Debt, Austerity, and the New EU Rules: Why Italy’s “Reform” Path Still Leads Nowhere

Europe’s revamped fiscal rules promise discipline and stability, but Italy’s numbers tell a different story. Once realistic multipliers and hysteresis are built in, consolidation pushes debt up, growth down, and recessionary pressure outwards across the eurozone, hardly a recipe for sustainability.

By Claudia Ciccone

Working Papers

The argument that free trade is always the correct policy is based on a flawed welfare analysis. Free trade results in winners and losers and economists are not competent to analyze the impact on well-being as a whole or the spillover social consequences of the discontent of the losers.

By Mark Glick and Gabriel Lozada

INET’s new data archive of historical political finance records at the National Archives marks a major step toward filling this factual void. This INET Working Paper outlines what users need to know to navigate the archive effectively and locate the data they require.

By Thomas Ferguson

This paper argues that (i) we have reached “peak GenAI” in terms of current Large Language Models (LLMs); scaling (building more data centers and using more chips) will not take us further to the goal of “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI); returns are diminishing rapidly; (ii) the AI-LLM industry and the larger U.S. economy are experiencing a speculative bubble, which is about to burst.

By Servaas Storm

This paper examines the World Bank’s protracted and conflicted attempts at shareholding reform from 2008 to the present, situating them within the broader context of multipolarity and intensifying geopolitical rivalries.

By Jakob Vestergaard and Robert Wade

How women economists expand orientations and perspectives that can transform economics into a pluralistic, critically engaged, and socially responsive discipline.

By Mohsen Javdani

The Federal Reserve is experiencing something new in its history: sustained and sizable operating losses. These losses—currently running at more than $100 billion a year on an annualized basis—stem largely from the sharp rise in short-term interest rates, which has increased the interest the Fed pays on bank reserves while the income from its long-term securities portfolio remains comparatively low.

By William Bergman

Webinars and Events

Jul 24, 2025

Webinars and Events

Monsoon School on Inequality 2025

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 Political Economy of Ecological Change and Economic Security in the Global South

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

The End of Globalization? With Paul Krugman

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

Trump, Tariffs, and the World Crisis

with THOMAS FERGUSON, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INET

Mar 31, 2025

Webinars and Events

Framing World Interdependence

The conference, which is part of our Academy’s ‘Future of Humankind’ initiative, will provide a global forum of discussion to scholars engaged in analytically understanding the evolution of world dynamics as a process involving a plurality of mechanisms, viewpoints and intersecting trajectories.

Mar 17, 2025

Webinars and Events

Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Agriculture: Strategies for Sustainable Development in South Asia

The IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University, in collaboration with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and its Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) is organising a conference on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in Agriculture: Strategies for Sustainable Development in South Asia

Upcoming Projects from the Young Scholars Initiative

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

To view projects further into the future, visit the YSI website.