Government & Politics

The governance of technology is a new challenge. The Recovery Plans is encouraging the digital transformation of our economies. An acceleration of technological change is bound to deeply affect labor markets and income distribution. While labor-market adaptation is likely to stave off permanent high unemployment, it cannot be counted on to prevent a sharp rise in inequality.

Watch INET at the Trento Economics Festival online

Ransomware gangs have been causing extensive damage. It’s time that the government takes them more seriously.

A new age virtual conference series in 2021 that aims to bring together legal, economic, and public policy thinkers to consider a variety of real world issues in India in a holistic manner.

The People’s Bank of China’s network of local currency swap arrangements provide Asian countries with a much-needed safety net, while also strengthening China’s diplomatic position.

The People’s Bank of China’s network of local currency swap arrangements provide Asian countries with a much-needed safety net, while also strengthening China’s diplomatic position

An interview with African development specialist Bara Guèye

Un entretien avec Bara Guèye

Whether it is called “Build Back Better” or a “Green Industrial Policy” or, indeed, a Green New Deal, it is imperative to reject the false dichotomy of “jobs against climate.”

Hedge fund managers are pushing American firms to play Wall Street games instead of investing in technologies of the future. China doesn’t have that problem.

History shows robust antitrust enforcement helps promote a prosperous, fair, and balanced economy. Antitrust expert Mark Glick explains how the U.S. went astray during the 1980s, and how to get back on track.

How to Get Relief to Those Who Need It. Gosia Glinska in Conversation with Anton Korinek

The $1.9 trillion stimulus should be large because the need is large

James K. Galbraith slams “unreliable” report claiming that raising the minimum wage would reduce jobs

The Straight Truth

Populist parties and the decline of progressive politics in Italy

This paper analyzes the role of local spending, particularly on social welfare, and local inequality as factors in the Italian political crisis following the adoption in 2011 of more radical national austerity measures.

Trump’s approach largely failed because the problem can’t be solved by tariffs. Here’s the answer.

A response to Jason Furman and Lawrence Summers

George Soros’ latest op-ed in the Project Syndicate reasserts his view how perpetual bonds could help the European Union overcome its deadlock on fiscal spending.

Individual EU member states ought to issue perpetual bonds

By fully utilizing the power of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), President Biden could take meaningful steps to keep workers safe during the pandemic, even without Congress’s help

What are the 100 most pertinent economic questions facing our global societ?

New INET research shows once again that it’s large firms and the 1%—not the “median voter”—who drive U.S. policy

In this paper we analyze the Gilens dataset using the complementary tools of Random Forest classifiers (RFs), from Machine Learning.

In this interview, Dr. Vera Songwe, economist and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reflects on the ways that African governments have handled COVID-19, the role of the Continental Free Trade Agreement in turbo-charging future growth, the vital role of infrastructural investment and mobilising domestic resources for building forward better and greener.

Unregistered lobbyists, including former members of Congress, are a key resource for lobbying firms

Unregistered lobbyists, including former members of Congress, are a key resource for lobbying firms

David Mussington, a leading expert on cybersecurity, reveals what’s worrying him, from Facebook to foreign interference.

In this interview, Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin discuss with Edward K. Brown, Senior Director, Research and Advisory services at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) based in Accra, Ghana, on the effects of COVID-19 on regional integration and economic transformation in Africa, and the role of ACET and African think tanks in advising African governments respond to the crisis.

New book by Sarah Chayes reveals the country’s descent into a level of corruption usually associated with places like Nigeria and Afghanistan

For thirty years after the Civil Rights Act, a sizable share of white Southerners still voted Democrat. That changed when the party embraced trade deals that hurt American workers.

How NAFTA led to GOP dominance of the American South

Racial inequalities of wealth and income are pervasive. This episode of Debt Talks will feature a conversation with four prominent experts on the persistence of racial inequalities of wealth and income and the role of financial markets in shaping them.

Claudia Sahm dares to call out systemic bullying and harassment that drives out talent and compromises science. Perpetrators are not happy.

An alternative look at the “global savings glut”

While policymakers around the world are in fire-fighting mode, trying to keep the economies in their charge running and the mysterious pandemic under control, the global terrain beneath our feet is shifting. Which countries will emerge as winners and losers in the new global landscape?

The success of projects for pandemic preparedness and response depends on the strength of government-business collaborations.

How and Why Bankers Still Enjoy a Global Rescue Network

A look at Dodd-Frank’s impact

As the world economy seeks to emerge from the deep recession caused by the pandemic, economic nationalism and isolationism are on the rise. Yet the better response to lower growth and worsening inequality could involve globally-coordinated policy responses that focus on broad based, sustainable economic growth. Now more than ever it is time for a new global economic policy paradigm that can facilitate a strong recovery.

Gilead’s shareholders want exorbitant profits from Remdesivir, even though it was the public that enabled its development.

The Fed is taking an aggressive approach to put out the economic fires of the pandemic. But it needs to allow for flexibility as some business models irreparably change.

The speed and duration of COVID-19 economic recovery will depend on how the government will finance emergency programs.

The Occupational Safety Health Administration was created 50 years ago. Today, it’s in dire straits, say OSHA’s leaders during the Obama administration

In March the US government authorized the largest domestic bailout in history. Who were the real winners and losers of this bailout? Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Jesse Eisinger has been following the money.

As the collapse of global supply chains highlights the fragility that comes with economic interdependence, the pandemic is fueling the rise of ethnonationalism. Policy decisions in response to the crisis will play an important role in determining the fate of the world economy.

Regardless of what Trump says, the economic pain of the pandemic isn’t going anywhere

Every country has had a different policy response to the crisis; and within countries different political parties have championed various approaches. How has COVID-19 affected politics and social life in developed western countries?

Abstract, “basic science” research is essential to drug discovery. It is also largely funded by the public sector.

The economic and social costs of the global lockdown have been astronomical but as governments look to begin the process of reopening economies it will be critical to develop strategies that balance both the health and economic risks of the pandemic.

Over five phased announcements last week, the Indian government set in motion an unprecedented fiscal stimulus. Gaurav Dalmia looks at India’s near-term economic challenges and offers a prescription on how privatisation can help India achieve its objectives.

A webinar panel discussion, moderated by Gillian Tett, US Managing Editor of the Financial Times, with Laurence Boone, OECD Chief Economist, Moritz Schularick, INET Research Fellow, and Adam Tooze, Director of the European Institute at Columbia University.

To able to deal with these consequences, our crisis response now should not lock us in into a permanent state of austerity, greater inequality and heightened vulnerability to future health calamities. New-old social democratic solutions are needed more than ever before.

The popular discontent and rise of ‘populist’ political parties is closely related to the failure of New Labor to navigate social democracy’s dilemma.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us into a new reality, and any course we set now will have huge and lasting repercussions on public health and the economy.

A Template to Prevent a Global Debt Crisis?

As the COVID crisis threatens to overwhelm both federal and state government services, getting the digital component of government services to function effectively is mission critical.

Just before the crisis, European countries were designing austerity reforms that would increase inequality and reduce internal demand. Could they return?

Economists have gone to great lengths to write humans out of economics, pushing self-interest and generally providing two choices—faith in markets or the state.

A call to action for a world economy in crisis

Financial industry donations to members of Congress lead to the adoption of pro-bank policies

The links between campaign contributions from the financial sector and switches to a pro-bank vote were direct and substantial

IMPORTANT: Due to growing concerns around the coronavirus, the INET Conference, as well as these workshops will be postponed. Applicants will soon be provided further information.

Much historical commentary emphasizes how pandemics restructure long-standing social and political arrangements. The observation applies to macroeconomics as well.

What ails the EU Green Deal is exactly what troubles the Union in general — an absence of social democracy at work

Effective and quick federal policy response is critical to create conditions for a quick recovery.

It’s time for business executives, employees, and taxpayers to come together to help get us out of the pandemic and create conditions for a sustainable and equitable future

If the public is to be called upon for the second time in twelve years to bail out businesses, it should get something back for its money. Bailed out firms should be compelled to issue convertible bonds to the government.

New research points to critical role of public funding in drug discoveries and development for the last decade

A report from the Commission on Global Economic Transformation’s meeting in West Africa

Lower Income Towns in New Hampshire Voted Heavily for Sanders; Richer Towns Did the Opposite.

On the Modern Economic Theory of Incentives, Markets, and Socialism

In an economic context that remains uncertain, the biggest loser of the UK elections may well be our health and that of the environment.

The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object?

One thing is clear – the ‘get Brexit done’ slogan resonated in a country which had been living on a series of knife edges as one ‘crunch’ time after another came and went.

Brexit uncertainty has already taken an economic toll

Using tools from computational linguistics, we construct new measures of the impact of Brexit on listed firms in the United States and around the world

Many of the challenges facing the new EU Presidency will need to be addressed not only at the European level but within a reinvigorated multilateral framework.

An update from the meeting of the Commission on Global Economic Transformation (CGET) in Cape Town

The New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum explains the role Democratic presidents, from Kennedy to Obama, in moving economic policy to the right

Economist James K. Boyce explains how to fight climate change and rising income inequality in one shot

The Chicago School has long used bankrupt assumptions to strangle antitrust policy

The Chicago School has long used bankrupt assumptions to strangle antitrust policy.

Political risk—and what firms do about it

We adapt simple tools from computational linguistics to construct a new measure of political risk faced by individual US firms: the share of their quarterly earnings conference calls that they devote to political risks.

Frequent civil conflicts in African countries may erode national identity, thus highlighting a reason why civil conflict is costly for growth and development

Frequent civil conflicts in African countries may erode national identity, thus highlighting a reason why civil conflict is costly for growth and development

How free electricity could fight climate change and inequality

A collection of our research on populism, globalization and nationalism

One of America’s leading socialists discusses how a collectively owned economy would be structured, the limits of the welfare state, and what Keynes understood that Marx didn’t

The Chicago School’s weakening of antitrust law hurt the economy

This paper presents an historical analysis of the antitrust laws.

Modern Monetary Theory is problematic. Launching large scale fiscal programs that rely on it would be skating on thin ice.

“Facebook is undermining our country, our democracy.”

Low interest rate policy can only do so much to bring the relief to American borrowers that they deserve: past monetary policies, credit market regulations and stagnant labor productivity growth all get in the way. Interest rate policy activism is part of the problem, not the solution.

Facebook engaged in an elaborate bait and switch on user data: Privacy disappeared when competition did. Laws governing competition could change that.

At a G20 preparatory meeting in Berlin, an INET panel analyzed how governments can prevent banks from exploiting taxpayer-funded bailout guarantees