The Unassuming Economist

A new IMF working paper “describes a new database of major labor and product market reforms covering 26 advanced economies over the period 1970-2013. The focus is on large changes in product market regulation in seven individual network industries, employment protection legislation for regular and temporary workers, and the replacement rate and duration of unemployment benefits. The main advantage of this dataset is the precise identification of the nature and date of major reforms, which is valuable in many empirical applications. By contrast, the dataset does not attempt to measure and compare policy settings across countries, and as such is no substitute for other publicly available indicators produced, for example, by the ILO, the OECD or the World Bank. It should also be seen as work in progress, for researchers to build on and improve upon. Based on the dataset, major reforms appear to have been more frequent in product markets than in labor markets in the last decades, and were predominantly implemented during the 1990s and 2000s.”

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From a new IMF Staff Discussion Note:

“Overall income inequality has remained broadly stable in the EU over the past decade but disparities in poverty and income inequality across generations have increased markedly. Developments and drivers of overall inequality are well documented but the generational dimension of inequality has received much less attention. In Europe, real disposable incomes of the young have fallen behind those of other generations. Also, the young are facing increasing risks of poverty relative to those faced by other generations.”

“High youth unemployment has been a major source of growing youth poverty. Unemployment disproportionately affects the young. Also, there is a strong association in the data between unemployment and youth poverty. Facilitating the integration of the young into the labor market is a crucial task facing policymakers. In this regard, market-based and meritocratic institutions in general can help mitigate inequality of opportunity, offering relatively larger benefits for the young.”

“Fiscal redistribution needs to be more inclusive to better tackle youth poverty. Social protection schemes have reduced old-age poverty but they have not prevented an increase in youth poverty following the global financial crisis. Reducing youth poverty is likely to require additional resources. However, for countries with an already high level of social spending and a heavy tax burden, as well as limited fiscal space, this may not be an option. In these countries, reducing youth poverty and inequality across generations in a fiscally-neutral way may require partially rebalancing fiscal redistribution to better protect the young, while continuing to protect minimum pension assistance schemes to avoid reversing the trend decline in old-age poverty.”

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On income inequality

• Top Income Inequality in the 21st Century: Some Cautionary Notes – AEA
• Capitalists in the Twenty-first Century – Paper
• Long Run Developments of Income and Wealth Inequality: Do They Move Together? – AEA
• Has Middle Class Wealth Recovered? – Paper
• Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2013 – Paper
• Recent Trends in the Variability of Men’s Earnings: Evidence From Administrative and Survey Data – Paper
• Taxes, Regulations of Businesses and Evolution of Income Inequality in the United States – Paper
• Origins of Wealth Inequality – AEA
• An Empirical Institutionalist Analysis of the Determinants of Income and Wealth Inequality in USA Since the 1980s – Paper
• Road to Despair and the Geography of the America Left Behind – AEA

On gender inequality

• Top Income Inequality and the Gender Pay Gap – Paper and Presentation
• Choosing Between Career and Family – Gender Roles as a Coordination Device in a Specialization Game – AEA
• Gender Inequality in Post-capitalism: Theorizing Institutions for Democratic Workplaces – Paper

On racial inequality

• Examining the Black-White Earnings Differential with Administrative Records – Paper
• Occupational Licensing Reduces Racial and Gender Wage Gaps: Evidence From the Survey of Income and Program Participation – AEA
• Higher Education in Orthodox, Heterodox, and Stratification Economics Perspectives on Racial Economic Inequality – AEA
• Poverty and Inequality – AEA
• Inequality Between and Within Immigrant Groups in the United States – Paper
• Revising The Racial Wage Gap Among Men: The Role Of Non-employment And Incarceration – AEA
• Revisiting Bergmann’s Occupational Crowding Model – AEA
• Racial Differences in Labor Force Participation Since the Great Recession: What’s Happening? – Paper
• The Color of Wealth: Evidence Across United States Cities – AEA
• No End in Sight? The Widening Racial Wealth Gap Since The Great Recession – AEA

On populism and globalization

• Understanding the Rise of Populism: Financialisation, Household Balance Sheet Structures, and Inequality in the United States Since 1980s – Paper
• Trade and Inequality: Evidence From Worker-level Adjustment in France – AEA
• Trade, Jobs, and Inequality – AEA
• Globalization and Inequality in Innovation: A Perspective from U.S. R&D Tax Credit Policy – Paper
• Making Financial Globalization More Inclusive – Paper and Presentation
• Making Globalization More Inclusive: When Compensation Is Not Enough – Paper

On labor

• Earnings Inequality and Mobility Trends in the United States: Nationally Representative Estimates from Longitudinally Linked Employer-employee Data – Paper and Presentation
• Theories of Redistribution and Share of Labor Income – Paper
• Labor Unions and Wealth Inequality – AEA
• The Care Penalty and the Power Premium: Earnings Inequality in the United States – AEA
• Inequality, Good Governance and Endemic Corruption – Paper
• Inequality and the Disappearing Large Firm Pay Premium – Paper
• Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence From Brazil – Paper
• Unequal Growth in Local Wages: Rail Versus Internet Infrastructure – Paper
• Determinants of the Wage Share: Evidence From Firm-level Data – Presentation
• Declining Labor and Capital Shares – Paper
• Labor Share and Technology Dynamics – Paper
• Theories of Redistribution and Share of Labor Income – Paper
• Earnings Inequality and the Role of the Firm – Paper and Presentation
• Inequality in Retirement Wealth – Paper and Presentation
• Delayed Retirement and the Growth in Economic Inequality by Work Ability – Paper
• Robots, Growth and Inequality: Should We Fear the Robot Revolution? – Paper and Presentation
• Endogenous Skill Choice as Source of Productivity Dispersion – Presentation
• The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms – Paper

On Africa

• Inclusive Finance for SMEs in South Africa and Its Impact on Growth and Inequality – Paper
• Institutions, Structures and Policy Paradigms: Toward Understanding Inequality in Africa – AEA

On other issues

• Extreme Inequality: Evidence From Brazil, India, the Middle-East, and South Africa – Paper and Presentation
• When Inequality Matters for Macro and Macro Matters for Inequality – Paper
• Estimating Unequal Gains Across United States Consumers With Supplier Trade Data – Paper and Presentation
• Why Does Portfolio Choice Correlate Across Generations? – Paper
• Ten Years after the Crisis: A Lost Decade? – Paper
• Military Expenditures And Income Inequality, Evidence From A Panel Of Transition Countries (1990-2015) – AEA
• Tax Rates and Progressivity: Was the System More Progressive when the Top Rate was 91 Percent? – Paper and Presentation
• Rising Inequality, Household Debt, And The Slow Recovery After Great Recession – AEA
• Consumption Inequality and The Frequency of Purchases – Paper
• Mergers and Acquisitions, Technological Change and Inequality – Paper
• Same Storm, Different Disasters: Consumer Credit Access, Income Inequality, and Natural Disaster Recovery – Paper
• Rethinking Inequality in 21st Century – Financial Sector, Household Balance Sheet Structures and Distribution in the United States Since 1980s – Paper
• The Effects of Technical Change: Does Capital Aggregation Matter? – AEA

From a blog by Duncan Green: “Stefan gave us a tour of the ‘Big Ideals, Big Egos and Big Thinkers in development’. Here they are, points for recognizing them.” Continue reading the wonderful summary here.

The Council on Economic Policies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization are organizing a workshop on 25-26 April, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland, on policy relevant aspects of the links between trade in services and inclusive growth. Papers presented in the workshop will be considered for an expedited review process for a Review of International Economics special issue to be published in 2019.

Topics

We particularly encourage the submission of unpublished empirical work that uses new datasets or exploits policy experiments in a novel and informative way. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• What is the effect of services trade on inclusive growth and structural transformation? Is trade in services a promising development strategy for developing economies?
• How does services trade affect employment, income and gender inequality, quality of and access to service delivery, and innovation?
• What are key determinants of and barriers to services trade? To what extent have trade agreements reduced them?
• What policies are needed to increase services trade opportunities for inclusive growth?

Program

The workshop will start with a welcome dinner on April 24. April 25 will be devoted to paper presentations as well as a policy debate with trade negotiators and other practitioners in the evening. Presentations will continue in the morning of April 26, followed by an exploration of new directions for research in the afternoon. The workshop will take place at the WTO Secretariat.

Submissions

Papers should be submitted by February 15, 2018 to trade@cepweb.org. Successful submissions will be notified by beginning of March 2018.

Program Committee

• Peter Egger, ETH Zurich
• Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University
• Bernard Hoekman, European University Institute
• Bob Koopman, World Trade Organization
• Aaditya Mattoo, World Bank
• Margaret McMillan, Tufts University
• Chris Papageorgiou, International Monetary Fund
• Johannes Schwarzer, Council on Economic Policies