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 2021
Financialization and Militarization: An Empirical Investigation, Pelin Akçagün and Adem Yavuz Elveren
Did Alcohol Policy Really Cause the Postsocialist Mortality Crisis? Revisiting the Rebound and Affordability Hypotheses, Aytalina Azarova, Gabor Scheiring, Michael Ash, and Lawrence King
U.S. Monetary Policy and the Decline in the Interest Rates (1990-2007), Santiago Capraro, Carlo Panico, and Luis Daniel Torres-González
Post-American Moments in Contemporary Global Financial Governance, Ilene Grabel
Predicting Chinese Banking Policy Incidence, Sara Hsu
Predicting Chinese State-Owned Enterprise Policy Incidence, Sara Hsu
Notes on Covid-19, Potential GDP, and Hysteresis, Thomas R. Michl
Path Dependence and Stagnation in a Classical Growth Model, Thomas R. Michl and Daniele Tavani
Is There a Case for National Development Banks in Africa? Conceptual Rationale and Empirical Evidence, Léonce Ndikumana, Karmen Naidoo, and Francisco Perez
National Policy Space: Reframing the Political Economy of Globalization and Its Implications for National Sovereignty and Democracy, Thomas Palley
Financialization, Deindustrialization and Instability in Latin America, Esteban Pérez Caldentey and Matías Vernengo
Does Project-Level Foreign Aid Increase Access to Improved Water Sources? Evidence from Household Panel Data in Uganda, Lynda Joyce Pickbourn, Raymond Caraher, and Léonce Ndikumana
The Flimsy Foundations of Neoliberal Macroeconomics: David Gordon on Saving, Investment, and the Natural Rate of Unemployment, Robert Pollin
Work and Social Reproduction in Rural India: Lessons from Time-Use Data, Smriti Rao, Smita Ramnarain, Sirisha Naidu, Anupama Uppal, and Avanti Mukherjee
Deindustrialization and the Postsocialist Mortality Crisis, Gabor Scheiring, Aytalina Azarova, Darja Irdam, Katarzyna Doniec, Martin McKee, and Lawrence King
Stranded Fossil-Fuel Assets Translate into Major Losses for Investors in Advanced Economies, Gregor Semieniuk, Philip B. Holden, Jean-Francois Mercure, Pablo Salas, Hector Pollitt, Katharine Jobson, Pim Vercoulen, Unnada Chewpreecha, Neil R. Edwards, and Jorge Viñuales
The Public Banking Movement in the United States: Networks, Agenda, Initiatives, and Challenges, Esra Nur Ugurlu and Gerald Epstein
Mapping Religion, Space, and Economic Outcomes in Indian Cities, Vamsi Vakulabharanam and Sripad Motiram
The (Im-)Possibility of Rational Socialism: Mises in China’s Market Reform Debate, Isabella Weber
The Nature of Money and the Theory of International Trade: Thornton and Ricardo, Isabella Weber
The Nature of Money and the Theory of International Trade: Thornton and Ricardo, Isabella Weber
The State-Constituted Market Economy: A Conceptual Framework for China’s State–Market Relations, Isabella Weber and Hao Qi
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Zhun Xu and Shouvik Chakraborty
Regulated Market, Trapped Workers: The Impacts of the "Tolerant and Prudent" Policy on Labour Precarity in China’s Online Ridehailing Sector, Wei Zhang, Hao Qi, and Zhongjin Li
Submissions from 2020
Delhi Green Deal, Rohit Azad and Shouvik Chakraborty
Is Imperialism Passé in the 21st Century?, Rohit Azad and Shouvik Chakraborty
Political Economy of the Environment: A Look Back and Ahead, James K. Boyce
Do Firms with Higher Energy Efficiency Have Better Access to Finance?, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher, Pauline Ravillard, and Gregor Semieniuk
Zombie Prevalence and Survival, Debamanyu Das and Saurabh Roy
Should Economists Deceive? Prosocial Lying, Paternalism, and the ‘Ben Bernanke Problem’, George DeMartino
How Race and Gender Shape COVID-19 Unemployment Probability, Armagan Gezici and Ozge Ozay
A Three Class Predator-Prey Model with Financial Super Predators: The Financial Profit Squeeze, Jonathan Goldstein
Government Policy’s Influence on Shadow Banking in China, Sara Hsu
Corporate Political Power and US Foreign Policy, 1981-2002: The Role of the Policy-Planning Network, Philip Luther-Davies, Kasia Julia Doniec, Joseph P. Lavallee, G. William Domhoff, and Lawrence P. King
Bitter Chocolate: Wealth Extraction in Côte D'ivoire, Jean Merckaert
Coronavirus Fiscal Policy in the United States: Lessons from Feminist Political Economy, Katherine A. Moos
The State's Response to the Crisis of Neoliberalism: A Comparison of the Net Social Wage in China and the United States, 1992-2017, Katherine A. Moos and Hao Qi
Intra-City Inequalities, Neighborhoods and Economic Development, Sripad Motiram and Vamsi Vakulabharanam
The Janus Faces of Money, Property, and Governance: Fiscal Finance, Empire, and Race, Jamee K. Moudud
Looming Debt Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Drivers, Implications and Policy Options, Léonce Ndikumana, Theresa Mannah-Blankson, and Angelica Espiritu Njuguna
Capital Flight From South Africa: A Case Study, Léonce Ndikumana, Karmen Naidoo, and Adam Aboobaker
Re-Making of the Turkish Crisis, Özgür Orhangazi and Erinç Yeldan
Public Investment in Home Health Care: A Win-Win Strategy for Employment and Public Health, Lenore Palladino
What’s Wrong with Modern Money Theory: Macro and Political Economic Restraints on Deficit-Financed Fiscal Policy, Thomas Palley
Beyond the Coronavirus: Understanding Crises of Social Reproduction, Smriti Rao
Privatization and the Postsocialist Fertility Decline, Gabor Scheiring, Bryant P. H. Hui, Darja Irdam, Aytalina Azarova, Eva Fodor, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Lawrence King, and David Stuckler
Deindustrialization and Deaths of Despair: Mapping the Impact of Industrial Decline on Ill Health, Gabor Scheiring, David Stuckler, and Lawrence King
Low-Carbon Transition Risks for Finance, Gregor Semieniuk, Emanuele Campiglio, Jean-Francois Mercure, Ulrich Volz, and Neil R. Edwards
Low-Carbon Transition Risks for Finance, Gregor Semieniuk and Isabella M. Weber
The U.S.–China Trade Imbalance and the Theory of Free Trade: Debunking the Currency Manipulation Argument, Anwar Shaikh and Isabella Weber
Monetizing Public Debt in Japan: An Empirical Critique of Modern Money Theory, Junji Tokunaga
South Asian Economies in Two Imperialist Regimes Between 1950 and 2020, Vamsi Vakulabharanam
Gender and Work Patterns in Indian Cities: A Socio-Spatial Analysis, Vamsi Vakulabharanam and Sripad Motiram
A General Equilibrium Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Turkey’s Economy and a Policy Alternative to Protect Labor Incomes, Ebru Voyvoda and A. Erinç Yeldan
Potential Reserve Army and Diverging Paths of Transition in Former State Socialist Economies, Zhun Xu
Submissions from 2019
International Trade and Capital Flight From Africa: Challenges for Governance, Melvin D. Ayogu
Dominance of Majoritarian Politics and Hate Crimes Against Religious Minorities in India, 2009-2018, Deepankar Basu
Revisiting India's Growth Transitions, Deepankar Basu
Why Do Firms Impose Vertical Restraints? Evidence from Franchise Contracts, Brian Callaci
From the Classical to Empiricists: A review of the terms of trade controversy, Shouvik Chakraborty and Prabirjit Sarkar
From Trilemma to Dilemma: Monetary Policy Effectiveness after the Bretton Woods World, Hasan Cömert
Competition and Monopoly in the U.S. Economy: What do Industrial Concentration Data Tell?, Leila Davis and Özgür Orhangazi
Informality, Inequality, and Feminization of Labor, Ceyhun Elgin and Adem Yavuz Elveren
The Institutional, Empirical and Policy Limits of ‘Modern Money Theory’, Gerald Epstein
Industry Concentration and Technological Progress in U.S. Industries, Armağan Gezici
Structural Change in India and China: External Sustainability and the Middle-Income Trap, Suranjana Nabar-Bhaduri and Matías Vernengo
Magnitudes and Mechanisms of Capital Flight from Angola, Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa, Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce
The odd fiscal ‘implicit bargain’ in the Eurozone. A continental view of sovereignty., Ignacio Ramirez Cisneros
Structured Conflict: Changes in Federal and State Labor Laws and Strike Activity, 1950 to 2017, Mark Stelzner, Eric Hoyt, and Toushita Ramchurn
A Multidimensional Approach to Gender Gap in Poverty: An Application for Turkey, Hasan Tekgüç and Bengi Akbulut
The Revised U.S. Treasury Securities Standard System, Junji Tokunaga
Modern Money Theory (MMT) in the Tropics: Functional Finance in Developing Countries, Matías Vernengo and Esteban Pérez Caldentey
Unpaid Family Caregiving and Retirement Savings, Christian E. Weller and Michele Tolson
The Persistence of Racial Inequality: The Earnings Gap Among Women from 1979-2016, Jeannette Wicks-Lim
Effects of Carbon Mitigation on Co-pollutants at Industrial Facilities in Europe, Klara Zwickl, Simon Sturn, and James K. Boyce
Submissions from 2018
External Balance Sheets of Emerging Economies: Low-Yielding Assets, High-Yielding Liabilities, Yilmaz Akyüz
A Policy Proposal for Green Jobs in India: A Quantitative Analysis on Inclusivity of Green Jobs, Rohit Azad and Shouvik Chakraborty
Green Growth and the Right to Energy in India, Rohit Azad and Shouvik Chakraborty
A Marxist Theory of Rent, Deepankar Basu
Liquidity, Bank Runs, and Fire Sales Under Local Thinking, Thomas Bernardin and Hyun Woong Park
Carbon Pricing: Effectiveness and Equity, James K. Boyce
Monetary Policy in Liberalized Financial Markets: The Mexican Case, Santiago Capraro and Carlo Panico
Community-Driven Development and Collective Action: Overcoming Clientelism, Elite Capture, and Free Riding, Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth
Is It Merely A Labor Supply Shock? Impacts of Syrian Migrants on Local Economies in Turkey, Doruk Cengiz and Hasan Tekguc
A Tale of Three Crises in Turkey: 1994, 2001, and 2008-09, Hasan Cömert and Erinç Yeldan
Spreading the Washington Consensus into Food and Agriculture Sectors: The Case of the International Monetary Fund, Adel Daoud, Bernhard Reinsberg, Alexander E. Kentikelenis, Thomas H. Stubbs, and Lawrence P. King
By the Content of their Character? Discrimination, Social Identity, and Observed Distributions of Income, Paulo L. dos Santos and Noé Wiener
Kuznets, Kaya, and Shapley: The Economic and Energetic Determinants of Carbon Emissions and the Implications for Development and Environmental Policy, Heidi Garrett-Peltier
The Global Financial Governance Architecture, Developmental Finance, and the Hirschmanian Mindset, Ilene Grabel
Economics and Climate Justice Activism: Assessing the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement, Tyler Hansen and Robert Pollin
Environmental Destruction in the New Economy: Offshore Finance and Mangrove Forest Clearance in Grand Cayman, Katrina Jurn, Joseph Lavallee, and Lawrence King
Re-Conceptualizing Processes of Post-Colonial Development in Pakistan: The Interplay of Institutions and Class, Danish Khan
Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The U.S. Net Social Wage in the 21st Century, Katherine A. Moos
On the Measurement of “Grayness” of Cities, Sripad Motiram and Vamsi Vakulabharanam
Reproductive Work and Female Labor Force Participation in Rural India, Sirisha C. Naidu and Smriti Rao
Magnitude and Mechanisms of Capital Flight from Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa, Léonce Ndikumana and James Boyce
State and Capitalist Class in China’s Economic Transition: From Great Compromise to Strained Alliance, Isabel Nogueira and Hao Qi
The Role of Intangible Assets in Explaining the Investment-Profit Puzzle, Özgür Orhangazi