Starting around the early 2000s, and especially after the 2008 crisis, the rate of capital accumulation for U.S. nonfinancial corporations slowed, despite relatively high profitability, indicating a weakening link between profitability and investment. The literature mostly focuses on financialization and globalization as explanations.  This paper by Özgür Orhangazi proposes an additional influence—the increased use by nonfinancial corporations of intangible assets, such as brand names, trademarks, patents, and copyrights, especially in information technology, telecommuncations, and healthcare.  Orhangazi shows that firms in these sectors have higher mark-ups and profitability, but lower investment-to-profit ratios, contributing to the overall investment decline.

This study by PERI Co-Director Gerald Epstein and co-authors Andrew Baker and Juan Montecino suggests that the total cost of lost growth potential for the UK caused by 'too much finance' between 1995 and 2015 is in the region of £4.5 trillion. This total figure amounts to roughly 2.5 years of the average GDP across the period.  The paper's findings suggest that the UK suffers from a form of 'finance curse': a development trajectory of financial over-dependence involving a crowding out of other sectors and a skewing of social relations, geography, and politics.

Recent progress in narrowing gender gaps in education, health, and political representation is not matched by similar improvements in labor market outcomes for women, or more broadly, women’s economic empowerment.  This paper by PERI economist James Heintz addresses the complex links between factors that shape women’s labor market participation and their economic empowerment. It reviews and synthesizes research findings from the Growth and Economic Opportunity Program to shed light on why development gains have yet to translate into more and better employment for women in some regions, and why employment gains seen in others have failed to empower women.