Author: rebeccaschwa

There is continued coverage of research findings by Dania Francis, economics and Afro-American studies, that between $3.7 and $6.6 billion has been lost from dispossession of black-owned agricultural land in the South. (Esquire, 8/14/19)

Kartik Misrak, PhD candidate in economics, has been accepted for publication of his paper, “Does Historical Land Inequality Attenuate the Positive Impact of India’s Employment Guarantee Program?” in the World Development today.

Economist James K. Boyce explains how to fight climate change and rising income inequality in one shot.  (Institute for New Economic Thinking, 7/30/19)

Dania Francis, economics and Afro-American studies, was part of a research team studying the financial loss resulting from the dispossession of black-owned agricultural land in the South. The team estimates the loss, including property and income, at between $3.7 and $6.6 billion in today’s dollars. (The Atlantic, 9/13/19)

A columnist quotes David Kotz, professor emeritus of economics, who says the current trade war started by Pres. Donald Trump has destabilized the U.S. economy and led to a 5.5 percent drop in gross private domestic investment. (Common Dreams, 8/13/19)

A news story on efforts to raise the federal minimum wage includes comments from Arindrajit Dube, economics, one of the authors of a recent study of 138 minimum wage increases in the U.S. between 1979 and 2016. “What we found was that these policies have the intended consequences of raising wages at the bottom” of the income scale and “have some degree of spillover beyond the minimum wage,” Dube says. “At the same time there is no overall evidence we found that the number of low-wage jobs are actually reduced.” He says the researchers didn’t find adverse impact on employment. (U.S. News & World Report, 8/9/19; News Office release)

An article that asks what gross domestic product, or GDP, is and whether it’s the best way to measure the economy, quotes Nancy Folbre, professor emeritus in economics. She says GDP provides only a partial economic picture because it doesn’t factor in unpaid work, like housework or childcare. (PBS NewsHour, 7/30/19)

James K. Boyce, emeritus professor of economics, writes that to meet climate goals, it’s necessary not just to promote energy efficiency but also to curtail the supply of fossil fuels. He says curbing the supply of fossil fuels will raise their price, effectively putting a price on carbon emissions. (Institute for New Economic Thinking, 7/22/19)

A new study co-authored by Lawrence P. King, economics, finds that falling incomes and rising incarceration rates at the county level in the U.S. are linked to an increase in drug-related deaths. The researchers looked at data at the county level from 1983 to 2014. “It’s a strong argument for the medicalization of hard drugs as opposed to criminalization, which actually makes a lot of sense, given that the definition that we use of addiction is continued obsessive-compulsive use of drugs despite the negative consequences,” King says. (WICZ-TV 40 [Binghamton, N.Y.], 7/22/19)

James K. Boyce, emeritus professor of economics, writes a column where he talks about how creating a “carbon dividend” process for reducing carbon emissions would be both good economics and would be politically popular. The idea is to tax carbon and share the resulting revenue with all Americans, similar to how Alaska shares revenue from the oil industry. (Politico, 7/23/19)