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TABLE OF CONTENTS | | 1. Raising the Minimum Wage in Arizona: The Economic Impact
2. Alternatives to Inflation-Targeted Central Bank Policies
3. Update on Alternative Development Policies in Africa
4. New Working Papers
5. New Books from PERI Authors
6. Fall 2006 Events | ANNOUNCEMENTS | PERI has launched
our new website:
www.peri.umass.edu
with a more complete and searchable publications database. Be sure to update your bookmarks. | FALL 2006 EVENTS | >> PERI's on-line calendar of
events can be found here.
>>Directions to Gordon Hall can be found here.
Tuesday October 31, 4:00
US Household Financial Imbalances and the Profit Resurgence: A Post-Keynesian Perspective
Rob Parenteau, Dresdner RCM Global Investors
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Friday Nov 3, 1:30
Gender and Fair Trade
Sue Holmberg
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gordon Hall, third floor
Tuesday November 7, 4:00
Valuing Unpaid Work: Micro- and Macro-Dilemmas
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Wednesday November 8, 4:00
Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy
William Sweet, science journalist
Gordon Hall, third floor
More information here
Wednesday November 15, 4:00
Gender and the Distribution of Wealth in Developing Countries
Cheryl Doss, Yale University
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Friday Nov 17, 1:30
Cotton Subsidies and the Cotton Four
Nicolas Zirogiannis
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gordon Hall, third floor
Monday November 20, 4:00
The Evolution of Radical Economics
Diane Flaherty, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Wednesday November 29, 4:00
Women, Social Change and Economic Reconstruction in Post-war Guatemala: Evidence from a Coffee-growing Region
Rob Reinauer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Friday December 1, 1:30
Hull Wind: Renewable and Public Power Production
Paul Newlin
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gordon Hall, third floor
Saturday December 2
The New School for Social Research / University of Massachusetts, Amherst Graduate Workshop in Economics
Gordon Hall, third floor
More details and papers will be available at peri.umass.edu mid-November.
Monday December 4, 4:00
Value and Competition
Peter Flaschel, University of Bielefeld & The New School for Social Research
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Tuesday December 5, 4:00
Rising Global Trade and Debt Imbalances: What is the End Game? A Panel Discussion
Jim Boyce, Jerry Epstein and Arslan Razmi, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Friday December 8, 1:30
Title TBA
Hasan Tekguc
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Gordon Hall, third floor
Tuesday December 12, 4:00
Production Decentralization by Decentralized Exchange
Alexander Julius, The New School for Social Research
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here
Wednesday December 13, 4:00
The Evolution of Brazilian Capitalism in the 20th Century: Social Structures of Accumulation Approach
Marcelo Milan, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thompson Hall, ninth floor
Download paper here | PERI IN FOCUS | To unsubscribe, click here.
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1. RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE IN ARIZONA |  Next week, voters in six states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Nevada) will vote on whether their state should set a minimum wage higher than the $5.15 federal rate. If these proposals pass, these states will join the eighteen states and the District of Columbia with minimum wages exceeding the federal rate.
This month, PERI researchers Robert Pollin and Jeannette Wicks-Lim completed an analysis of the Arizona ballot proposal to set a $6.75 minimum wage with automatic inflation adjustments. The research was sponsored and published by the Center for American Progress. The report provides the basic facts that policymakers and voters need to assess the likely economic impact of this proposal. Pollin and Wicks-Lim will be presenting their study in Phoenix on October 31, in a series of press events and meetings with policymakers.
Among the studies key findings are:
>> About 345,000 workers--13% of Arizona’s total workforce--will receive wage increases through this measure.
>> The average net income gain for low-wage workers and their families will be between $650 and $700 per year.
>> The total costs of these wage increases to businesses in Arizona will be about $312 million per year, 0.08% of the total sales by these businesses in 2005.
>> These costs can be readily absorbed by businesses and consumers, primarily through very small price increases. A representative restaurant would have to raise the price of a $20 meal to $20.28 to cover its costs of 1.4% of sales.
>> The rough fiscal savings for the State of Arizona would be $4.1 million, the net result of positive and negative impacts on tax revenues, increased public employee wage costs, and savings in state-funded health care programs.
ONLINE RESOURCES
>> Read the full study
| 2. ALTERNATIVES TO INFLATION-TARGETED CENTRAL BANK POLICIES | Inflation targeting—an almost exclusive focus of monetary policy on keeping inflation in the low single digits—has become the operational objective for many central banks around the world. Many economists, international organizations such as the IMF and central bankers have promoted this focus on inflation to the exclusion of other concerns, such as employment creation and poverty reduction, even as these problems are growing around the world. However, after several decades of experience with this approach, the policy record has been rather disappointing for many countries.
Over the past two years, PERI and Bilkent University in Turkey, led by PERI co-director Gerald Epstein, have organized an international team of economists to analyze more socially-useful alternatives to inflation-targeting policies. These economists have written country studies on Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, The Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam, and South Africa. These studies analyze the current central bank policies, and propose country-specific alternatives policies that can promote employment, reduce poverty, and generate economic growth, while maintaining a moderate level of inflation and stabilizing exchange rates. The project also includes thematic papers, including a study of the gender impacts of monetary policy, inflation and poverty, and the impact of inflation on economic growth.
ONLINE RESOURCES
>> Full description of the Alternatives to Inflation Targeting project
>> Pdfs of papers in the volume (scroll down on page) <> | 3. ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC PLANS IN AFRICA |
 Following the July 2006 release of their United Nations Development Programme-commissioned book, An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for South Africa, Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Leonce Ndikumana traveled to Johannesburg and Cape Town to present their findings in a series of seminars and lectures at the Industrial Development Corporation, the University of Cape Town and an academic conference between October 20-24. The South African media covered the events and ensuing debate extensively. A sampling of articles, interviews, and reviews from the main press outlets in South Africa are below.
Robert Pollin and James Heintz, along with Mwangi wa Githinji of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Economics Department, also traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to present a preliminary draft of their UNDP-commissioned study, An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for Kenya at two workshops at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. The final version of this Kenya study should be available at the PERI website in early 2007. ONLINE RESOURCES:<br/> >> Review of An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for South Africa in Business Day
>> Op ed in the Mail & Guardian
>> "Unemployment level could worsen by 2014" on SABC News
>> "Researchers urge bold employment plan" in Business Report
>> Coverage of debate at the Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies / University of Cape Town Development Policy Research Unit conference in Business Report
>> "Rates 'must be lower for economy to grow'" in Business Day (also published on AllAfrica.com, in the Sunday Times, and on iafrica.com)
>> "UN calls for subsidised job creation" in Business Day
>> Interview with Robert Pollin in Business Day
>> "Labour laws are 'not that rigid'" in the Daily Dispatch (also published in the Sowetan)
>> Read more about An Employment-Targeted Economic Program for South Africa
>> Purchase the book from Edward Elgar | 4. NEW PERI WORKING PAPERS | Globalization, economic policy and employment: Poverty and gender implications
James Heintz
When we speak of the impact of globalization on national and local economies, those economies are, in reality, composed of a wide variety of individuals, each of whom will be affected differently by large-scale economic forces. In this paper, produced for the U.N.’s International Labour Office, James Heintz demonstrates how global labor markets are sex-disaggregated, and how any analysis of the impact of macroeconomic policies on growth, employment and poverty reduction needs to be undertaken with this in mind. Heintz addresses how macroeconomic policies differentially effect women’s and men’s employment, looking at monetary policy, trade policy, exchange rates, and public sector restructuring.
Mass Privatization and the Postcommunist Mortality Crisis
Lawrence King, David Stuckler & Patrick Hamm
During the transition to capitalism, postcommunist countries have experienced unprecedented mortality crises, although there has been considerable variation within and between countries and regions. Much of this variation is unexplained, although alcohol and psychological stress have been found to be major causes of declining life expectancy. The authors move beyond this finding by showing that the implementation of rapid large-scale privatization programs was a major determinant of the declining life expectancy. They find that mass privatization also increased alcohol-related deaths, heart disease, and suicide rates, evidence that mass privatization created psychosocial stress that led directly to higher mortality.
Social Models, Growth and the International Monetary System: Implications for Europe and the United States
Lilia Costabile & Roberto Scazzieri
This paper explores the relationship between economic growth and the welfare state. The authors argue that: (i) the constraints set by the international monetary system may be at least as effective determinants of growth differentials between countries as the different dimensions of their welfare states; (ii) the European currency reshapes some pre-existing constraints and opens up new opportunities; and (iii) in the new international setting, Europe is facing a choice between alternative models. In one alternative, the ‘welfare system’ is reduced to a minimum; in the second, its role is enhanced and made more active, through an appropriate mix of policies oriented towards promotion of social well-being and policies oriented towards promotion of productive capacities.
ONLINE RESOURCES:
>> PERI publications database | 5. NEW BOOKS FROM PERI AUTHORS |  Reclaiming Nature:
Environmental Justice and Ecological Restoration
Edited by James Boyce,
Sunita Narain & Elizabeth A. Stanton
Reclaiming Nature charts a course between denial and despair over environmental problems. The authors realize that human activities can have positive impacts on nature’s wealth as well as negative. The question is how we can tip the balance in favor of the positive. In essays by well-known economists, environmentalists, and activists, this book offers hope for tomorrow, inspired by examples of people across the world who are building natural assets by adding value, capturing benefits, democratizing access, and defending the commons.
>> Go to Anthem Press to order the book
New in Paperback: Financialization & the World Economy
Edited by Gerald Epstein
Financialization – the increasing importance of financial markets, institutions and motives in the world economy – is described and analyzed in this rigorously researched volume, edited by PERI co-director Gerald Epstein. The contributors, top scholars in their fields, explore the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of financialization and tally its costs and benefits for society as a whole. They explore the puzzling promotion of financial liberalization by governments despite its enormous costs, and describe what can be done to alter the destructive path toward excessive financialization that most countries are taking.
>> Purchase the paperback from Edward Elgar
>> Read more about Financialization & the World Economy
 The New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy
Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, Nancy Folbre & James Heintz
Revised and updated, The New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy brings key economic issues to life with a unique mix of cartoons, words, and accessible graphs and figures. This edition features brand new material on: the war in Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security, lotteries, the prison industrial complex, foreign aid, the environment, and pharmaceutical companies. Complete with a glossary and analytical 'tool kit,' this primer covers a wide range of subjects including workers, women, people of color, government spending, welfare, education, health, the environment, macroeconomics, and the global economy. It also features a detailed but easy-to-understand analysis of the severe harm that the Bush administration has inflicted on the majority of the U.S. population.
>> Purchase the book from The New Press
>> Read more about The New Field Guide to the U.S. Economy
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