The Great Economic Slowdown by Edmund Phelps, Hian Teck Hoon and Gylfi Zoega
The latest book by Center director Edmund Phelps and members Hian Teck Hoon and Gylfi Zoega is The Great Economic Slowdown: How Narrowed Technical Progress Brought Static Wages, Sky-High Wealth, and Much Discontent, out now from Palgrave.
The book charts the fall of productivity growth and the rise of inequality within global economies and societies. Set out through a series of economic models, the impact of falling rates of productivity growth, particularly in the USA, are examined in relation to lowering interest rates, the lifting of the stock market, and an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth. The economic impact of COVID-19, including the increased tendency to work from home and renewed public debt pressures, are contextualized within broader issues of wage suppression and discontent within the labor force to highlight how average workers have been left behind. The rise of China and the geopolitical tensions that it has created is also discussed.
This book sets out the macro and microeconomic innovations that can create a revival in productivity growth in the coming years.
