Economics and Finance Program

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Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva’s Work on the Job Guarantee Becomes Focus of US National High School Debate Topic

Thousands of high school students across the United States have been studying the work of Bard Professor of Economics and Research Scholar of the Levy Economics Institute Pavlina Tcherneva in preparation for their national debate tournaments. The official resolution for the 2023–24 High School Policy Debate Topic reads: “The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.” Tcherneva’s book The Case for a Job Guarantee was included in the compilation of research, which the Library of Congress prepares each year, pertinent to the annually selected national debate topic. As this year’s debate season progressed, the federal jobs guarantee policy has emerged as the overwhelming favorite policy for student debate teams on the affirmative. As a result, there are at least a few thousand students across the United States who have gotten very well acquainted with Tcherneva’s work over the past three months. 

According to Chris Gentry, program manager of the Policy Debate League for Chicago Public Schools, “Almost every affirmative team across the country is running a jobs guarantee case, and to do so they are pulling heavily on Tcherneva’s publications.” During one weekend tournament, Gentry realized that essentially every debate relied on Tcherneva’s work. In just one round that he was judging, 10 different articles or books that she wrote had been quoted. “At least twice this last weekend, I heard ‘well that’s not what Tcherneva is trying to get at here,’” he added. Another high school debate coach in Los Angeles confirmed that Tcherneva has likely been the most cited author in high school debate this year, and as a result the student debaters are quite familiar with her work.

“Personally, I can’t think of a greater impact of my work than seeing young people engage with it, study it, and defend its principles,” says Tcherneva. After meeting with a group of high school student debaters this month, she adds, "The questions the students asked about the job guarantee were probing, well-informed, thoughtful, and inspired—with a keen focus on social justice. I hope that some of them will become policy makers.”

Inspired by this nationwide student engagement, Tcherneva has also opened up spots in her summer workshop “Public Finance and Economic Policy” to select high-school debate students interested in going deeper into Modern Monetary Theory and the job guarantee. Organized and hosted by Bard College and the OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative (EDI), this five-day workshop taking place online June 17–21 is for undergraduate students interested in public policy to tackle economic instability and insecurity, and in understanding the financing capacity and policy space available to governments to pursue these aims. Applications from high school debate students will be reviewed in April and early May. Students can apply here.

Tcherneva also recently developed a resource tool jobguarantee.org, created and maintained by Bard College students and alumni, with the support of OSUN, for anyone interested in learning more about the job guarantee policy innovation.

Centered on the well-being of some of the most vulnerable parts of the US population, the 2023–24 national debate topic of “Economic Inequality” prevailed over “Climate Change” and represents a pressing issue at the forefront of our collective societal consciousness.

Post Date: 04-03-2024

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Professor Pavlina Tcherneva on the Disconnect Between Biden’s Great Economic Numbers and How Voters Feel about the Economy

Pavlina Tcherneva, professor of economics at Bard College and research scholar at Bard’s Levy Economics Institute, discusses the disconnect between the way economists see the US economy and the way families experience it. “Housing affordability, health care, education—these things have not fundamentally changed,” she tells Ian Masters on Background Briefing. “We emerged out of this COVID pandemic without some profound structural changes. I think that there are some good signs. We do want to keep this momentum. There were some policies that seemed to work and they expired, and others that we don’t see the benefits from yet. But I think that basically that is the message: we are back to the status quo. Folks are still experiencing the stresses of daily life. And there are far too many Americans that still live paycheck to paycheck.”

Post Date: 02-06-2024

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Finding the Money: New Documentary on the Paradigm-Shifting Modern Monetary Theory Features Levy Scholar Stephanie Kelton and Bard Economists

Finding the Money, a new film by Maren Poitras, follows economist Stephanie Kelton, research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, on an exploration of Modern Monetary Theory—the heterodox economic policy model that reframes our understanding of government funding, spending, and national debt. “An alternative story of money will revolutionize our conception of what we as a society believe we can afford and can achieve,” says the filmmaker. Bard economists featured in the film include economics professors and Levy scholars Pavlina R. Tcherneva and L. Randall Wray, and Levy research associates Mathew Forstater and Fadhel Kaboub. This past weekend, Finding the Money had its world premiere at the 2023 Woodstock Film Festival with Kelton, Wray, Tcherneva, and Forstater all in attendance. 

Post Date: 10-04-2023

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Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Provides Expert Opinion on UN Job Guarantee Report, to Speak at Report’s Official Launch on June 30 

Pavlina Tcherneva, associate professor of economics at Bard College, provided expert opinion during the preparation of the new United Nations report on the job guarantee, “The Employment Guarantee as a Tool in the Fight Against Poverty.” Professor Tcherneva collaborated with UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Olivier De Schutter on the project. 

“The UN report is a significant recognition of the job guarantee as a key strategy for addressing unemployment, poverty, and inequality,” says Professor Tcherneva. “Nation states concerned with these issues will have the opportunity to respond and, if so willing, adopt the technical recommendations outlined in the report.”

Tcherneva will participate in the official launch of the report on June 30, in a side event held on the occasion of the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The event is jointly organized by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and ATD Fourth World, and cosponsored by the Permanent Mission of Belgium and the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations in Geneva. 

Tcherneva will speak remotely on a panel moderated by Olivier De Schutter, and will be joined by Aye Aye Win, president of the International Committee for October 17th; Kate Philip, programme lead on the Presidential Employment Stimulus, South Africa; and Mito Tsukamoto, chief of the Development and Investment Branch (DEVINVEST) of the Employment Policy Department at the International Labour Office (ILO).

For more information about the event, including the concept note and list of speakers, visit srpoverty.org.

Pavlina Tcherneva is an associate professor of economics at Bard College, the director of the OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative, and a research scholar at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. She is the author of The Case for a Job Guarantee (Polity, 2020) which has been published in eight languages.

Post Date: 06-20-2023

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What Is Money?: Bard Economist L. Randall Wray Discusses How Money Works on the Podcast Something You Should Know

L. Randall Wray, professor of economics at Bard and senior scholar at the Levy Institute, speaks with Mike Carruthers on Something You Should Know about the definition of money and how it actually works. “We need to get away from this notion that money is something we can get our hands on,” Wray explains. “If you go back in time, most market activity as far back as we go took place on the basis of credit and debit. And really that is how we should look at money. Money is credit in your hands and it’s somebody’s debt.” Wray asserts that the Federal Reserve cannot run out of money. “Money is a keystroke credit to an account . . . As long as there is one person left at the Fed with one finger, they can keystroke some more credits . . . Can the government or the private sector spend too much and cause inflation, which will reduce the value of the money? Yes, that can happen.” Wray’s newest book Money for Beginners: An Illustrated Guide was published in May 2023. Professor Wray’s interview begins at 24:00.

Post Date: 05-31-2023

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Bard Economist Pavlina Tcherneva Interviewed on Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Ian Masters spoke with Pavlina Tcherneva, associate professor of economics at Bard College, research associate at the Levy Economics Institute, and author of The Case for a Job Guarantee (2020), on his nationally syndicated radio program Background Briefing. In the episode, “As Pundits Warn of Recession and Inflation, We Get the Best Economic News Since 1969,” Masters asks Tcherneva for her take on the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report, which added 517,000 jobs in January 2023 and stunned most economists and people who continue to harbor a doomsday mentality about the economy.

According to Tcherneva, two years after the COVID-induced crisis, such good news about low unemployment levels tells us that “public policy has tools. It can act boldly, quickly and bring jobs back.” She points out, however, that these low unemployment numbers also reflect the 5.7 million people who are not looking for work, and 4 million people who are working part-time but would like to have full-time jobs.

“Part of the anxiety still being experienced in the labor market is that the jobs are there but they are not exactly these well-paying jobs with very good benefits and good working conditions. On that front, there is more to be accomplished. Let us remember our minimum wage is still $7.25, and no one can live on $7.25 an hour,” she asserts.

Tcherneva sees the big fiscal policies implemented over the last two years by the Biden administration, which do not overly focus on the financial sector or prioritize tax cuts for the wealthy, as all good news. Still, she advocates for more economic progress. “The question for me is did we come out of the pandemic with better jobs, better conditions for working families than we had going into the pandemic?”

Post Date: 02-14-2023