Aggregate Demand, Inequality and Instability


Book Description

This book studies the relationships between aggregate demand, inequality and instability. It extends the traditional approach by introducing wealth and inequality into a dynamic macroeconomic model. Furthermore, it examines the role that debt and financial instability can play in turbulent times such as the Great Recession and its aftermath. Unlike Piketty, the author analyses the relationships between instability and inequality, and the feedbacks from the latter to the former, in a system approach where real and monetary factors interact to generate complex patterns.




Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality


Book Description

This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for labor, and lack of financial inclusion in developing countries. We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down. This suggests that policies need to be country specific but should focus on raising the income share of the poor, and ensuring there is no hollowing out of the middle class. To tackle inequality, financial inclusion is imperative in emerging and developing countries while in advanced economies, policies should focus on raising human capital and skills and making tax systems more progressive.







Links Between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: A Survey


Book Description

Is there a tradeoff between raising growth and reducing inequality and poverty? This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the complex links between growth, inequality, and poverty, with causation going in both directions. The evidence suggests that growth can be effective in reducing poverty, but its impact on inequality is ambiguous and depends on the underlying sources of growth. The impact of poverty and inequality on growth is likewise ambiguous, as several channels mediate the relationship. But most plausible mechanisms suggest that poverty and inequality reduce growth, at least in the long run. Policies play a role in shaping these relationships and those designed to improve equality of opportunity can simultaneously improve inclusiveness and growth.




Inequality, Leverage and Crises


Book Description

The paper studies how high leverage and crises can arise as a result of changes in the income distribution. Empirically, the periods 1920-1929 and 1983-2008 both exhibited a large increase in the income share of the rich, a large increase in leverage for the remainder, and an eventual financial and real crisis. The paper presents a theoretical model where these features arise endogenously as a result of a shift in bargaining powers over incomes. A financial crisis can reduce leverage if it is very large and not accompanied by a real contraction. But restoration of the lower income group's bargaining power is more effective.




Inequality and Growth


Book Description

Essays exploring the relationship between economic growth and inequality and the implications for policy makers.




Income Distribution in Macroeconomic Models


Book Description

This book looks at the distribution of income and wealth and the effects that this has on the macroeconomy, and vice versa. Is a more equal distribution of income beneficial or harmful for macroeconomic growth, and how does the distribution of wealth evolve in a market economy? Taking stock of results and methods developed in the context of the 1990s revival of growth theory, the authors focus on capital accumulation and long-run growth. They show how rigorous, optimization-based technical tools can be applied, beyond the representative-agent framework of analysis, to account for realistic market imperfections and for political-economic interactions. The treatment is thorough, yet accessible to students and nonspecialist economists, and it offers specialist readers a wide-ranging and innovative treatment of an increasingly important research field. The book follows a single analytical thread through a series of different growth models, allowing readers to appreciate their structure and crucial assumptions. This is particularly useful at a time when the literature on income distribution and growth has developed quickly and in several different directions, becoming difficult to overview.




Macroeconomics


Book Description

At the cutting edge of the subject area, the authors bring the macroeconomics that researchers and policymakers use today into focus. By developing a coherent set of tractable models, the book enables students to explore and make sense of the pressing questions facing global economies.Carlin and Soskice connect students with contemporary research and policy in macroeconomics. The authors' 3-equation model - extended to include the financial system and with an integrated treatment of inequality - equips students with a method they can apply to the enduring challenges stirred by the financial crisis and the Great Recession.Key features* Engaged with the latest developments in macroeconomic research, policy, and debate, the authors make the cutting edge accessible to undergraduate readers* The theme of inequality is integrated throughout in modelling and applications, with incomplete contracts in labour and credit markets underpinning the presence of involuntary unemployment and credit constraints* The content distils business cycles into a 3-equation model of the demand side, the supply side, and the policy maker, providing a realistic and transparent model which students can deploy to address the questions that interest them* Open economy modelling for both flexible and fixed exchange rate regimes builds on the same foundations and handles oil and climate shocks, as well as the Eurozone crisis* Features thorough treatment of the financial system and how to integrate the financial and business cycles, including coverage on policy design and implementation for financial stability in the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis and an exploration of hysteresis in the context of the Great Recession* Comprehensive coverage of monetary policy including the ample reserves regime and of fiscal policy and debt dynamics* Unified treatment of exogenous and endogenous growth models emphasizing the different mechanisms through which diminishing returns to capital can be offset, while Chapter 17 on the ICT revolution examines the implications of innovation and technological change on the future of work and inequality* Contains a chapter considering contemporary quantitative macroeconomics research - including the Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian (HANK) model - exposing students to the tools that researchers currently use, as well as the benefits and limitations of these methods* End-of-chapter 'Checklist questions' enable students to assess their comprehension, while 'Problems' prompt students to apply independent critical thought* Also available as an e-book enhanced with access to The Macroeconomic Simulator, Animated Analytical Diagrams, and self-assessment activities enabling students to recap content and investigate how models work at their own paceDigital formats and resourcesThis title is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats and is supported by online resources.The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with self-assessment activities, multi-media content, and links that offer extra learning support. For more information visit:www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks/This title is supported by a range of online resource for students including multiple-choice-questions with instant feedback, interactive Animated Analytical Diagrams, access to The Macroeconomic Simulator, web appendices which develop chapters 1, 4, 7, and 18, In addition, lecturers can access PowerPoint slides to accompany each chapter and answers to the problems and questions set in the book.




Unbound


Book Description

A Financial Times Book of the Year “The strongest documentation I have seen for the many ways in which inequality is harmful to economic growth.” —Jason Furman “A timely and very useful guide...Boushey assimilates a great deal of recent economic research and argues that it amounts to a paradigm shift.” —New Yorker Do we have to choose between equality and prosperity? Decisions made over the past fifty years have created underlying fragilities in our society that make our economy less effective in good times and less resilient to shocks, such as today’s coronavirus pandemic. Many think tackling inequality would require such heavy-handed interference that it would stifle economic growth. But a careful look at the data suggests nothing could be further from the truth—and that reducing inequality is in fact key to delivering future prosperity. Presenting cutting-edge economics with verve, Heather Boushey shows how rising inequality is a drain on talent, ideas, and innovation, leading to a concentration of capital and a damaging under-investment in schools, infrastructure, and other public goods. We know inequality is fueling social unrest. Boushey shows persuasively that it is also a serious drag on growth. “In this outstanding book, Heather Boushey...shows that, beyond a point, inequality damages the economy by limiting the quantity and quality of human capital and skills, blocking access to opportunity, underfunding public services, facilitating predatory rent-seeking, weakening aggregate demand, and increasing reliance on unsustainable credit.” —Martin Wolf, Financial Times “Think rising levels of inequality are just an inevitable outcome of our market-driven economy? Then you should read Boushey’s well-argued, well-documented explanation of why you’re wrong.” —David Rotman, MIT Technology Review




Stabilizing an Unstable Economy


Book Description

“Mr. Minsky long argued markets were crisis prone. His 'moment' has arrived.” -The Wall Street Journal In his seminal work, Minsky presents his groundbreaking financial theory of investment, one that is startlingly relevant today. He explains why the American economy has experienced periods of debilitating inflation, rising unemployment, and marked slowdowns-and why the economy is now undergoing a credit crisis that he foresaw. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy covers: The natural inclination of complex, capitalist economies toward instability Booms and busts as unavoidable results of high-risk lending practices “Speculative finance” and its effect on investment and asset prices Government's role in bolstering consumption during times of high unemployment The need to increase Federal Reserve oversight of banks Henry Kaufman, president, Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc., places Minsky's prescient ideas in the context of today's financial markets and institutions in a fascinating new preface. Two of Minsky's colleagues, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Ph.D. and president, The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and L. Randall Wray, Ph.D. and a senior scholar at the Institute, also weigh in on Minsky's present relevance in today's economic scene in a new introduction. A surge of interest in and respect for Hyman Minsky's ideas pervades Wall Street, as top economic thinkers and financial writers have started using the phrase “Minsky moment” to describe America's turbulent economy. There has never been a more appropriate time to read this classic of economic theory.