History

This paper discusses the main issues about increasing inequality, whether it matters and its impact on economic activity and growth. It starts by briefly considering the empirical evidence of the share of income going to the top one percent since 1945 in the advanced countries. It then considers whether this represents an increase in the productivity of the top one percent or merely an extraction of economic rent.

How can we reconnect economic success to socioeconomic outcomes?

Inequality and distribution—areas underserved by mainstream economics—sit at the heart of The Institute’s work. This program brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines to develop alternative approaches to the problem of inequality.

Michael Greenberger discusses the current state of play of regulatory reform and gives a barely passing grade.

Rana Dasgupta shares his view of the contradictions and tensions of India’s economic and political scenes.

Cecilia Nahon, Argentina’s Ambassador to Washington, DC., discusses the issues plaguing the Argentine government in it’s attempts to conclude debt restructuring.

My friend and “grown-up kid” Yann Giraud just called my attention to Paul Krugman’s recent column, “Empire of the Institute”, on Roy Weintraub’s recently edited HOPE volume “MIT and the Transformation of American Economics” (to which three Playground kids contributed: Yann, Beatrice Cherrier and myself).

A British national of Bengali origin, novelist Rana Dasgupta recently turned to nonfiction to explore the explosive social and economic changes in Delhi starting in 1991, when India launched a series of profoundly transformative economic reforms.

This text is part of a research project still in working progress that collects different contributions by the author and rewrite and reanalyse some reflections, already present, in a different form, in some publications:

With the approval of the reform proposals by the Greek government, the Eurozone has returned to calmer waters. But it is only a brief interlude.

When the adoption of a new labor‐saving technology increases labor productivity, it is an open question whether the economy adjusts in the medium‐term by decreasing employment or increasing output. This paper studies the effects of cheaper electricity on the labor market during the Great Depression.

Fresh from discussions at the UN regarding the Argentinian debt crisis, Institute grantee Kevin Gallagher tells us about his new book and how developing countries can look for opportunity amidst modern financial obstacles.

It is instructive to view the study of networks in economics as a shift in paradigm, in the sense of Kuhn (1962). This perspective helps us locate the innovation that networks bring to economics, appreciate different strands of the research, assess the current state of the subject and identify the challenges.