Esposito, M. & Tse, T. (2014) “Income Inequality and Youth Unemployment“, Project Syndicate, 25 June.   With Thomas Picketty’s controversial book Capital in the Twenty-First Century topping several bestseller lists, income inequality – which has been on the rise since the 1970s – is once again capturing global attention. Debate surrounding the subject has covered many of the trend’s repercussions, including decreased social cohesion, growing slums, exploitation of labor, and …Read More

Pissarides, C. (2014) “Social Europe In A Climate Of Austerity, The Need For Social Dialogue To Improve Distribution“, Social Europe Journal, 23 June.   Eurofound stands for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions through social dialogue. Currently, in the midst of high unemployment and increasing inequality, living and working conditions for ordinary people are worse than in 2007. But recession is not the only problem. Even when countries are recovering, …Read More

Vollrath, D. (2014) “Does Culture Matter for Economic Growth?“, The Growth Economics Blog, 18 June.   There’s been an increasing number of papers concerned with culture and its relationship to economic growth. I happened to just see this working paper by Di Tella and MacCulloch (2014), but the idea of culture being an important determinant of economic development levels has been hanging out there in the literature for a long time. …Read More

Stiglitz, J. (2014) “Creating an Innovation Society“, Social Europe Journal, 04 June.   Citizens in the world’s richest countries have come to think of their economies as being based on innovation. But innovation has been part of the developed world’s economy for more than two centuries. Indeed, for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, incomes stagnated. Then per capita income soared, increasing year after year, interrupted only by the occasional effects …Read More

Roubini, N. (2014) “The Great Backlash“, Project Syndicate, 31 May.   NEW YORK – In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers’ success in preventing the Great Recession from turning into Great Depression II held in check demands for protectionist and inward-looking measures. But now the backlash against globalization – and the freer movement of goods, services, capital, labor, and technology that came with it – has …Read More

Hoffer, F. (2014) “Inequality And Post-neoliberal Globalisation“, Social Europe Journal, 29 May.   Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. These are …Read More

Kantor, M. (2014) “Europe in Revolt“, Project Syndicate, 29 May.   BRUSSELS – This Monday, European citizens awoke to a new reality. Across Europe, parties opposed to the European Union, mostly on the far right, were swept into the European Parliament by a wave of voter discontent. In some EU member states, including key countries like the United Kingdom and France, such parties will control the largest blocs of MEPs. …Read More

Frankel, J. (2014) “How to address inequality“, VoxEU Organisation, 29 April.   Awareness of inequality is rapidly rising. This column argues that commentators should focus on identifying the policies that are best suited to improving income distributions efficiently, and the politicians that support them. It is not sufficient to sound the alarm about inequality and the political reach of the super-rich. Inequality has received a lot of attention lately, particularly …Read More