July 2017

Economic Analysis of the Healthy California Single-Payer Health Care Proposal
Understanding Globalization, Financialization, Competition and Crisis
Trumponomics: Should We Just Say ‘No’?
The Wages of Care: Bargaining Power, Earnings and Inequality
Toxic 100 Names Top Air and Water Polluters 
China, India and Southeast Asia: Paths to Development
Monetary Policy and Investment in Sub-Sahara Africa
Improving Population Health by Reducing Poverty

Crotty Hall Inauguration
PERI Commentary

Economic Analysis of the Healthy California Single-Payer Health Care Proposal

The State o

Capitalism, Macroeconomics and Reality: Understanding Globalization, Financialization, Competition and Crisis

This book collects many of the most significant papers written by Prof. James Crotty of the Univ. of Mass.-Amherst Economics Dept. and PERI. Crotty has played a major role in building a coherent framework for macroeconomics that synthesizes Marxian and Keynesian perspectives and provides an effective critique of orthodox approaches to macro. This volume includes Crotty's early work on class conflict and the business cycle, his studies on the contradictions of the South Korean growth model, and his prescient analyses of the spread of destabilizing speculative finance on Wall Street just prior to the 2007-09 global financial crisis.

‘No one has written with greater clarity and insight about economic theory and capitalist dynamics in the past three decades than James Crotty. This collection, assembling his best papers in one place, is a must-have for established and aspirational political economists alike. There is wisdom on every page.’
--Gary Dymski, Leeds University Business School, UK

>> Read more about Capitalism, Macroeconomics and Reality
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Trumponomics: Should We Just Say "No"?

Gerald Epstein argues that the conventional progressive approach of analyzing and offering alternatives to neo-liberal policies is not adequate when confronting "Trumponomics." Unlike previous regimes, Trumpism contains a heavy dose of authoritarianism, right wing "populism" and even "neo-fascism." Most economic policies are likely to enhance the power of supporters with authoritarian, xenophobic, misogynist, racist and anti-democratic intentions, along with business interests that will support or tolerate these interests. Progressive economists must adopt a political economy analysis of the longer run policy impacts on the power of the destructive economic and political forces of Trumpism.

>> Read article
>> Read interview with Salon
>> View Interview on The Real News Network

The Wages of Care: Bargaining Power, Earnings and Inequality

Nancy Folbre and Kristin Smith examine the uneven bargaining power and earnings of those employed in the care industries and how this contributes to earnings inequality in the U.S. overall. The authors document that the earnings of managers and professionals employed in health, education and social services professions are significantly lower than those employed in other professions. They argue that the specific features of care work, including moral commitments, the difficulty of capturing added value and the importance of team work help explain this bargaining power and wages gap.

>> Read study

 

Toxic 100 Names Top Air and Water Polluters

Jim Boyce and Michael Ash released a new edition of the Toxic 100 index, ranking U.S. corporate air and water polluters. The index uses the newest data from EPA analysis of air and water releases of hundreds of chemicals from thousands of industrial facilities across the U.S.  Topping the list of air polluters are Alcoa and Dupont corporations. Topping the list of water polluters are Dow Chemical and American Electric Power. The Toxic 100 Air Index includes an environmental justice report card: the extent to which air pollution burdens are imposed disproportionately on minority and low-income communities.

>> View Toxic 100 indexes

China, India and Southeast Asia: Paths to Development

Vamsi Vakulabharanam coauthors two articles in a Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs’ special edition on China, India and Southeast Asia. In the Introduction to the special edition, the authors present an overview of the complexities of state-society relations and address the effects of India and China’s new political economies on Southeast Asia and the global economy. In a second piece, “Growth and Distribution Regimes in India,” the authors discuss the four different regimes of capitalist growth and distribution since India’s Independence. They show that as economic growth in India accelerated, private capitalists and professional classes became increasingly able to utilize the state to further their own interests.

>> Read China, India and Southeast Asia: Paths to Development and State-Society Relations
>> Read Growth and Distribution Regimes in India since Independence
>> Visit PERI’s Asian Political Economy program page

Implications of Monetary Policy for Credit and Investment in Sub-Saharan African Countries

This study investigates the implications of monetary policy for credit and investment in sub-Saharan African countries. Leonce Ndikumana argues that the pursuit of inflation control leads to reduced investment and ultimately lower economic growth. The paper’s conclusion is based on a sample of 27 sub-Saharan African countries from 1980-2012. The results suggest that policies that maintain a low interest-rate regime would stimulate bank lending to the private sector, which in turn would boost domestic investment. These results have important policy implications for African countries in their efforts to increase employment creation and reduce poverty.
>> Read study 
>> Visit PERI's African Development Policy program page

Improving Population Health by Reducing Poverty: New York’s Earned Income Tax Credit

Current research links individual-level health improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a broad-based income support policy. Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Peter Arno expand upon this research by examining whether the EITC has ecological neighborhood-level health effects as well. In their new study, they measure child health outcomes in New York State neighborhoods before and after the EITC policy expansion between 1997-2010.  Their findings link a 15 percentage-point increase in EITC benefit rates to a .45 percentage-point reduction in low birth weight rate. The magnitude of this link suggests ecological effects, and an additional channel through which anti-poverty measures can serve as public health interventions.

>> Read report
>> View author interview on The Real News Network

Crotty Hall Inauguration

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Economics formally opened Crotty Hall—the first net-zero building on campus. Designed by architect Sigrid Miller Pollin, the building produces as much energy as it consumes. Crotty Hall honors Professor James Crotty and Pamela Crotty.
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Additional Research

Peter Arno / published study, Center for Global Policy Solutions