The literature on agrarian change in India collapses women’s class relations into those of male household heads. Sirisha Naidu and Smriti Rao examine how the 2019 Indian Time Use survey could lend itself to better understand class relations by accommodating an expanded conception of work as including reproductive labor; accounting for the diversified livelihoods of rural Indians; and more accurately grasping caste and gender distinctions in differentiated labor processes with capital. Within this framework, Naidu and Rao explore methods for deepening feminist political economy analyses of agrarian change.

Research studies assessing the prospects for uncoupling economic growth from negative environmental impacts have examined the historical relationship between environment outcomes and GDP. The results have been varying and inconclusive. PERI researcher Gregor Semieniuk reviews the history of revisions to GDP for the U.S. case. He shows how, for a range of studies, the estimated relationship between GDP and environmental outcomes is significantly impacted by which definition of GDP researchers use. Semieniuk argues that much more careful treatment of GDP measures is critical for advancing understanding on this major question.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which passed in Congress and was signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, aims to reduce U.S. CO2 emissions by 40 percent as of 2030 through over 100 separate climate, energy, and environmental justice programs. PERI researchers Robert Pollin, Shouvik Chakraborty, Chirag Lala, and Gregor Semieniuk estimate the employment impact of the IRA in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, and Nevada.  They find that the IRA will generate an average of about 21,000 jobs per year in Pennsylvania, 17,000 in Michigan, 10,000 in Colorado, and 4,000 in Nevada.