The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) promotes human and ecological well-being through our original research. Our approach is to translate what we learn into workable policy proposals that are capable of improving life on our planet today and in the future. In the words of the late Professor Robert Heilbroner, we at PERI “strive to make a workable science out of morality.”
Established in 1998, PERI is an independent unit of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with close ties to the Department of Economics. PERI staff frequently work collaboratively with faculty members and graduate students from the University of Massachusetts, and other economists from around the world. Since its founding, PERI has become a leading source of research and policy initiatives on issues of globalization, unemployment, financial market instability, central bank policy, living wages and decent work, and the economics of peace, development, and the environment.
Submissions from 2018
The Cost of Paid Sick Leave, Amanda Page-Hoongrajok
Globalization Checkmated? Political and Geopolitical Contradictions Coming Home to Roost, Thomas I. Palley
Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) and the Fallacy of the Natural Rate of Interest: Why NIRP May Worsen Keynesian Unemployment, Thomas I. Palley
Does Health Aid Reduce Infant and Child Mortality from Diarrhea in Sub-Saharan Africa?, Lynda Pickbourn and Léonce Ndikumana
Giovanni Arrighi in Beijing: Rethinking the Transformation of the Labor Supply in Rural China During the Reform Era, Hao Qi and Zhongjin Li
Migration, Crises and Social Transformation in India Since the 1990s, Smriti Rao and Vamsi Vakulabharanam
How Structural Adjustment Programs Impact Bureaucratic Quality in Developing Countries, Bernhard Reinsberg, Alexander Kentikelenis, Thomas Stubbs, and Lawrence King
The Big Cost of Big Medicine: Calculating the Rent in Private Healthcare, Mark Stelzner and Daniel Taekmin Nam
The Comparative Advantage of the U.S. Shadow Banking System and the U.S. Dollar, Junji Tokunaga
Submissions from 2017
In Kind Benefits as Partial Payment of Wages: A Review of Laws Around the World, Richard Anker and Nicole Anker
Public Debt and Growth: An Assessment of Key Findings on Causality and Thresholds, Michael Ash and Deepankar Basu
Asymmetric Exchange Rate Policy in Inflation Targeting Developing Countries, Ahmet Benlialper, Hasan Cömert, and Nadir Öcal
Renewable Energy Investment and Employment in China, Ying Chen
The Empirical Analysis of Minsky Regimes in the U.S. Economy, Leila E. Davis, Joao Paulo A. de Souza, and Gonzalo Hernandez
Does Greater Public Ownership in the Financial System Promote Superior Performance?: A Survey of the Literature, Devika Dutt
The Wages of Care: Bargaining Power, Earnings and Inequality, Nancy Folbre and Kristin Smith
A Short-Run Distributional Analysis of a Carbon Tax in the United States, Anders Fremstad and Mark Paul
Liar’s Loans, Mortgage Fraud, and the Great Recession, Thomas Herndon
Punishment or Forgiveness? Loan Modifications in Private Label Residential Mortgage Backed Securities from 2008-2014, Thomas Herndon
Environmental destruction in the new economy: Offshore finance and mangrove forest clearance in Grand Cayman, Katrina Jurn, Joseph Lavallee, and Lawrence P. King
Revisiting the Gender Wage Gap in Korea: Focusing on Working Hours by Occupation, Nayeon Lim and Minsik Choi
How Saving Data Is Estimated, Gokcer Ozgur
Austerity Versus Green Growth for Puerto Rico, Amanda Page-Hoongrajok, Shouvik Chakraborty, and Robert Pollin
Fixing the Euro’s Original Sins: The Monetary-Fiscal Architecture and Monetary Policy Conduct, Thomas Palley
Trump’s International Political Economy: Neocon Neoliberalism Camouflaged with Anti-Globalization Circus, Thomas Palley
The Revenue Potential of a Financial Transaction Tax for U.S. Financial Markets, Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Thomas Herndon
Dynamics of the Rate of Surplus Value and the “New Normal” of the Chinese Economy, Hao Qi
The Costs of Exclusion: Gender Job Segregation, Structural Change, and the Labour Share of Income, Stephanie Seguino and Elissa Braunstein
Workers and Technological Change in the United States, Mark Stelzner and Enzo Cerrutti
Submissions from 2016
Assessing the Jobs-Environment Relationship with Matched Data from US EEOC and US EPA, Michael Ash and James K. Boyce
Distributional Issues in Climate Policy: Air Quality Co-benefits and Carbon Rent, James K. Boyce
Reinvestigating the PreBisch-Singer Hypothesis 1900-2015, Shouvik Chakraborty
Wheels within Wheels within Wheels: The Importance of Capital Inflows in the Origin of the Spanish Financial Crisis, Rafael Fernandez and Clara García
The FIH and the Paradox of Debt: A Microeconometric Approach for Latin America, Alejandro González and Esteban Perez-Caldentey
Capital Controls in a Time of Crisis, Ilene Grabel
No Country for Young Girls: Market Reforms, Gender Roles, and Pre-natal Sex Selection in Post-Soviet Ukraine, Lawrence King and Marc Michael
The Effects of Increasing the Minimum Wage on Prices: Analyzing the Incidence of Policy Design and Context, Daniel MacDonald
The Gospel of Co-operative Capitalism: Acolytes and Apostates, William E. McColloch
Profit-Led Growth and the Stock Market, Thomas R. Michl
A Theory of Economic Policy Lock-in and Lock-out via Hysterisis: Rethinking Economists’ Approach to Economic Policy, Thomas I. Palley
Inequality and Growth in Neo-Kaleckian and Cambridge Growth Theory, Thomas I. Palley
Opening the Farm Gate to Women? Sustainable Agriculture in the United States, Mark Paul and Anders Fremstad
The Economics of Just Transition: A Framework for Supporting Fossil Fuel-Dependent Workers and Communities in the United States, Robert Pollin and Brian Callaci
Financing for Gender Equality in the Context of SDGs, Stephanie Seguino
Do Minimum Wages Lead to Job Losses? Evidence from OECD Countries on Low-Skilled and Youth Employment, Simon Sturn
Submissions from 2015
The Effect of Public Health Expenditure on Infant Mortality: Evidence from a Panel of Indian States, 1983-84 to 2011-12, Andrew J. Barenberg, Deepankar Basu, and Ceren Soylu
Measuring Environmental Inequality, James K. Boyce, Klara Zwickl, and Michael Ash
Submissions from 2010
Capital Controls and 21st Century Financial Crises: Evidence from Colombia and Thailand, Bruno Coelho and Kevin P. Gallagher
The International Circuit of Key Currencies and the Global Crisis: Is there Scope for Reform?, Lilia Costabile
Is There a Case for Formal Inflation Targeting in Sub-Saharan Africa?, James Heintz and Léonce Ndikumana
Property Rights Reform and Development: A Critique of the Cross-national Regression Literature, Osvaldo Gómez Martínez and Lawrence King
Falling into the Liquidity Trap: Notes on the Global Economic Crisis, Thomas R. Michl
The Troubling Economics and Politics of Paying Interest on Bank Reserves: A Critique of the Federal Reserve’s Exit Strategy, Thomas I. Palley
Generating Jobs through State Employer Tax Credits: Is there a Better Way?, Jeff Thompson and Heidi Garrett-Peltier
Economic Inequality and Environmental Quality: Evidence of Pollution Shifting in Russia, Marina S. Vornovytskyy. and James K. Boyce
Submissions from 2009
Measuring Corporate Environmental Justice Performance, Michael Ash and James K. Boyce
The Potential Revenue from Financial Transactions Taxes, Dean Baker, Robert Pollin, Travis McArthur, and Matt Sherman
Estimation of Treatment Effect of Asthma Case Management Using Propensity Score Methods, Sylvia Brandt, Sara Gale, and Ira Tager
New Critical Perspectives on the U.S. and the Post-WWII Global Economy: Brenner, Harvey, and Pollin, Merlin Chowkwanyun
Setting an Agenda for Monetary Reform, Jane D’Arista
China and the Latin America Commodities Boom: A Critical Assessment, Kevin P. Gallagher and Roberto Porzecanski
Unemployment Compensation and High European Unemployment: A Reassessment with New Benefit Indicators, David R. Howell and Miriam Rehm
Partial Implementation of COOL: Economic Effects in the U.S. Seafood Industry, Siny Joseph, Nathalie Lavoie, and Julie A. Caswell
Social Democratic and Socialist Policies, John King
Comparing the Effectiveness of Regulation and Pro-Social Emotions to Enhance Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from Fishing Communities in Colombia, Maria Claudia Lopez, James J. Murphy, John M. Spraggon, and John K. Stranlund
Securing the Border from Invasives: Robust Inspections Under Severe Uncertainty, L. Joe Moffitt, John K. Stranlund, and Craig D. Osteen
Labor Productivity: A Comparative Analysis of the European Union and United States, 1994-2007, Enrique Palazuelos and Rafael Fernández
Rethinking the Economics of Capital Mobility and Capital Controls, Thomas I. Palley
The Simple Analytics of Debt-Driven Business Cycles, Thomas I. Palley
Response to “Seven Myths about Green Jobs” and “Green Jobs Myths”, Robert Pollin
Public Investment, Industrial Policy and U.S. Economic Renewal, Robert Pollin and Dean Baker
Climate Change and Damage from Extreme Weather Events, Robert Repetto and Robert Easton
Goodwin or Kalecki in Demand? Functional Income Distribution and Aggregate Demand in the Short Run, Engelbert Stockhammer and Robert Stehrer
A Safety Valve for Emissions Trading, John K. Stranlund
The Social Construction of Successful Market Reforms, David Stuckler, Lawrence King, and Greg Patton
The Interaction of Metropolitan Cost-of-Living & the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit: One Size Fits All?, Jeffrey P. Thompson and Katie Fitzpatrick
The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy Reconsidered, John Weeks
Could International Labor Rights Play a Role in U.S. Trade?, Christian E. Weller
Did Retirees Save Enough to Compensate for the Increase in Individual Risk Exposure?, Christian E. Weller
Public Policy Options to Build Wealth for America’s Middle Class, Christian E. Weller and Amy Helburn
On the Nature and Causes of the Collapse of the Wealth of Nations, 2007/2008: The End of a Façade Called Globalization, Erinç Yeldan
Submissions from 2008
Post-Conflict Recovery: Resource Mobilization and Peacebuilding, James K. Boyce
Keeping the Government Whole: The Impact of a Cap-and-Dividend Policy for Curbing Global Warming on Government Revenue and Expenditure, James K. Boyce and Matthew Riddle
Interest Rate Smoothing and Macroeconomic Instability under Post-Capital Account Liberalization Turkey, Hasan Cömert and A. Erinc Yeldan
The Implications of Aging for the Structure and Stability of Financial Markets, Jane D’Arista
Democracy, Income, and Environmental Quality, Kevin P. Gallagher and Strom C. Thacker
The Political Economy of Remittances: What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know?, Ilene Grabel
By What Measure? A Comparison of French and U.S. Labor Market Performance with New Indicators of Employment Adequacy, David R. Howell and Anna Okatenko
Attracting Undocumented Immigrants: The Perverse Effects of U.S. Border Enforcement, Florian K. Kaufmann
Resources for Peace? Managing Revenues from Extractive Industries in Post-Conflict Environments, Philippe Le Billon
Discounting Nordhaus, Thomas R. Michl
Right-Financing Security Sector Reform, Peter Middlebrook and Gordon Peake
New Estimates of Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan African Countries: Linkages with External Borrowing and Policy Options, Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce
Jobless Growth in the Central and Eastern European Countries, Özlem Onaran
Endogenous Money: Implications for the Money Supply Process, Interest Rates, and Macroeconomics, Thomas Palley
Macroeconomics without the LM: A Post-Keynesian Perspective, Thomas Palley