Policy Topics

Economics and finance

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In the Media

Shaefer: Deeply unfair for Michigan to expect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to be paid back

Apr 21, 2021 Detroit Free Press

"It's one thing to tell someone 'You're not eligible for the benefits,' " said Shaefer. "It's another thing to approve someone, let them use the support, and then expect them to pay it back.". Read the full story in the Detroit Free...

In the Media

Women looking for jobs may have trouble, says Stevenson

Apr 20, 2021 NPR Marketplace

Professor Betsey Stevenson commented that the industries where many women work—like hospitality, for example—have been most impacted by the pandemic: "The businesses might have shut down. The entire industry or sector may have...

In the Media

Stevenson discusses drop in labor force participation amongst women

Apr 15, 2021 DPTV

As part of a Detroit Public TV special segment on the brutal economic effect of the COVID-19 recession on women, Betsey Stevenson discusses the precipitous drop in female labor force participation over the last year — a shocking 57% drop, to the...

News

U-M's Ford School to expand social policy, equity work, thanks to Kohn Charitable Trust

Apr 9, 2021

A set of gifts totaling $17 million from the Kohn Charitable Trust will establish a resource hub at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy to catalyze interdisciplinary research on policy that promotes social equity and...

In the Media

Michigan's share of stimulus resources poses a welcome challenge, according to Leiser

Apr 8, 2021 Bridge Michigan

As the state of Michigan could receive as much as $10 billion from the Biden administration stimulus package, officials are planning how to allocate the resources in the best way. “It’s hard to exaggerate how big of a deal it is,” Brideg Michigan...

News

The Conversation: Leiser backs Biden's plan to tax corporations for infrastructure improvements

Apr 2, 2021 The Conversation

In a recent opinion for The Conversation, tax policy expert Stephanie Leiser provides evidence to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to pay for President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan. This increase would still be below levels...

News

Panel explores disproportionate impact of pandemic on women

Mar 30, 2021

In recognition of Women’s History Month, and one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, University of Michigan faculty have shared diverse insights and expertise on how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted...

In the Media

Leiser emphasizes the need to consider property taxes when moving

Mar 29, 2021 The Washington Examiner

As Pennsylvania considers legislation to cut the state's property taxes, which are some of the highest in the country, Stephanie Leiser commented that people need to consider property taxes when moving: "Every family will have different preferences...

News

Katherine Michelmore joins Ford School faculty, adding social and education policy expertise

Mar 25, 2021

On March 25, the University of Michigan Regents approved the appointment of Katherine Michelmore as associate professor of public policy, with tenure, effective August 30, 2021. Michelmore is a leading scholar and educator on the social safety...

In the Media

Harris discusses financial inclusion and earned wage access

Mar 22, 2021 Future of Pay Podcast

Adrienne Harris sits down with the Future of Pay podcast to discuss ways to increase financial inclusion, earned wage access, and the fixed pay cycle. "The fact that people get paid every two weeks or every month is really born of an arcane system...

In the Media

Stevenson: Pandemic raises questions about inequality

Mar 21, 2021 Bloomberg News

“We’re going to get some gains coming out of this pandemic, but we want to make sure that those gains are more evenly shared, and that we’re supporting workers at the bottom and not just workers at the top," said Betsey Stevenson, also noting the...

In the Media

Stevenson and Wolfers' textbook praised for helping to modernize how we teach economics

Mar 20, 2021 The Economist

"Textbooks are evolving too. Last year, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan published a tome that tries to avoid representation biases. Its description of the mechanics of monetary policy also scores well," writes The...

Publication

Policy memo: Pilkauskas and Michelmore on "The anti-poverty policy of the American Rescue Plan that no one is really talking about"

Mar 15, 2021

As the Biden administration embarks on its first hundred days, experts from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy have produced a series of policy briefs on key issues. Download the PDF of this brief or read the web-formatted version...

Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore

In the Media

Tompkins-Stange comments on the COVID-19 billionaire boom

Mar 12, 2021 Washington Post

In an article in the Washington Post about the extreme wealth billionaires have gained during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tompkins-Stange, notes that tech billionaires invested comparatively little of that increased wealth back into the public sphere for...

In the Media

Shaefer: Child benefit in stimulus is transformational, aligns with industrialized countries

Mar 10, 2021 PRI's The World

“There are a lot of countries that [provide a monthly child tax benefit] already; some for decades: Canada, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Australia. These countries have decided, 'hey, raising kids is expensive, and the government has a reason...

In the Media

Leiser and Ivacko opinion: The new COVID relief bill can be a rebirth for Michigan communities

Mar 10, 2021 Bridge Michigan

In a Bridge Michigan op-ed, Leiser and Ivacko call for COVID relief to foster greater cooperation, trust in government built at the local level. "Across the country, nearly three quarters of U.S. adults say they have a "great deal" or a "fair...

News

Kowalski paper an NIHCM award finalist

Mar 10, 2021

Health economist Amanda Kowalski, the Gail Wilensky Professor of Economics and Public Policy, with her primary appointment in the U-M Department of Economics and a courtesy appointment at the Ford School, is a finalist for the National Institute for...

News

Cavaillé's fairness model aims to boost understanding of politics of income redistribution

Mar 8, 2021

How popular is Robin Hood, anyway? With rising global income inequality, Charlotte Cavaillé asks why society isn’t doing more to redistribute income. Cavaillé, assistant professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of...

News

Ford School involvement highlighted among growing U-M Detroit partnerships

Mar 8, 2021

The University of Michigan ramped up its collaborations on a multitude of projects in the city of Detroit during the pandemic, including outreach to residents on issues ranging from unemployment to the COVID-19 vaccine. Initiatives such as...

In the Media

Hausman: Carbon tax can pay for the cost of climate damage

Mar 3, 2021 Marketplace

“You tax the person who’s taking that barrel of oil out of the ground, so they’re going to sell that oil at a higher price to the refinery,” Hausman said to NPR...

In the Media

Wileden examines COVID-19 racial disparities in Detroit

Mar 3, 2021 Brookings

"One in every 645 Black people in the United States can expect to die from COVID-19, per data from February 2021. Blacks are 2.1 times more likely than whites to die from the virus. In fact, if Blacks had the same death rate as whites from COVID-19,...

In the Media

Shaefer explains COVID relief plan 'child allowance' and its impacts on families

Mar 2, 2021 NPR

"This is the boldest vision laid out by an American President for fighting poverty in at least a half a century. But it starts with a really simple idea... the government has a reason to make sure that [raising children] is done well." Luke...

News

Wolfers co-authored paper looks at systemic sexism in economics

Feb 28, 2021

A paper on which Ford School economics professor Justin Wolfers collaborated (with Pascaline Dupas, Alicia Sasser Modestino, Muriel Niederle, and a broader set of 97 economist collaborators known as the Seminar Dynamics Collective), “Gender and the...

In the Media

Barr discusses "The COVID Economy" in podcast

Feb 28, 2021 Burn Bag

Barr discuss the challenges of rebuilding the global economy post-COVID-19, attracting foreign direct investment to the United States, the Robinhood debacle and securities regulation, repeating mistakes from the 2007/08 financial crisis, the risks...

Michael Barr in Weill Hall, masked for COVID-19

News

Stevenson tapped for analysis on deficit spending, disparate effect of the “shecession” and the divorce rate

Feb 28, 2021

The Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion relief package raises many questions. CNN quoted Stevenson supporting the package's temporary provisions lifting low-income families which are "really the foundation of setting up a fairer society." She...

In the Media

Leiser explains property tax policy

Feb 23, 2021 WalletHub

Stephanie Leiser discusses the importance of property taxes for personal financial decision-making and implications for policy. "Most economists agree that property taxes are the best tax base for local governments. Compared to other types of taxes,...

News

Courant to deliver Distinguished University Professor lecture, "Society, the University, and How I Spent the Last 40-odd Years"

Feb 17, 2021

In July 2019, the University of Michigan Regents named Ford School professor Paul Courant as a Distinguished University Professor (DUP), the university’s highest faculty honor. Courant will deliver his DUP lecture, "Society, the University, and...

Publication

Dynarski’s research shows default options key to student loan repayment

Feb 13, 2021

Susan Dynarski’s recent research, “Designed to fail: Effects of the default option and information complexity on student loan repayment,” shows the powerful effects of default options and how making an income driven repayment (IDR) plan the default...

News

Unequal burden of the COVID recession on women highlighted by Stevenson

Feb 13, 2021

The disappointing unemployment reports at the beginning of the month should give greater impetus to the Biden administration’s stimulus plan. Ford School economist Betsey Stevenson notes that 10 millions jobs are still missing in the U.S....

News

U-M research on material hardship in 2020 offers guidance for next economic relief package

Feb 9, 2021 Michigan News

Material hardship in the United States rose significantly in the final months of 2020 and was particularly high for households with children, according to new research from Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. The rise in hardship...