Articles

Articles and analyses from the INET community on the key economic questions of our time.

Article

Will Spain Reject Austerity?

Nov 20, 2015

Spain’s future path for economic policy will soon be decided.

Article

Institute Grantee Appointed Central Bank Governor

Oct 20, 2015

The Institute extends its congratulations to Philip Lane, who has been named to succeed Patrick Honohan as the Irish central bank chief, and inherit his role on the council of the ECB.

Article

Matching the Moment, But Missing the Point?

Oct 19, 2015

This essay critically evaluates the benefits and costs of the dominant methodology in macroeconomics, the DSGE approach. Although the approach has led to great progress in some areas, it has also created biases and blind spots in the profession that hold back our understanding and our ability to govern the macroeconomy. There is great scope for progress in macroeconomics by judiciously pushing the boundaries of some of the methodological restrictions imposed by the DSGE approach.

Article

Jim Chanos on China: The Emperor is In His Underwear

Sep 28, 2015

The best-known China bear says the emperor is not yet naked, but getting there.

Article

Mathematics, Models and Reality in Microeconomics

Sep 23, 2015

Have economists fallen in love with an idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets? To what extent is standard microeconomics responsible for this state of affairs?

Article

Is Financial Success a Product of Inherited Genes?

Aug 9, 2015

Comparing outcomes for biological and adopted children sheds light on the intergenerational transmission of wealth.

Article

How Dated Theories & Underlying Research Misguide Policy

Jul 15, 2015

The financial crisis of 2008 was unforeseen to a significant extent. One reason is that the dominant academic theories influencing political decision makers ignore recent advances and instead rely largely on models and decision science dating back to the Second World War.

Article

Greece Has Made Tough Choices. Now It's the IMF's Turn.

Jun 18, 2015

The International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, recently asked a simple and important question: “How much of an adjustment has to be made by Greece, how much has to be made by its official creditors?” But that raises two more questions: How much of an adjustment has Greece already made? And have its creditors given anything at all?