Macroeconomics

Does it matter if the Rational Expectations Hypothesis is unrealistic?

We analyse the link between income distribution and the current account for the period 1972-2007. We find that rising (top-end) personal inequality leads to a decrease of the current account, ceteris paribus.

The main goal of the macroeconomist is to understand the sources behind business cycles and the behavior of financial markets in the modern economy.

What happens when a market-based economy becomes a market-based society?

The destruction of trust is not an accident.

This workshop has the dual aim to expose mathematicians to new research problems in economics and economists to new techniques and developments in mathematics.

The rescue of Cyprus was a microcosm of how the nations of Europe have failed to work together to adequately address their ongoing financial crises.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, distrust in the financial sector was widespread. Even after the mess appeared to be cleaned up, the uncertainty over whether the worst was over remained real.

Finance is built on trust. It is based on promises about tomorrow, often paper promises backed by nothing other than words on a page. When trust in those promises breaks down, so too does the financial system. That is the lesson of thousands of years of history.

“You are now leaving the world as you know it.”

World leaders who are gathering for the APEC summit next week had hoped to be signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The pact would bring together key Pacific-rim countries into a trading bloc that the United States hopes could counter China’s growing influence in the region.

The failure of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 marked the beginning of the end of the world’s love affair with financialization.

Simon Johnson, Professor at MIT and former chief economist of the IMF, calls for much higher capital requirements for big banks.

Let Them Eat Credit: Has Financial Capitalism Failed the World?

Did the global economic collapse in 2008 stem from structural failures in the capitalist system?