Income inequality increases in Spain... and will likely keep increasing in the future!

According to El Pais, Spain is the fourth most unequal country in the European Union after Lithuania, Romania and Latvia. The Gini coefficient was in 2010 at the highest level since 1995 and as a result of the crisis more than one person in five is in below the poverty line. One would think that this would lead to social mobilization beyond the "Indigandos" and inequality playing a large role in the next elections. Instead, the conservative Partido Popular (likely winner in November) has promised to further liberalize the labour market AND reduce income taxes on capital gains. How is this possible? What will be the Gini coefficient in a few years? And how can Spaniards accept all these reforms? There is little doubt that some countries are more conservative than others and, implicitly or explicitly, are willing to accept market reforms without much opposition...

Participación en Radio Universidad (Costa Rica)

En el seno del proyecto que Juliana Martínez Franzoni y yo estamos llevando a cabo sobre el Estado social universal en países periféricos, tuve la oportunidad de conversar con Juani Guzmán en el Programa Desayunos de Radio Universidad.  El programa se puede escuchar aquí.  Fue interesante poder tratar de vincular nuestra investigación con el debate presente en Costa Rica y en otros países--algo que Juliana tiene que hacer todos los días en su nuevo papel de miembra de la Comisión Técnica sobre la Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social. Algunos puntos claves: (1) La importancia del universalismo como principio de la política social y la necesidad de convertirlo en una de las bases de cualquier propuesta política progresista; (2) Necesidad de entender mejor los requerimientos institucionales, políticos y económicos de ese universalismo.

Educating for the Digital Era

The NYT reviews an interesting book book by Cathy Davidson on teaching students in the new global era.  In her book, she criticizes term papers and argues that students write much better when engaging with blogs.  I actually believe that there is still a lot of room for a well-thought essay that forces students to think in an organized and synthetic way and to take their time.  Nevertheless, there is a larger point: we must integrate digital resources better in the classroom--even at the MA and PhD level.  I have made some attempts through this blog... although not very successful (writing once every three months does not help).

New:  And here the blog of the author with an interesting discussion on how to enrich education at all levels.

The false radicalization

Gillian Tett is usually excellent, but here  she reproduces a false argument about recent polarization in the US (and some other parts of the world?).  According to her "On one side of the spectrum, Tea Party activists have been brandishing the constitution and declaring “no surrender” on fiscal issues, even at the risk of sparking an American default. On the other side, leftwing parts of the Democratic party have been equally intransigent."  

Where are those leftwing parts of the Democratic party?  How much power do they have?  Is defending the (small) social system that the US have "radical"?  The real radicalization has taken place from the right alone and the Tea Party is succeeding in mainstreaming ideas that are unsustainable and inflexible.

Lance Taylor on his new book

Lance Taylor, professor of development and macroeconomics at the New School for Social Research, has just published a new book on the recent evolution of macroeconomics and the crisis. His argument is that the recent crisis has demonstrated the usefulness and accuracy of Keynes´ basic ideas, including the importance of aggregate demand and uncertainty. You can find a lecture based on the book in youtube here and a summary of the book here. I hope to post a review of the book in upcoming months and would encourage all of you to read it!

Inflation, inflation expectations and the usefulness of structuralism

Paul Segal (a lecturer at Sussex but also a graduate from Oxford) has an excellent entry today in the FT about inflation and inflation expectations. As you can see, there are still interesting people that think about inflation in terms of bargaining and conflicts over income distribution... with expectations playing a more central role that we have discussed.

It is important to understand that any increases in interest rates will have a direct effect on the economy through two channels: The cost of investment and the potential appreciate of the exchange rate. Giving sluggish conditions, it is unclear why one would want to do it and may only be explained by political economy considerations.

The multiple potential impacts of CCTs

This paper by Francesca Bastagli highlights the different impacts that CCTs may have on Latin America´s welfare regimes depending on their initial characteristics. This is the abstract:


"During the 1990s, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) were adopted by countries across Latin
America as central elements of their poverty reduction strategies. Alongside other
developments in the area of social assistance, CCTs represent an opportunity for countries to
develop an integrated and inclusive set of social policies. At the same time, particular CCT
features risk promoting the further residualisation and fragmentation of safety nets. Drawing
on the experience of six countries in Latin America, this paper identifies the variations and
recent trends in CCT design and implementation. Based on this review, it considers the
contribution of CCTs to the potential transition from a largely absent or minimal safety net to a
coordinated system of social policies."

This is a key arena for future research on CCTs: we must place them within a better understanding of the welfare regime in each country. Also, it is directly connected to the research Juliana Martínez and I are undertaken on Costa Rica where the question has always been: how can you build universalism from the bottom up?