• Show in Front Page Modules: Yes

Who Benefits from Mining in Zambia?

PERI researcher Léonce Ndikumana and co-authors Dale Mudenda and Bilen Gurara examine why Zambia’s vast endowment of mineral resources has not delivered higher living standards for the vast majority of Zambians. This is while the sector is mostly dominated by foreign corporations. The authors review the history, industrial organization, and management of Zambia’s mining sector, and explore the respective impacts of ownership structures, the fiscal regime, exposure to external shocks, and the sector’s lack of transformational orientation. The paper includes proposals for achieving significantly greater benefits from mining to the Zambian people. 

Designing Food Buffer Stocks for Inflation Control

In “Towards a Post-neoliberal Stabilization Paradigm: Revisiting International Buffer Stocks in an Age of Overlapping Emergencies Based on the Case of Food,” PERI researcher Isabella Weber and Merle Schulken draw on Keynes, Kaldor, and others to develop an alternative to neoliberal inflation control policies focused on interest rate hikes and austerity. Weber and Schulken show how price volatility in essential commodities such as food can lead to sellers’ inflation. They propose a food buffer stock system as part of a gradualist transition to post-neoliberalism and as a tool for an agricultural green transition.

The Growth of “Private” U.S. Financial Markets

Over the past decade, “private” financial markets, which face little oversight by regulators, have grown to the point where they dominate financial activity. PERI researcher Lenore Palladino and Harrison Karlewicz describe the segments of the private market, including private equity firms and asset managers. The private markets have approximately tripled in size in the last decade to $26 trillion in gross assets, compared to $23 trillion for the U.S. commercial banking industry. This development introduces new systemic risks to the economy at large and for the institutional shareholders participating in these markets.

Recent Research

State-Level Employment Effects of Biden’s Green Energy, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure Programs
Environmental and Energy Economics
Robert Pollin, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Shouvik Chakraborty
June, 2024
The State, Corporations, or the People: Who Benefits from Mining in Zambia?
African Development Policy
Léonce Ndikumana, Dale Mudenda, Bilen Gurara
June, 2024
The Growth of Private Financial Markets
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Lenore Palladino, Harrison Karlewicz
May, 2024
The Incidence, Costs, and Correlates of High-Cost, High-Risk Consumer Credit Among Black and Latino Households
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Edwith Theogene, Christian E. Weller
April, 2024
Sovereign Debt & Climate Finance Conference
Environmental and Energy Economics
PERI
May, 2024
Marx on Credit and Financial Crises: The Industrial Cycles and the English Experience in the 19th Century
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Henrique de Abreu Grazziotin
March, 2024
Can Price Controls Be Optimal? The Economics of the Energy Shock in Germany
Finance, Jobs & Macroeconomics
Tom Krebs, Isabella Weber
March, 2024
Labor Supply, Labor Demand, and Potential Labor Shortages Through New U.S. Clean Energy, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure Laws
Environmental and Energy Economics
Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Robert Pollin
February, 2024
Good Intentions, Better Outcomes: Shifting the Debate About Social Protection and Informality
Economics for The Developing World, Economic & Human Rights
James Heintz, Jayati Ghosh
February, 2024
Read more research publications...
umass logo

This is an official web page
of the University of Massachusetts.

Political Economy Research Institute

Gordon Hall, 418 N. Pleasant St., Suite A

Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: 413-545-6355 Fax: 413-577-0261
Contact: