Pia Malaney

Involvement

Pia Malaney is Co-Founder and Director of The Center for Innovation, Growth and Society and Senior Economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The Center works to build new approaches to integrating the innovation economy with broader US markets and relevant policy for encouraging innovation-led growth in the service of society. As INET Senior Economist Dr. Malaney is editor of the INET Working Paper Series, a curated collection of cutting edge research from the INET community that focuses on critical areas of the discipline. Her own professional research has focused on economic, biological, and sociological approaches to human welfare, using Gauge Theory as a foundation for geometric marginalism. She has held positions at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Center for International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School where she worked in collaboration with Asian and African governments on the development of health care and economic policies. She received a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD from Harvard University.

By this expert

Not the Fix—The Tell: The Meaning of a $100,000 H-1B Fee

Article | Oct 20, 2025

The new $100,000 H-1B fee tacitly acknowledges what early policy architects signaled: expanding temporary tech visas can depress domestic wages. By bringing the fully loaded cost of a new H1B hire closer to what the local market would require to recruit and retain comparable talent, it narrows the wedge between visa-enabled staffing and hiring Americans at market rates.

Trade in the Time of Trump

Article | Apr 8, 2025

Trump ran in both 2016 and 2024 on a promise to reverse the deindustrialization caused by globalization and free trade, using tariffs as his main tool. But the critical question now is: Can it work?

Breaking the Moat: DeepSeek and the Democratization of AI

Article | Feb 10, 2025

DeepSeek’s appearance is changing the AI landscape in more ways than we might think.

The Golden Age of AI Complementarity?

Article | Oct 30, 2023

Recent developments in AI have added fuel to debates that have long simmered amongst economists, which could lead to a rethinking of economics itself.

Featuring this expert

Experts on Inflation: Prognosis, Political Fallout and Who’s Really to Blame

Article | Nov 18, 2021

Economists Claudia Sahm, Servaas Storm, and Pia Malaney share their views on the problem that has everyone freaking out. Here’s what it all means for your pocketbook – and your democracy.

Rob Johnson, Pia Malaney, and other INET scholars have signed a letter in the FT in response to a call for a return to austerity

News Jun 15, 2021

“Moreover, too little government spending can increase company bankruptcies and lead to less investment in research and development, hurting the supply side of our economies — potentially exacerbating inflationary pressures. The EU has gone through a decade of demand stagnation, performing well below its productive potential. Inflationary forces of the 1970s are no longer intact, not least because of declining labour bargaining power, changing demographics, high inequality and private debt overhang. Without concerted fiscal expansion to scale-up investment and protect the vulnerable, aggregate demand will remain low and standards of living will stagnate. Instead of fetishising fiscal discipline, we should prioritise more important social, economic and environmental outcomes — like creating well-paid green jobs, lifting millions out of poverty and implementing green infrastructure projects.” — From Frank van Lerven and others, Financial Times

Research Webinar & Book Launch: Macroeconomic Inequality From Reagan to Trump

Event Webinar | Sep 18, 2020

A discussion with Lance Taylor and Özlem Ömer, authors of INET’s new book Macroeconomics Inequality from Reagan to Trump

Is Free Money the Future of the Safety Net?

Video | Feb 6, 2019

Universal Basic Income is gaining in popularity, among socialists and libertarians alike. But when it comes to implementation, the devil is in the details.

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