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.
Inequality and the Environment
This lecture by PERI researcher James Boyce, delivered at the ceremony for the inaugural Global Inequality Research Award at Sciences Po in Paris, provides a trajectory of Boyce’s work on inequality and the environment that was recognized by the award. Thirty years ago, many economists and environmentalists saw inequality as a non-issue. Today there is widespread recognition of its importance. Boyce reviews how inequalities in the distribution of wealth and power affect both the magnitude and incidence of environmental harms and discusses some of the synergies between policies to reduce inequality and to improve environmental quality.
Class and Space in Indian Cities
Indian cities have always been marked by stark class disparities and these have only become more pronounced in recent decades. PERI researcher Vamsi Vakulabharanam and Sripad Motiram use a socio-spatial methodology, a rigorous class scheme, and data from a spatially representative survey from Hyderabad and Mumbai to explore contemporary city spaces. Among their findings, they show that in both cities, the class distribution varies across residential zones, and how a class fares depends upon its zone of residence. They also argue for a more integrated and egalitarian restructuring of Indian city spaces.
Confronting the Global South Debt Crisis
PERI researcher Ilene Grabel documents that a severe debt crisis is emerging in the Global South. She argues that the burdens of this emerging crisis will be borne disproportionately by women and other vulnerable groups and nations. Within this context, Grabel explores opportunities for expanding and creating the fiscal space that national policymakers can use to counteract the crisis and prevent the onset of austerity conditions, and thereby, specifically, protect the well-being of women and girls. Grabel’s proposals also aim to advance, more generally, viable green transitions and a more just, inclusive global economy.
