- 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.
The Collapse of Middle Class Retirement
The March 11th issue of The American Prospect features a special report, "America's Endangered Middle Class; Why Saving It is Ground Zero of American Politics." Teresa Ghilarducci, retirement expert and SCEPA Director, contributes a piece on the collapse of secure retirement.
The report features a comprehensive review of the state of affairs affecting the middle class, including culture, economy, politics, and education, among others. Contributors - E.J. Dionne, Robert Kuttner, Laurence Mishel, Heather Bousey - ask if there is a middle class agenda that can be saved, championed, asserted and supported. And if so, how?
SCEPA Economist Speaks to First-Ever Congressional Black Caucus Budget Commission
According to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the many high-level reports investigating the nation's budget omit one necessary analysis: how deficit reduction proposals will affect the nation's most economically vulnerable populations. To address this gap, the CBC formed its own debt commission to focus on the recession and the impact of deficit reduction proposals on communities of color and the nation at large.
SCEPA's Darrick Hamilton, an economist and professor at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, was invited to testify at the first-ever CBC Commission on the Budget Deficit, Economic Crisis, and Wealth Creation on January 28, 2011.
Hamilton's work focuses on the causes, consequences and remedies of racial and ethnic inequality in economic and health outcomes, which includes an examination of the intersection of identity, racism, colorism, and socioeconomic outcomes. He has published articles on disparities in wealth, homeownership, health and labor market outcomes.
New School, SCEPA Alum Publishes Book
Economist Aleksandr Gevorkyan, a former New School student and SCEPA research assistant, recently published the book Innovative Fiscal Policy and Economic Development in Transition Economies. Gevorkyan explores the problems of fiscal policy as an instrument of economic and social development in the modern environment, primarily focusing on the transition economies of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. Evaluating the transformational experience in these countries, he provides a critical analysis of the aftermath of the 1990s market liberalization reforms and outlines a roadmap for future development.
Gevorkyan is an Economist at Capco, a global financial consulting firm. Dr. Gevorkyan also teaches a range of financial economics and economic development topics at New York University and St. John's University. He has also taught in the graduate programs at The New School and MBA concentration at Long Island University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The New School for Social Research, New York.
