A key component of the solution to the current world financial crisis will be more aid and support from rich countries and international institutions to the developing world, in order to generate large scale increases in decent work and avoid a downward spiral into depression. But what macroeconomic policy frameworks should be used to promote decent employment?  In this paper for the International Labour Organization, Gerald Epstein summarize employment-oriented macroeconomic and financial policies that governments in developing countries can adopt to help promote more and better employment as a key to reducing poverty over the medium to long run.

> Download "Rethinking Monetary and Financial Policy: Practical suggestions for monitoring financial stability while generating employment and poverty reduction"

In these discussions between Robert Pollin and Paul Jay of the Real News Network, Pollin discusses the economic and political context of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. These interviews are the first installment of an ongoing partnership between PERI and the Real News Network to bring progressive economic thinking to a wide audience.

>> Watch Energy Efficiency Now Part 1: Massive investment in energy efficiency and public transport can drive economy
>> Watch Energy Efficiency Now Part 2: Double the number of busses and make them affordable will drive Detroit and the green economy
>> Watch Energy Efficiency Now Part 3: For developing countries going green doesn't mean slowing growth

>> Read more about PERI's new partnership with The Real News Network

In this study for the International Labour Organization, requested by the Liberian government, James Heintz undertakes a rapid assessment of the impact of the global economic crisis on Liberia, where years of civil war, conflict and instability have left the country’s 3.5 million people extremely vulnerable and the nation’s economy devastated. Heintz documents the effects of the crisis on employers and workers and considers the implications for the realization of the objectives of the Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy. He finds the there have already been significant negative effects on Liberia’s ability to meet its goals, and recommends a set of concrete policy responses.

>> Download A rapid impact assessment of the global economic crisis on Liberia

In this Working Paper, James Crotty evaluates extensive data on compensation practices in investment banks and other important financial institutions, which show that the compensation of ‘rainmakers’ — key decision makers in these institutions — has been rising rapidly, is very large, and has properties that induce reckless risk-taking. Crotty reviews the literature on financial firm compensation practices in general and those of investment banks in particular, and demonstrates that the giant bonuses of the recent past are not efficient returns to human capital – they are unjustified rents. He asks: what is the source of rainmaker rents and how are they sustained over time? Answers to these questions can help guide debates over the appropriate regulation of financial markets.

>> Download “The Bonus-Driven “Rainmaker” Financial Firm: How These Firms Enrich Top Employees, Destroy Shareholder Value and Create Systemic Financial Instability”

>> Read Nancy Folbre’s New York Times “Economix” blog on this paper