are not in
   place.
   Download:
   Strategic Analysis, June 2021
   Associated Program:
   The State of the US and World Economies
   Author(s):
   Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Michalis Nikiforos Gennaro Zezza
   Related Topic(s):
   COVID-19 Macroeconomic impact Macroeconomic policy Stock-flow consistent
   (SFC) modeling
   
   
   

 * RESTARTING THE GREEK ECONOMY?
   
   View More View Less
   
   Strategic Analysis, May 2021 | May 2021 | Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, ,
   Nikolaos Rodousakis, Gennaro Zezza
   The Greek economy—still fragile due to the lingering effects of the 2009–10
   crisis—was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Greece’s 2020 GDP
   decline was one of the worst among the group of EU and eurozone member
   states, along with the highest levels of unemployment and underemployment.
   
   Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Christos Pierros, Nikos Rodousakis, and Gennaro
   Zezza update their analysis of the state of the Greek economy on the basis of
   recently released provisional data for 2020Q4, and model three projections
   through 2023: (1) a baseline scenario in which no agreement is reached on the
   disbursement of EU funds (the Recovery and Resilience Facility); (2) a
   scenario in which EU grants and loans are distributed in a timely manner; and
   (3) an additional scenario that pairs EU funds with implementation of an
   employer-of-last resort program. The second scenario would see Greece’s GDP
   growth return to its pre-pandemic trend—albeit still leaving the economy
   below the level of real GDP it reached in 2008. The third scenario has the
   most favorable impact on growth and employment—raising real GDP above its
   pre-pandemic trend. Failure to achieve a proper recovery of GDP in Greece
   would be directly related to an absence of fiscal policy expansion.
   
   This Strategic Analysis is the joint product of the Levy Economics Institute
   of Bard College and INE-GSEE (Athens, Greece). It is simultaneously issued in
   both English and Greek.
   Download:
   Strategic Analysis, May 2021
   Associated Program:
   The State of the US and World Economies
   Author(s):
   Dimitri B. Papadimitriou Nikolaos Rodousakis Gennaro Zezza
   Related Topic(s):
   COVID-19 Employer of Last Resort (ELR) policy Greece Greek economic crisis
   Levy Institute Model for Greece (LIMG) Stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling
   
   
   

 * CAN BIDEN BUILD BACK BETTER?
   
   View More View Less
   
   Public Policy Brief No. 155 | June 2021 | Yeva Nersisyan , L. Randall Wray
   
   YES, IF HE ABANDONS FISCAL “PAY FORS"
   
   President Biden’s proposals for investing in social and physical
   infrastructure signal a return to a budget-neutral policymaking framework
   that has largely been set aside since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.
   According Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray, this focus on ensuring revenues
   keep pace with spending increases can undermine the goals internal to both
   the public investment and tax components of the administration’s plans: the
   “pay for” approach limits our spending on progressive policy to what we can
   raise through taxes, and we will only tax the amount we need to spend.
   
   Nersisyan and Wray propose an alternative approach to budgeting for
   large-scale public expenditure programs. In their view, policymakers should
   evaluate spending and tax proposals on their own terms, according to the
   goals each is intended to meet. If the purpose of taxing corporations and
   wealthy individuals is to reduce inequality, then the tax changes should be
   formulated to accomplish that—not to “raise funds” to finance proposed
   spending. And while it is possible that general tax hikes might be needed to
   prevent public investment programs from fueling inflation, they argue that
   the kinds of taxes proposed by the administration would do little to relieve
   inflationary pressures should they arise. Under current economic
   circumstances, however, the president’s proposed infrastructure spending
   should not require budgetary offsets or other measures to control inflation
   in their estimation.
   Download:
   Public Policy Brief No. 155
   Associated Program(s):
   The State of the US and World Economies Federal Budget Policy Economic Policy
   for the 21st Century
   Author(s):
   Yeva Nersisyan L. Randall Wray
   
   
   

 * ANOTHER BRETTON WOODS REFORM MOMENT
   
   View More View Less
   
   Public Policy Brief No. 154, 2021 | February 2021 | Jan Kregel
   
   LET US LOOK SERIOUSLY AT THE CLEARING UNION
   
   This policy brief explores a route to remaking the international financial
   system that would avoid the contradictions inherent in some of the prevailing
   reform proposals currently under discussion. Senior Scholar Jan Kregel argues
   that the willingness of central banks to consider electronic currency
   provides an opening to reconsider a truly innovative reform of the
   international financial system, and one that is more appropriate to a digital
   monetary world: John Maynard Keynes’s original clearing union proposal.
    
   Kregel investigates whether such a clearing system could be built up from an
   already-existing initiative that has emerged in the private sector. He
   analyzes the operations of a private, cross-border payment system that could
   serve as a real-world blueprint for a more politically palatable equivalent
   of Keynes’s international clearing union.
   Download:
   Public Policy Brief No. 154, 2021
   Associated Program(s):
   Monetary Policy and Financial Structure The State of the US and World
   Economies
   Author(s):
   Jan Kregel
   Related Topic(s):
   Clearing union John Maynard Keynes Webtel.mobi
   
   
   

 * A RECOVERY FOR WHOM?
   
   View More View Less
   
   Policy Note 2021/4 | November 2021 | Vlassis Missos, Nikolaos Rodousakis,
   George Soklis
   
   THE CASE OF THE GREEK TOURISM SECTOR
   
   The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed multiple risks faced by economies whose
   production structures depend on the volatility of international conditions.
   In the case of Greece, this has manifested itself in the severe impact the
   pandemic has had on one of the linchpins of the Greek economy: the tourism
   sector. Vlassis Missos, Nikolaos Rodousakis, and George Soklis document the
   impact of the pandemic on tourism and the significance of tourism revenues
   for Greece’s 2021 GDP recovery. They argue that the distributional effect of
   the tourism sector plays a significant role in overall income inequality in
   Greece and develop a number of policy recommendations aiming to correct some
   of the problematic aspects of the country’s tourism sector.
   Download:
   Policy Note 2021/4
   Associated Program:
   The State of the US and World Economies
   Author(s):
   Vlassis Missos Nikolaos Rodousakis George Soklis
   Related Topic(s):
   COVID-19 Greece
   
   
   

 * WHY PRESIDENT BIDEN SHOULD ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES TO BUILD BACK BETTER
   
   View More View Less
   
   Policy Note 2021/3 | June 2021 | Edward Lane, L. Randall Wray
   Edward Lane and L. Randall Wray explain how federal taxes on corporate
   profits are not well suited to either containing inflationary pressures or
   reducing inequality. They are not only a poor complement to President Biden’s
   proposed infrastructure plans, but are inefficient and ineffective taxes more
   broadly, according to Lane and Wray. The authors follow Hyman Minsky in
   recommending the elimination of corporate taxes, and they outline a
   replacement centered on the taxation of unrealized capital gains.
   Download:
   Policy Note 2021/3
   Associated Program(s):
   Economic Policy for the 21st Century Federal Budget Policy
   Author(s):
   Edward Lane L. Randall Wray
   Related Topic(s):
   Corporate taxes COVID-19 Federal budget policy
   
   
   

 * WHAT IS MMT’S STATE OF PLAY IN WASHINGTON?
   
   View More View Less
   
   e-pamphlet, August 2021 | August 2021 | L. Randall Wray
   Modern Money Theory (MMT) has been frequently mentioned in recent media—first
   as “crazy talk” that if followed would bankrupt the nation and then, after
   the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as a way to finance an emergency response. In
   recent months, however, Washington seems to have returned to the old view
   that government spending must be “paid for” with new taxes. This raises the
   question: Has MMT really made headway with policymakers? This e-pamphlet
   examines the extraordinary interview given recently by Representative John
   Yarmuth’s (D, KY-03), Chair of the House Budget Committee, in which he
   explicitly adopts an MMT approach to budgeting. Chairman Yarmuth also lays
   out a path for realizing the major elements of President Biden’s proposals.
   Finally, Wray summarizes a recent presentation he gave to the Congressional
   Budget Office’s Macroeconomic Analysis section that urged reconsideration of
   the way that fiscal policy impacts are assessed.
   Download:
   e-pamphlet, August 2021
   Associated Program(s):
   Monetary Policy and Financial Structure Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   The State of the US and World Economies
   Author(s):
   L. Randall Wray
   Related Topic(s):
   Federal budget policy Fiscal policy Functional finance Modern Money Theory
   (MMT)
   
   
   

 * STATEMENT OF SENIOR SCHOLAR L. RANDALL WRAY TO THE HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE, US
   HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
   
   View More View Less
   
   Testimony, November 20, 2019 | November 2019 | L. Randall Wray, Yeva
   Nersisyan
   
   REEXAMINING THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF DEBT
   
   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 testimony I do not want to rehash the theoretical foundations of MMT.
   Instead I will highlight empirical facts with the goal of explaining the
   causes and consequences of the intransigent federal budget deficits and the
   growing national government debt. I hope that developing an understanding of
   the dynamics involved will make the topic of deficits and debt less daunting.
   I will conclude by summarizing the MMT views on this topic, hoping to set the
   record straight."
   
   Update 1/7/2020: In an appendix, L. Randall Wray responds to a Question for
   the Record submitted by Rep. Ilhan Omar
   Download:
   Testimony, November 20, 2019
   Associated Program(s):
   Monetary Policy and Financial Structure Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   Author(s):
   L. Randall Wray Yeva Nersisyan
   Related Topic(s):
   Debt reduction Fiscal deficit Fiscal policy Modern Money Theory (MMT)
   Monetary policy National debt
   
   
   

 * SCOPE AND EFFECTS OF REDUCING TIME DEFICITS VIA INTRAHOUSEHOLD REDISTRIBUTION
   OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION
   
   View More View Less
   
   Research Project Report, July 2021 | July 2021 | Ajit Zacharias, Thomas
   Masterson, Fernando Rios-Avila, Abena D. Oduro
   
   EVIDENCE FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
   
   Gender disparity in the division of responsibilities for unpaid care and
   domestic work (household production) is a central and pervasive component of
   inequalities between men and women and boys and girls. Reducing disparity in
   household production figures as one element of the goal of gender equality
   enshrined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and
   feminist scholars and political activists have articulated that the
   redistribution of household production responsibilities from females to males
   is important for its own sake, as well as for achieving gender equality in
   labor market outcomes. A cursory examination of available cross-country data
   indicates that higher per capita GDP—the neoliberal panacea for most societal
   malaise—provides little bulwark against the gender inequality in household
   production.
    
   Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, Fernando Rios-Avila, and Abena D. Oduro
   contribute to the literature on the intrahousehold distribution of household
   production by placing the question within a framework of analyzing
   deprivation, applying that framework to better understand the interactions
   between poverty and the gendered division of labor in four sub-Saharan
   African nations: Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania. Central to
   their framework is the notion that attaining a minimal standard of living
   requires command over an adequate basket of commodities and sufficient time
   to be spent on home production, where meeting those requirements produces
   benefits for all—including those beyond the household.
    
   Their findings motivate questions regarding the feasibility and effectiveness
   of redistribution of household responsibilities to alleviate time deficits
   and their impoverishing effects. By developing a framework to assess the
   mechanics of redistribution among family members and applying it to
   gender-based redistribution, they derive the maximum extent to which
   redistribution—either among all family members, between sexes, or between
   husbands and wives—can lower the incidence of time deficits. The conclude
   with a discussion of alternative principles of distributing household
   production responsibilities among family members and examine their impact on
   the Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty (LIMTCP) and discuss
   some policy questions in light of their findings.
   Download:
   Research Project Report, July 2021
   Associated Program:
   The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being
   Author(s):
   Ajit Zacharias Thomas Masterson Fernando Rios-Avila Abena D. Oduro
   Related Topic(s):
   Gender disparities Levy Institute Measure of Time and Consumption Poverty
   (LIMTCP) Sub-Saharan Africa Time poverty Time use
   
   
   

 * PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT
   
   View More View Less
   
   Research Project Report, April 2018 | April 2018 | L. Randall Wray, Flavia
   Dantas, Scott Fullwiler, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Stephanie A. Kelton
   
   A PATH TO FULL EMPLOYMENT
   
   Despite reports of a healthy US labor market, millions of Americans remain
   unemployed and underemployed, or have simply given up looking for work. It is
   a problem that plagues our economy in good times and in bad—there are never
   enough jobs available for all who want to work. L. Randall Wray, Flavia
   Dantas, Scott Fullwiler, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, and Stephanie A. Kelton
   examine the impact of a new “job guarantee” proposal that would seek to
   eliminate involuntary unemployment by directly creating jobs in the
   communities where they are needed.
    
   The authors propose the creation of a Public Service Employment (PSE) program
   that would offer a job at a living wage to all who are ready and willing to
   work. Federally funded but with a decentralized administration, the PSE
   program would pay $15 per hour and offer a basic package of benefits. This
   report simulates the economic impact over a ten-year period of implementing
   the PSE program beginning in 2018Q1.
    
   Unemployment, hidden and official, with all of its attendant social harms, is
   a policy choice. The results in this report lend more weight to the argument
   that it is a policy choice we need no longer tolerate. True full employment
   is both achievable and sustainable.
   Download:
   Research Project Report, April 2018
   Associated Program:
   Employment Policy and Labor Markets
   Author(s):
   L. Randall Wray Flavia Dantas Scott Fullwiler Pavlina R. Tcherneva Stephanie
   A. Kelton
   Related Topic(s):
   Economic policy Employer of Last Resort (ELR) policy Employment guarantee Job
   guarantee
   
   
   

 * THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF STUDENT DEBT CANCELLATION
   
   View More View Less
   
   Research Project Report, February 2018 | February 2018 | Scott Fullwiler,
   Stephanie A. Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin, Marshall Steinbaum
   Among the more ambitious policies that have been proposed to address the
   problem of escalating student loan debt are various forms of debt
   cancellation. In this report, Scott Fullwiler, Research Associate Stephanie
   Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin, and Marshall Steinbaum examine the likely
   macroeconomic impacts of a one-time, federally funded cancellation of all
   outstanding student debt.
   
   The report analyzes households’ mounting reliance on debt to finance higher
   education, including the distributive implications of student debt and debt
   cancellation; describes the financial mechanics required to carry out the
   cancellation of debt held by the Department of Education (which makes up the
   vast majority of student loans outstanding) as well as privately owned
   student debt; and uses two macroeconometric models to provide a plausible
   range for the likely impacts of student debt cancellation on key economic
   variables over a 10-year horizon.
   
   The authors find that cancellation would have a meaningful stimulus effect,
   characterized by greater economic activity as measured by GDP and employment,
   with only moderate effects on the federal budget deficit, interest rates, and
   inflation (while state budgets improve). These results suggest that policies
   like student debt cancellation can be a viable part of a needed reorientation
   of US higher education policy.
    
   Download:
   Research Project Report, February 2018
   Associated Program(s):
   Economic Policy for the 21st Century The State of the US and World Economies
   Author(s):
   Scott Fullwiler Stephanie A. Kelton Catherine Ruetschlin Marshall Steinbaum
   Related Topic(s):
   Consumer spending Debt cancellation Education Government intervention
   Household debt
   
   
   

 * ARE CONCERNS OVER GROWING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEBT MISPLACED?
   
   View More View Less
   
   One-Pager No. 68 | November 2021 | L. Randall Wray
   With the US Treasury cutting checks totaling approximately $5 trillion to
   deal with the COVID-19 crisis, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argues that
   when it comes to the federal government, concerns about affordability and
   solvency can both be laid to rest. According to Wray, the question is never
   whether the federal government can spend more, but whether it should. And
   while there are still strongly held beliefs about the negative impacts of
   deficits and debt on inflation, interest rates, growth, and exchange rates,
   with two centuries of experience the evidence for these concerns is mixed at
   best.
   Download:
   One-Pager No. 68
   Associated Program(s):
   The State of the US and World Economies Federal Budget Policy Economic Policy
   for the 21st Century
   Author(s):
   L. Randall Wray
   Related Topic(s):
   Federal budget policy Federal debt Federal deficit Inflation Modern Money
   Theory (MMT) Monetary policy
   
   
   

 * SHOULD CORPORATE TAX HIKES BE INCLUDED IN BIDEN’S “BUILD BACK BETTER” PLANS?
   
   View More View Less
   
   One-Pager No. 67 | June 2021 | Edward Lane, L. Randall Wray
   President Biden has proposed pairing his American Jobs Plan with an increase
   in federal corporate income taxes. Leaving aside the issue of whether any tax
   increases are needed to “pay for” the plan, Edward Lane and L. Randall Wray
   assess the proposed corporate profits tax hike in terms of its ability to
   meet two objectives: (1) fighting potential inflation that might result from
   the new Jobs Plan (and all the other relief and stimulus plans enacted), and
   (2) taxing the rich to reduce inequality. They argue the federal corporate
   income tax is far less effective at combating inflation and inequality than
   what many might think, and propose replacing corporate taxation with taxes on
   individuals that would ensure the burden is mostly imposed on high earners.
   Download:
   One-Pager No. 67
   Associated Program(s):
   Economic Policy for the 21st Century Federal Budget Policy
   Author(s):
   Edward Lane L. Randall Wray
   Related Topic(s):
   Corporate taxes Federal budget policy
   
   
   

 * THE EMPLOYER OF LAST RESORT SCHEME AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION
   
   View More View Less
   
   Working Paper No. 995 | November 2021 | Giuliano Toshiro Yajima
   
   A STOCK-FLOW CONSISTENT ANALYSIS
   
   The health and economic crises of 2020–21 have revived the debate on fiscal
   policy as a major tool for stabilization and meeting long-term goals. The
   massive surge in unemployment, due to the economic disruption of the lockdown
   measures, has increased the interest in policies that target employment
   directly instead of trying to achieve it via a general “demand push.” One of
   the proposals currently under debate is the job guarantee. Under such a
   policy the government would act as an “employer of last resort” by offering a
   job to everyone that is able and wants to work but cannot find a job in the
   private sector. This paper argues that a carefully designed scheme of direct
   employment and public provision by the state—addressing both the low- and
   high-skill workforce—can have permanent effects and promote the economy’s
   structural transformation, in particular by fostering energy transition and a
   lower carbon footprint. Starting from this point, a stock-flow consistent
   model is developed to study the long-run effect of the job guarantee’s
   implementation, inspired by the work of Godin (2013) and Sawyer and
   Passarella (2021).
   Download:
   Working Paper No. 995
   Associated Program:
   Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   Author(s):
   Giuliano Toshiro Yajima
   Related Topic(s):
   Green jobs Job guarantee Stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling Structural
   change
   
   
   

 * PRODUCTION FUNCTION ESTIMATION
   
   View More View Less
   
   Working Paper No. 994 | October 2021 | Jesus Felipe, John McCombie, Aashish
   Mehta, Donna Faye Bajaro
   
   BIASED COEFFICIENTS AND ENDOGENOUS REGRESSORS, OR A CASE OF COLLECTIVE
   AMNESIA?
   
   The possible endogeneity of labor and capital in production functions, and
   the consequent bias of the estimated elasticities, has been discussed and
   addressed in the literature in different ways since the 1940s. This paper
   revisits an argument first outlined in the 1950s, which questioned production
   function estimations. This argument is that output, capital, and employment
   are linked through a distribution accounting identity, a key point that the
   recent literature has overlooked. This identity can be rewritten as a form
   that resembles a production function (Cobb-Douglas, CES, translog). We show
   that this happens because the data used in empirical exercises are value
   (monetary) data, not physical quantities. The argument has clear predictions
   about the size of the factor elasticities and about what is commonly
   interpreted as the bias of the estimated elasticities. To test these
   predictions, we estimate a typical Cobb-Douglas function using five
   estimators and show that: (i) the identity is responsible for the fact that
   the elasticities must be the factor shares; (ii) the bias of the estimated
   elasticities (i.e., departure from the factor shares) is, in reality, caused
   by the omission of a term in the identity. However, unlike in the standard
   omitted-variable bias problem, here the omitted term is known; and (iii) the
   estimation method is a second-order issue. Estimation methods that
   theoretically deal with endogeneity, including the most recent ones, cannot
   solve this problem. We conclude that the use of monetary values rather than
   physical data poses an insoluble problem for the estimation of production
   functions. This is, consequently, far more serious than any supposed
   endogeneity problems.
   Download:
   Working Paper No. 994
   Associated Program:
   Explorations in Theory and Empirical Analysis
   Author(s):
   Jesus Felipe John McCombie Aashish Mehta Donna Faye Bajaro
   Related Topic(s):
   Accounting identity Endogeneity Monetary values Production functions Total
   factor productivity (TFP)
   
   
   

 * SUMMARY SPRING 2021
   
   View More View Less
   
   Volume 30, No. 2 | May 2021 | Elizabeth Dunn, Michael Stephens
   A trio of publications in this Summary explores how the plumbing of an
   existing cross-border payment system associated with a private company
   provides the operational blueprints for a potential revival of John Maynard
   Keynes’s international clearing union proposal, and how the willingness of
   central banks to consider electronic currency provides an opening to
   reconsider this reform. Working papers in this issue argue that once we
   understand the purposes and incidence of corporate taxation, it is revealed
   to be a particularly inefficient tax; explain that while Japan, which is
   occasionally held up as a poster child for Modern Money Theory (MMT), helps
   demonstrates some of the errors of mainstream thinking concerning sovereign
   budgeting, policy-wise the country has not been in line with MMT
   prescriptions; investigate the impact of pandemic-associated daycare closures
   on the time parents of young children dedicate to caregiving in Turkey; apply
   Hyman Minsky’s work on public employment programs to demonstrate how jobs
   that generate socially useful output can help us face today’s challenges and
   create a greener tomorrow; analyze factors that may explain the gendered
   differences in household production burdens to identify where policy can help
   achieve a more egalitarian distribution and reduce women’s time poverty;
   review three strands of literature on the Palestinian labor market over the
   past three decades, illustrating how the ongoing conflict in the region
   impacts decisions around education and employment; build stock-flow
   consistent (SFC) models for Latin American economies to demonstrate the
   balance sheet effects of currency depreciation and test the impact of
   alternative policy scenarios; reflect on Keynes’s writings on the state
   theory of money, financial markets, and uncertainty; and consider the
   empirics of long-term bond yields in Mexico.
    
   INSTITUTE RESEARCH
   Program: The State of the US and World Economies
   LORENZO NALIN and GIULIANO TOSHIRO YAJIMA, Balance Sheet Effects of a
   Currency Devaluation: A Stock-Flow Consistent Framework for Mexico
    
   SEBASTIAN VALDECANTOS, Argentina’s (Macroeconomic?) Trap: Some Insights from
   an Empirical Stock-Flow Consistent Model
    
   Program: Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
   JAN KREGEL, Keynes’s Clearing Union Is Alive and Well and Living in Your
   Mobile Phone
    
   JAN KREGEL, Another Bretton Woods Reform Moment: Let Us Look Seriously at the
   Clearing Union
    
   L. RANDALL WRAY and YEVA NERSISYAN, Has Japan Been Following Modern Money
   Theory Without Recognizing It? No! And Yes.
    
   TANWEER AKRAM and SYED AL-HELAL UDDIN, The Empirics of Long-Term Mexican
   Government Bond Yields
    
   JAN KREGEL, The Economic Problem: From Barter to Commodity Money to
   Electronic Money
    
   TANWEER AKRAM, A Note Concerning Government Bond Yields
    
   Program: Distribution of Wealth and Income
   FERNANDO RIOS-AVILA, ABENA D. ODURO, and LUIZA NASSIF PIRES, Intrahousehold
   Allocation of Household Production: A Comparative Analysis for Sub-Saharan
   African Countries
    
   Program: Employment Policy and Labor Markets
   DANIEL HAIM, What Jobs Should a Public Job Guarantee Provide? Lessons from
   Hyman P. Minsky
    
   SAMEH HALLAQ, The Palestinian Labor Market over the Last Three Decades
    
   Program: Gender Equality and the Economy
   EMEL MEMIŞ and EBRU KONGAR, Potential Impact of Daycare Closures on Parental
   Child Caregiving in Turkey
    
   Program: Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   EDWARD LANE and L. RANDALL WRAY, Is It Time to Eliminate Federal Corporate
   Income Taxes?
    
   INSTITUTE NEWS
   UPCOMING EVENTS
   29th Annual Hyman. P. Minsky Conference
   Download:
   Volume 30, No. 2
   Author(s):
   Elizabeth Dunn Michael Stephens
   
   
   

 * A GREAT LEAP FORWARD
   
   View More View Less
   
   Book Series, January 2020 | January 2020 | L. Randall Wray
   
   HETERODOX ECONOMIC POLICY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
   
   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 many years.
   
   Published by: Elsevier Press
   Associated Program:
   Economic Policy for the 21st Century
   Author(s):
   L. Randall Wray
   Related Topic(s):
   Heterodox macroeconomics Macroeconomic policy
   




CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS

 * COVID-19
 * Greek economic crisis
 * Labor force participation
 * Income inequality
 * Job guarantee
 * Employment policy
 * Financial instability
 * Stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling
 * Time deficits
 * Fiscal austerity


View All

 




FROM THE PRESS ROOM

FED'S EVANS SAYS HE DOESN'T SEE LABOR MARKET OVERHEATING


Read more >>>


VIDEOS FROM THE 29TH ANNUAL MINSKY CONFERENCE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE


Hear more >>


SENIOR SCHOLAR L. RANDALL WRAY DEBATED THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION'S STEPHEN MOORE
AT AN APRIL 22 EVENT SPONSORED BY CFA SOCIETY CHICAGO.


Hear more >>


SENIOR SCHOLAR L. RANDALL WRAY AND YEVA NERSISYAN PEN AN APRIL 17 OP-ED FOR THE
GUARDIAN


View More >>


RESEARCH SCHOLAR PAVLINA TCHERNEVA CALLS FOR DIRECT INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE
AND EMPLOYMENT TO STIMULATE ECONOMIC RECOVERY


Watch more >>




UPCOMING EVENTS

June
11–18
2022

SEMINAR

Summer Seminar
Blithewood
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.



PRESS RELEASES

 * Biden Infrastructure and Families Plans Would Have Significant Positive
   Macroeconomic Benefits for US Economy, New Levy Economics Institute Study
   Says
 * Leading Economists and Policymakers to Discuss the Prospects and Challenges
   for the U.S. And European Economies as They Emerge From the Pandemic at the
   Levy Economics Institute’s 29th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, May 5–6




Site Map
 * Home
 * About Us
 * Research
 * Topics
 * Scholars
 * Publications
 * Events
 * Press Room
 * Support Us
 * Bard College

Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Blithewood
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson
New York 12504-5000
845-758-7700


© 1986 – 2021 Levy Economics Institute.
All Rights Reserved

ShareThis Copy and Paste