Professor Emeritus James Boyce Wins First Global Inequality Research Award

Professor Emeritus James Boyce along with Bina Agarwal (University of manchester) win first Global Inequality Reasearch Award. In recent decades, the study of global inequalities has experienced a remarkable boom: economic, social and environmental inequalities have been the subject of a growing body of theoretical and empirical work, visible and influential throughout the world. The World Inequality Lab (WIL) and Sciences Po’s Center for Research on Social Inequalities (CRIS) have joined forces for the first edition of the Global Inequality Research Award (or GiRA), which aims to recognize every two years researchers from all disciplines who have made a significant contribution to the understanding of global inequalities. Read More...

Deepankar Basu and Kartik Misra (UMass Economics Alum) oped for the Hindustan Times, "Guarantee Procurement, not Just Minimum Prices"

Professor  Deepankar Basu and Kartik Misra (UMass Economics Alum) oped for the Hindustan Times. In November 2022, a year-long farmer protest movement forced the Union government to repeal the 2021 farm laws which de-regulated agricultural markets in India. Earlier this month, farmers returned to the streets to demand guaranteed minimum support prices (MSP) for their produce. By rejecting the government’s offer of a five-year guaranteed MSP for farmers who diversify to cotton, pigeon peas, black urad, red lentils and corn, farmers have reiterated their demand for legalised MSP and procurement for all 23 crops. Read more...

Latest News

Arindrajit Dube, On rising real wages, reduced inequality, and Bidenomics. Read more ...
 
Gerald Epstein, discusses his latest book In a video by the Institute for New Economic Thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IjdKEuZY18
 
Jayati Ghosh,  published an op-ed about challenges facing India’s employment market. “Without far-reaching reforms aimed at boosting employment and guaranteeing living wages, India will struggle to achieve genuine economic success,” she cautions. Project Syndicate. Read more...
 
Isabella Weber, was interviewed in Tagesspiegel about the debt brake and its impact on the German economy. Read More...
 
Arindrajit Dube, was interviewed about the benefits of full employment. “We gave up on full employment in the 1980s. That was really a mistake that gave up a lot for American workers,” Read more...
 
Jayati Ghosh, penned a commentary on the IMF's special drawing rights (SDRs) as an untapped resource to finance climate-mitigation projects across the developing world: “Given that SDRs are not a currency but rather a potential claim on a currency, they function as accounting units within the IMF and do not involve any issuance costs.” Read more...
 

Statement on Racist Violence and Social Exclusion

Black Lives Matter. We declare and affirm this truth in the face of any verbal or material attempt to deny it. The current tragedies and structures of violence, exclusion and exploitation of Black people were made by human actors.  They date back to colonial times and slavery but persist to today. Teaching and research in the economics profession have often served to legitimize such structures portraying them as the outcome of the free and fair play of the market. The UMass Economics Department has a long tradition of research dedicated to uncovering structures of oppression, exploitation, exclusion and violence. This tradition must be rethought and adapted to place racial injustice at the center, as a dimension that should not be overlooked.

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