Minenna, Marcello, (2016), “Helicopter Money: An Old Novelty”, Social Europe, 17 Μαΐου Times have surely changed: as little as three years ago, Quantitative Easing was considered a remote hypothesis, EU inflation was well over 2% and only a small fraction of “heretics” (including myself) dared to discuss “helicopter money” as a measure to revive the economy. The “money from helicopters”, dubbed complete madness by Milton Friedman from 1948, has been a taboo …Read More

Den Haan, Wouter, Ellison, Martin, Ilzetzki. Ethan, McMahon, Michael, Reis, Ricardo, (2016), “The future role of unconventional monetary policy: CFM Survey results”, Voxeu, 17 Μαΐου Quantitative easing is called ‘unconventional monetary policy’, but monetary policy could get much more ‘unconventional’. Things like ‘helicopter money’, abolishing currency and negative nominal interest rates have entered the public policy debate. This column reports the views of leading experts on the future role of unconventional monetary policy, and what might …Read More

Cohen-Setton, Jérémie, (2016), “Regulation and growth”, Bruegel, 16 Μαΐου Noah Smith writes that it’s easy to look around and find examples of regulations that protect incumbent businesses at the expense of the consumer — for example, the laws that forbid car companies from selling directly to consumers, creating a vast industry of middlemen. You can also find clear examples of careless bureaucratic overreach and inertia, like the total ban on sonic …Read More

Caicedo, Santiago, Lucas, Robert E., Jr., Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban, (2016), “Learning, career paths, and the distribution of wages”, Voxeu, 14 Μαΐου A large part of people’s wages rewards the knowledge embedded in them that they use in a production endeavour. Knowledgeable individuals specialise in hard, complicated tasks, while less knowledgeable ones specialise in simpler, more common tasks. This column uses a dynamic model of knowledge accumulation over time and career paths to find an underlying …Read More

Biggs, Michael, (2016), “Manna from Helicopters”, Project Syndicate, 13 Μαΐου In recent years, the global economy has been plagued by inadequate demand and the rising risk of deflation. Central banks have responded with a range of unconventional measures, including quantitative easing (QE) and negative interest rates. Today, however, there is a growing consensus that the efficacy of monetary stimulus has reached its limits. Further efforts to support economic recovery will likely require …Read More