Equality runs deeper than economics textbooks or policy fashions suggest. Across disciplines, evidence increasingly links more equal societies to stronger well-being, greater social trust, and healthier democracies, challenging the assumption that fairness must come at the expense of prosperity or economic dynamism.
Article | Energy, Environment, Labor, Technology & Innovation
AI is Hungry for Power and You are Footing the Bill
The same technology that promises efficiency in offices is fueled by a system that is making life more costly for everyday workers. Part of “AI and the Future of the American Worker,” a series on how artificial intelligence is impacting labor, power, and the meaning of work.
Article | Technology & Innovation
Russell’s Teapot: Dispatches From the Final Stage of the AI Bubble
What if the AI future being sold to markets rests on claims that cannot survive scrutiny? From superintelligence to mass job loss, the loudest promises around generative AI begin to look less like foresight than hype dressed up as inevitability.
Article | Labor, Philosophy & Ethics, Technology & Innovation
What Does it Mean to Work Under Algorithmic Eyes?
AI surveillance and algorithmic management threaten worker autonomy and dignity. It’s time for a rethinking of rights. Part of “AI and the Future of the American Worker,” a series on how artificial intelligence is impacting labor, power, and the meaning of work.
Article | Laws
The New Merger Guidelines: Consumer Welfare vs. Protecting Competition Standards
Should antitrust law focus primarily on measurable performance outcomes such as price and output as indicated by Robert Bork’s Consumer Welfare Standard? Or is it more important to concentrate on whether conduct undermines the competitive process itself as per the newly revitalized Protect Competition Standard?
By Mark Glick, Gabriel Lozada, and Darren Bush
Article | Finance, Government & Politics, Macroeconomics
The Fed, Congress, and the President: The Constitutional Authority to Make Money
Article | Development, Government & Politics, Health, Inequality & Distribution, Technology & Innovation
Transforming Corporate Governance to Improve Access to Medicines in the Global South
By Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Öner Tulum, and William Lazonick
Article | Government & Politics, Inequality & Distribution
Why Chase Taylor Swift? Stop the Corporate Looting That Makes Billionaires.
Article | Energy, Environment, Technology & Innovation
Affordability of electricity and concerns about fossil fuel pollution, water resources, and job loss, have driven a rebellion against data centers that is both grassroots and bipartisan. It’s time for cleaner, faster and cheaper solutions.
By Joseph Romm
Working Paper | Economics Profession, Government & Politics, Inequality & Distribution
Equality runs deeper than preference or policy fashion, rooted in human social instincts and reflected in outcomes across societies. It is time for economics and policy alike to reckon with how profoundly distribution shapes well-being and social stability.
By Mark Glick, Gabriel Lozada, and Darren Bush
Working Paper | Technology & Innovation
Beneath the grand claims and vast capital spending, AI is delivering weak productivity, mounting losses, and growing financial strain. If the boom cannot generate profits, jobs, or durable gains, how much longer can the bubble hold?
Working Paper | Laws
What should courts prioritize in determining antitrust cases: measurable welfare effects, or the protection of competitive rivalry itself? The Consumer Welfare Standard and the Protect Competition Standard offer different answers.
By Mark Glick, Gabriel Lozada, and Darren Bush
Working Paper | Finance, Government & Politics, Macroeconomics
As the Supreme Court’s unitary executive theory reaches the Federal Reserve, a deeper constitutional question comes into view: who holds the power to make money?
Working Paper | Government & Politics, Technology & Innovation
After FTX’s collapse, crypto looked finished. Yet Washington revived it, culminating in Trump’s GENIUS Act and a surprising Democratic shift. How much did money and affluence predict pro-crypto votes, amid widening deregulation and cyber risk?
By Thomas Ferguson, Jie Chen, Matthias Lalisse, and Paul Jorgensen
Working Paper | Development, Government & Politics, Health, Inequality & Distribution
The global medicine-access crisis is not simply a failure to balance innovation and affordability. It reflects a deeper system in which shareholder-driven pharmaceutical governance and fragmented donor structures undermine public health and block the shift toward more equitable value creation.
By Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Öner Tulum, and William Lazonick
Dec 08, 2025
Webinars and Events
LEPC VII will bring together leading thinkers, practitioners, and policymakers to analyze the drivers behind this sub national success, and to chart actionable pathways for the future. Each session outlined explores a foundational dimension of India’s growth story, with attention to both policy diagnosis and on-the-ground innovation.
Dec 02, 2025
Webinars and Events
International Conference on Digitalisation, Market and Society is a cross-disciplinary plenary on how digital transformation is altering work, gender norms, and social institutions—and how society can respond inclusively.
Jul 24, 2025
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The focus of this year’s monsoon school is on pluralistic approaches to research on inequality, bringing together perspectives from varied streams of economic thought. It will provide an interactive platform for advanced-level PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and scholars affiliated with Indian research institutes to engage with diverse concepts, debates, and methodologies related to inequality.
Jul 14, 2025
Webinars and Events
The urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overstated, particularly given its disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities in the Global South.
May 31, 2025
Webinars and Events
Four months of the Trump presidency have already changed the world as we knew it. How did we get here? What consequences have the tariffs had and will have? How will U.S.-European trade relations evolve? What about the confrontation with China?
Apr 10, 2025
Webinars and Events
with THOMAS FERGUSON, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INET
Jul 15, 2025
Jul 14, 2025
Jul 07, 2025
YSI projects are collaboratively organized by members of the community to explore topics in new economic thinking. Projects may be held virtually (discussions, webinars, reading groups) or in person (workshops, pre-conferences). Learn more about YSI here
