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Microfinance and then financial inclusion have become buzzwords in international development. Such initiatives have mobilised and generated  large amounts of development funding, despite substantial amount of critique. Such critiques call for a more impartial assessment of the effectiveness of financial inclusion on the grounds that funds for microfinance, they argue, displaced development spendings on healthcare, education or infrastructure. In addition, the focus on expansion of financial markets to ‘bank’ and financially ‘include’ the poor may divert attention from more comprehensive and effective poverty reduction strategies. Critiques of this ‘way of doing development’ are often sidelined and labelled as ‘extreme’, ‘sloppy’ or ideology-driven rather than evidence-based. We believe that there is a need for contemporary development scholars from all disciplines to engage in those debates. This half-day workshop would bring in such scholars to discuss what we have learned from a decade of research on the microfinance, and how financial inclusion and the emergence of fintech may offer new opportunities - as well as risks - in for inclusive global development. 

Prejudice and collusion, not simply research quality, drive journal citations

Assessing the Peculiarities of Economics from Two Scientometric Perspectives

In this paper we comparatively explore three claims concerning the disciplinary character of economics by means of citation analysis.

William Lazonick’s INET research is featured in his New York Times op-ed

Michael Sandel and Joe Stiglitz discuss why selling votes is bad for democracy, and how individual self-interest doesn’t always serve the public good

Until 2008, rising home values gave the middle class a cushion amid growing income inequality. But following the financial crisis, that wealth has failed to return.

Instead of rewarding the taxpayers and employees who actually create value for the tech giant, Apple is doling out massive stock buybacks

António Guterres and CGET Commissioners discuss cooperating on inequality, climate change, multilateralism, and more

Neoclassical economics dismisses the role of money and the state in the economy. Keynes scholar Robert Skidlesky says it’s time for a re-evaluation.

Jacobin Magazine’s Q&A with Tom Ferguson about his new INET paper.

Real News Network interviews INET Research Director Tom Ferguson about his new paper on money and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

INET Research Director Tom Ferugson talks about Donald Trump and racial resentment with Ian Masters’s Background Briefing

Our focus is on teaching and discussing theoretical and empirical methods related to the innovation processes in Latin America and the Caribbean and how these are linked to the economic development of the region. The Academy offers the opportunity to connect students to a research community integrated by high profile researchers.

Adolph Reed, who researches race and politics, warns that “identitarian” politics can conceal the structural inequities of capitalism

Right-wing news sources have stopped playing by the rules of journalism

Conventional wisdom asserts that American politics is becoming more and more tribal. But the chiefs of the tribes share a lot in common: dependence on big money.

The Intercept covers a new INET paper from our Research Director Tom Ferguson and his co-authors.

Contrary to the dominant media narrative, social issues like racism and sexism on their own can’t explain Trump’s success.

This paper critically analyzes voting patterns in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Rise of China and the Future of WorkArtificial intelligence could replace routine jobs but allow us to “pursue dreams”

What did societies and politicians learn from the crash? What have been theoretical achievements in orthodox and heterodox economic thinking since then? Where do we go from here?

The current international monetary system is costly, unfair, and risky. “Economic nationalism” and deregulation in the U.S. will make it worse. A multilateral alternative is needed.

Donald Trump, democracy, and how the wealthy crush the American Dream

The YSI Economics of Innovation, Economic Development and Africa Working Groups, in partnership with Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (GLOBELICS), Globelics Alumni, are organizing the 1st GLOBELICS Pre-Conference for Young Scholars entitled ‘Financing of Innovation and Infrastructure for Development’.

To connect across difference is the only thing that will save us from rule by the privileged few.

William Lazonick has shown how the doctrine of “shareholder value” has hurt wages in the United States. But in Latin America, where family corporations dominate, the story is more complicated.

Jacobin Magazine features research from INET Research Director Tom Ferguson and co-authors on big business support for Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign.

Investigating the history of economic thought fuels innovative thinking 

The YSI Africa Working Group is convening in Bologna, Italy in conjunction with the 13th Annual Meeting of the African Economic History Network. Our meeting in Bologna follows what promises to be a successful convention in August 2018 at the YSI Africa Convening in Harare, Zimbabwe. The YSI Africa Working Group is committed to continuing important conversations about how economic history can contribute to the study of development of Africa. We are particularly interested in thinking about the types of new approaches to the study of economics and economic history.

Reactions to the size of the proposed plan rely on discredited assumptions and betray a fundamental misunderstanding of economic growth—and austerity 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to replace routine jobs, says Dr. Kai-Fu Lee. But done right, that process could allow us to “pursue dreams, spend time with our loved ones and find out why we exist as humans”

Nobel laureate James Heckman, Sidharth Moktan and their INET-funded research on economics journals is featured in The Economist.

Young scholars in the fields of behavioral and experimental economics, philosophy, and related disciplines will be given the opportunity to present their work at a workshop in New York. Samuel Bowles (Santa Fe Institute), Shaun Hargreaves Heap (King’s College London) and Mario Rizzo (New York University) will also present their work and give feedback to the young scholars.

Economists who dismiss inequality as a problem secondary to poverty miss the point: Inequality is part of what drives poverty

“We don’t look after each other at all,” says Jeffrey Sachs on America today

This paper examines the relationship between placement of publications in Top Five (T5) journals and receipt of tenure in academic economics departments.

Getting published in a top five economics journal is a near-requirement for tenure. But it’s a poor measure of research quality within a system that punishes creativity.

In a piece for The Intercept, Noam Chomsky cites Tom Ferguson’s paper on the influence of money in US congressional elections.

Nobel laureate James Heckman, Sidharth Moktan and their INET-funded research on economics journals is featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

INET President Rob Johnson appears on Background Briefing with Ian Masters to discuss the tenth anniversary of the bailout

Ten years after the crisis, financial regulation leaves taxpayers holding the bag for banks’ safety net.

This paper concerns itself with the joint effect of implicit subsidies that are built into the US housing-finance system and financial safety net.

Steve Keen: “What an education in economics does is make you into a zealot

A Nobel Prize-winning economist and the second-most-famous democratic socialist in America sit down together

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. …This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not before.” This YSI Webinar and Reading Group aims to contribute to the historicization of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and its repercussions.

After Sweden’s elections, a look at how immigration and economics explain a political puzzle

Back in 2008, a critical opportunity was missed when the burden of post-crisis adjustment was tilted heavily in favor of creditors relative to debtors. The result was not only prolonged stagnation, but also the Republican Party’s embrace of demagogic populism and the election of Donald Trump.

The Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) is supporting the conference “Hello, Can You Hear Me? Added Value and Inequalities in a Global Market,” that will be held at La Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), on September 20th and 21st. The event is promoted by CEST and funded by the Young Scholars Initiative – INET and by the “Luigi Einaudi” Research Centre.

Trump’s surprise win areas looked like a drug overdose map

What would global trade without the U.S. at the helm look like? INET Global Commissioner Danny Quah investigates.

A financial industry safety net enriches bankers and their shareholders — at our expense

George Soros and Rob Johnson Discuss the Causes and Consequences of the 2008 Financial Crisis

Ten years after Lehman Brothers’ collapse, the Wall Street casino is running amok

INET Oxford’s Brian Nolan writes on his new book for VoxEU

In 2008 a global financial meltdown was just barely contained. But Adam Tooze says that the crisis of confidence has had long aftershocks

Distracted by the perceived threat of a Chinese savings glut, mainstream macroeconomists missed the writing on the wall of the 2008 crisis

INET Chairman Adair Turner reflects on the 2008 financial crisis on Bloomberg TV

Been following Larry Summers and Joe Stiglitz’s debate over secular stagnation? Check out their INET work on the topic here and decide for yourself who makes the better case.

Both before 2008 and today, there’s a disturbing tendency in Washington to not take mortgage fraud seriously

Before 2008, mainstream economics thought a global economic crisis on the scale of the Great Depression was impossible. Then Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. A decade later, INET looks back at the causes of the global financial crisis, and what policymakers—and economists—must change to prevent another one.

Despite disparate policy beliefs, MMT and orthodox macro rely on many of the same theoretical foundations

10 years later, Nobel laureate George Akerlof says the walls within economics need to come down

In Europe and the United States, stock-based compensation discourages long-term corporate sustainability

Ten years ago, the financial crisis washed away faith and trust in economics as a guide to social prosperity. Filling a void is difficult. We are still hard at work. 

This paper adds to the empirical evidence on the extent to which stock-based pay incentivizes and rewards European corporate executives. It shows that the actual realized gains (that is, take-home compensation) from stock-based pay of CEOs in European publicly-listed firms may be underestimated by the use of “estimated fair value” measures. The paper also documents the heterogeneity among countries in terms of the levels and components of CEO take-home pay. We base our work on a sample of 301 large, publicly-traded companies listed in the S&P Europe 350 index from 11 EU countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom for the fiscal year 2015. Through analyzing companies’ annual reports, we have hand-collected data on various elements of compensation of the company’s CEO in 2015, including the gains that executives realize from stock-based pay. We document that on average half of the total compensation of the European CEOs in our sample is stock-based, measured by actual realized gains, with large differences among countries. Although in some European countries the majority of total compensation is stock-based, the proportions are still well below those that prevail in the

When a small group of companies can dominate a labor market, wages—and workers—suffer

Winnie Byanyima shows how we all suffer when corporations evade taxes

Expanding, rather than cutting, Social Security is the solution

The American Prospect highlights William Lazonick’s INET paper on US Pharma’s Financialized Business Model.

The Economics of Innovation Working group and the Economic History Working Group together with the Département d’histoire, économie et société at the University of Geneva, are launching the event Political Economy of Capitalism to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 27-28-29 August 2018.

It’s not just Turkey­—from India to Indonesia, external financial liabilities are a looming threat

To understand labor productivity—and growing inequality—you have to look at the “dual economy”

“Dualism” in the structure of production across sectors of the US economy, employment by sector, productivity levels and growth, real wages, and intersectoral terms-of trade increased markedly between 1990 and 2016.

In China, the government uses the purses strings of state-owned enterprises to control social unrest

Behind sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll were moral values, says music industry veteran Danny Goldberg

Using datasets on transactions within business groups and social sentiment in China, I show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) use internal funds to address social unrest, complying with the government’s political goals.

The anthropologist David Graeber has argued that as much as 30% of all work is performed in “bullshit jobs,” which are unnecessary to produce truly valuable goods and services but arise from competition for income and status. But the deeper problem is that more and more economic activity performs a merely distributive function.

WNYC interviews Michael Greenberger about his INET paper on the unregulated derivatives market, and the threat it poses to the global financial system

The Washington Post cites William Lazonick’s INET paper on shareholder value

Young Scholars based in Africa are invited to convene in Harare, Zimbabwe. The event serves to strengthen the African network of new economic thinkers pursuing a new economic paradigm. Attendees will be able to attend the annual conference of the Zimbabwe Historical Association in the same trip.

Young Scholars based in Africa are invited to convene in Harare, Zimbabwe. The event serves to strengthen the African network of new economic thinkers, in pursuit of a new economic paradigm. Attendees will be able to the annual conference of the Zimbabwe Historical Association in the same trip.

Vox cites William Lazonick’s INET paper on shareholder value

INET Global Commissioner Peter Bofinger breaks down cryptocurrencies, and why they’re actually far from “anonymous”

Watch music industry veteran Shep Gordon and INET President Rob Johnson talk about how reality TV, celebrity chefs, and surfing explain American politics and economy today.

A new report examines the path to global social progress. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers

Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest topics in finance, yet it is often misunderstood, both by the general public and self-proclaimed “experts.” In this collection, members of the INET community offer a broader look at the economics of cryptocurrency, and money itself.

State-issued digital money may avoid some pitfalls of cryptocurrency, but it’s no financial panacea

Sheila Dow and Antonella Stirati bring their scholarly expertise to INET’s research advisory group

Zephyr Teachout and Morris Pearl cite Michael Greenberger’s INET paper in an op-ed in the Albany Times Union

Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets explains how we can stop the financial industry from gaming Washington

Arminio Fraga and Richard Vague bring their economic expertise to INET

To understand the rise of the League and 5 Star Movement, look at economic indicators

The workshop aims to bring together experienced researchers with young scholars in the fields of Innovation, Economic Complexity and Economic Geography to understand knowledge accumulation and spillovers through products, people and places. Those interested in interdisciplinary research, especially bridging a gap between these topics are strongly encouraged to apply. 

How corporate raiders coopted “shareholder democracy” for their own ends

This paper explains how hedge-fund activists are exerting power over corporate resourceallocation far in excess of the actual voting power of their shareholdings.

Places hit hardest by austerity cuts were more likely to vote for UKIP and Leave

Gay men earn 20% less than straight men, but gay women earn up to 20% more than straight women. Why?

The YSI Economic History Working Group invites scholars to submit their research on alternative perspectives and different approaches to the study of economic history. The workshop will take place on 29 July, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts, preceding the World Economic History Congress (29 July  - 3 August).