- On Capitol Hill
- On Wall Street
- In the Press
- Policy Reform Work
Our projects are designed to empower policy makers to create positive change. With a focus on collaboration and outreach, we provide original, standards-based research on key policy issues.
SCEPA joined with the Economic Policy Institute on Capitol Hill to brief congressional staff and policy experts on tax expenditures, or incentives given through the tax code without scrutiny by Congress.
SCEPA economists are working on the prospects for a more progressive economic order to emerge from the shock of the recession. They have published papers and documents that place current events in a longer-term context as well as policy proposals to deal with short-term concerns. They are also documenting the emerging discussion of how the discipline of economics is reacting to the Great Recession and the questioning of conventional economic analysis.
Lance Taylor, a SCEPA Faculty Fellow, presents an overview of his new book, Maynard’s Revenge, in a Google Tech Talk.
The book, published this November by Harvard University Press, is a timely analysis of mainstream macroeconomics, posing the need for a more useful and realistic economic analysis that can provide a better understanding of the ongoing global financial and economic crisis.
The government spends $143 billion through tax breaks in an effort to expand pension coverage and security. Yet, over half of the American workforce does not have a pension. Retirement insecurity hurts business plans, workers’ lives and retiree well-being. Reform is needed.
SCEPA’s Guaranteeing Retirement Income Project, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and in collaboration with Demos and the Economic Policy Institute, has a plan to guarantee safe and secure retirement income for all Americans.
Heather Boushey: Connections Between Inequality, Economic Growth & Stability
Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress and New School alum, presented the lecture, "Connections Between Inequality, Economic Growth & Stability" as part of the Fall seminar series presented by SCEPA and the Economics Department.
Boushey is a specialist on employment, social policy, and family economic well-being, with much of her current research focused on the recession's impact on workers and families. She co-edited The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster eBook, 2009) and was a lead author of "Bridging the Gaps," a 10-state study about how low- and moderate-income working families are left out of work support programs. Her research has been published in academic journals and has been covered in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a variety of other media outlets, including The New York Times, where she was called one of the "most vibrant voices in the field." She also spearheaded a successful campaign to save the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation from devastating budget cuts.
Reaching Out to Latinos
On October 5th, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Jaime Levy Pessin titled, "Reaching Out to Latinos." The article begins, "Hispanics are the fastest-growing demographic group in the U.S. They're also among the least likely to invest and keep money in 401(k)s and other retirement-savings accounts, recent reports show." Pessin quotes SCEPA Director and retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, who explains, "family ties and strong communities dovetail very badly with the features of the 401(k)."
Jeff Madrick Speaks at Occupy Wall Street
SCEPA Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick joined Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz in addressing the protesters occuping Wall Street at Zuccotti Park.
"The bankers were able to take home their bonuses every year by developing risky strategies that one day had to go bad. They knew, however, they would take out their money before most of those investments went bad. Economists call this asymmetric incentives. You make money by taking risk, but nobody takes it away from you when the strategies don't work and lose lots of money. That was one of the core problems with Wall Street. Could Washington have done something about that? Yes!"
