What is the best mix of cash and credit assistance to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, and what are the principles that should guide those choices? For policymakers [...]

Three scholars from the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) have been interviewed on “The Work Goes On,” a podcast series hosted by Orley Ashenfelter, the Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics, Emeritus at Princeton University.

This blog, written by Salma Baghdadi, explores the critical challenges faced by African ecosystem builders, particularly the issue of foreign dependency. While international funding and support play a pivotal role in nurturing African ecosystems—fueling innovation, entrepreneurship, and capacity-b...

What factors explain the large differences in employment rates and wages between men and women in South Korea? That’s a question explored in a paper by MIT Sloan Assistant Professor Anna Stansbury, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the German Marshall Fund, and Harvard University Professor Karen Dynan that w...

The Center officially kicked off our multi-year collaboration with the Government of Botswana, marked by a series of exciting events including the first Foundry Fellow Reunion in Africa, the start of our 12-week early-stage entrepreneurship program with over 31 startups and the preparations for exci...

Governments worldwide increasingly rely on contingent claims such as deposit insurance, too-big-to-fail guarantees, credit support for firms and households, and disaster insurance to accomplish policy goals. What are the micro- and macro-economic consequences of [...]

As the keynote speaker at a recent conference of the International Consortium on Government Financial Management held in Washington DC, I had the opportunity to discuss with representatives from over 40 countries one of the primary challenges facing governments around the world – citizen engagement.

The GCFP invites guest blog submissions to encourage discussion of important financial policy issues. This first guest posting, by Bob Pozen, proposes a “Third Type of Retirement Plan” that would address some of the stresses in public sector defined benefit pension plans while preserving much of the...

Greece recently failed to pay $1.7 billion due to the IMF, thereby becoming the first developed country to default on an IMF loan. That missed payment represents only a portion of the approximately $23 billion in IMF credit outstanding to Greece, suggesting the ultimate losses to the Fund could be m...

It is the rare journalist who tackles the topic of government credit programs and their ills. Rarer still is a popular account that accurately brings these complicated issues to life. Kudos to Michael Grunwald, who writing for Politico, did just that. I highly recommend his article. (Note that to ge...