Clark Center Forum

About the Clark Center Forum

The Forum for the Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets is home to the European, Finance, and US Economic Experts Panels as well as a repository of thoughtful, current, and reliable information regarding topics of the day.
Europe

Fiscal and Monetary Policy

Question A:

The current combination of US fiscal and monetary policy poses a serious risk of prolonged higher inflation.

Question B:

Current EU and national fiscal policy plans are likely to leave European output below potential a year from now.

 
US

Competition

Question A:

Industry consolidation and weaker competition in the United States meaningfully constrain innovation and wage growth.

Question B:

Americans pay too much for broadband, cable television, and telecommunications services, in part because of a lack of adequate competition.

 
US

Open Economies

Peter Neary, a member of IGM’s panel of European economic experts, passed away in June 2021 – a sad loss for the whole economic research community. On VoxEU, Patrick Honohan of Trinity College Dublin, a fellow Irishman and member of the European panel, co-authored an appreciation of Peter, whom he and Cormac o’Grada describe as ‘one of the profession’s European leaders, both in terms of the depth and range of his research and his role as a wizard of organizational development’.

 
Europe

Open Economies

Peter Neary, a member of IGM’s panel of European economic experts, passed away in June 2021 – a sad loss for the whole economic research community. On VoxEU, Patrick Honohan of Trinity College Dublin, a fellow Irishman and member of the European panel, co-authored an appreciation of Peter, whom he and Cormac o’Grada describe as ‘one of the profession’s European leaders, both in terms of the depth and range of his research and his role as a wizard of organizational development’.

 
FT-Booth US Macroeconomists Survey

The IGM and FT Launch New Economics Survey

The Initiative on Global Markets in collaboration with the Financial Times has launched a new survey of US academic macroeconomists.  Professors Allan Timmermann (UC San Diego) and Jonathan Wright (Johns Hopkins) will coordinate with FT writer Colby Smith to develop questions that will provide insight to pressing macroeconomic issues and topics. The summary results of […] 
Europe

Global Corporate Taxes

Leaders of the advanced economies of the G7 recently made what they described as a ‘historic commitment’ on taxation of multinational corporations. We invited both our European and US panels to express their views on some of the issues surrounding the global deal on corporate taxes: the impact of a global minimum rate on investment, profit-shifting and low-tax jurisdictions; whether a stable international tax system that includes a global minimum rate can be achieved; and a potential move from levying taxes based on where firms’ headquarters and production are located to where they make their sales.

 
US

Global Corporate Taxes

Leaders of the advanced economies of the G7 recently made what they described as a ‘historic commitment’ on taxation of multinational corporations. We invited both our European and US panels to express their views on some of the issues surrounding the global deal on corporate taxes: the impact of a global minimum rate on investment, profit-shifting and low-tax jurisdictions; whether a stable international tax system that includes a global minimum rate can be achieved; and a potential move from levying taxes based on where firms’ headquarters and production are located to where they make their sales.

 
US

Overheating

Amid fierce public debates about the size of the Biden administration’s coronavirus protection and stimulus package, we invited our US panel to express their views on the likelihood of the economy ‘overheating’ as a result of the current stance of fiscal and monetary policy. We asked the experts whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statement, and, if so, how strongly and with what degree of confidence:

 
Europe

International Macroeconomics

This week's European Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Under a fixed exchange rate and fully liberalized capital flows, a country loses domestic control of monetary policy.

B) For emerging and developing economies open to the world capital market, a flexible exchange rate confers little advantage over a pegged exchange rate in terms of economic stability.

C) The key feature making the US a more natural optimum currency area than the euro area is higher labor mobility. 
US

Unemployment Benefits

This week's US Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) The $300 supplement to weekly unemployment benefits available from now through September 6 constitutes a major disincentive to work for lower-wage workers.

B) The $300 supplement to weekly unemployment benefits available from now through September 6 is likely to lead to re-employment wages for currently unemployed workers that are higher by an economically meaningful amount.