The monetarist counterrevolution and the stagflation period of the 1970s were among the theoretical and practical developments that led to the rejection of fiscal policy as a useful tool for macroeconomic stabilization and full employment determination. Recent mainstream contributions, however,...

Since 1997, a number of researchers (many of whom are now associated with the University of Missouri-Kansas City) have been advocating a job creation program that has been variously called the employer of last resort (ELR), job guarantee, public service employment, or buffer stock employment...

Proponents of income and job guarantee schemes agree that public policy should provide some form of universal guarantees to all citizens. It is the nature of these guarantees that represents the sharp division in policy recommendations. Income guarantee supporters champion the provision of an...

This paper describes what has been called the "employer of last resort" (ELR) proposal as a policy to achieve true full employment without inflation. We answer three main concerns about the program: 1) How can the government afford to hire all those who might want to work? 2) Won't full...

For many years Argentina was the poster child of IMF austerity and market liberalization policies, until it experienced an economic meltdown in the winter of 2001-2002. To deal with the looming crisis and skyrocketing unemployment and poverty rates, the Argentinean government implemented a...

This paper examines two key aspects of unemployment — its propagation mechanism and socioeconomic costs. It identifies a key feature of this macroeconomic phenomenon: it behaves like a disease. A detailed assessment of the transmission mechanism and the existing pecuniary and nonpecuniary...

This paper examines Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's recipe for deflation fighting and the specific policy actions he took in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Both in his academic and in his policy work, Bernanke has made the case that monetary policy is able to stem...

This paper examines Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's recipe for deflation fighting and the specific policy actions he took in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Both in his academic and in his policy work, Bernanke has made the case that monetary policy is able to stem...

Over the past decade and a half the ability of the employer-of-last-resort (ELR) proposal to deliver full employment and price stability has been discussed at length in the literature. A different issue has received relatively little attention — namely, the concern that even when the ELR...

The paper evaluates the fiscal policy initiatives during the Great Recession in the United States. It argues that, although the nonconventional fiscal policies targeted at the financial sector dwarfed the conventional countercyclical stabilization efforts directed toward the real sector, the...