Author: Anton Korinek / Topic: Economics

Author:: Anton Korinek
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP)
Abstract:: As technology advanced in recent decades, it increasingly left workers behind and led to sharp increases in inequality. The current wave of progress in artificial intelligence is likely to accelerate these trends. This note lays out three complementary approaches to countering these developments. Firstly, since technological progress generates net gains for society as a whole, the winners could in principle compensate the losers and still be better off. Secondly, progress should be steered to minimize the losses of workers. Thirdly, there is an important role for government intervention in information technology to thwart the rise of monopolies that extract rents from society. The note concludes with some speculations on the impact of artificial intelligence increasingly rivaling human labor.
Topic:: Economics, Science and Technology, Labor Issues, Economic Policy, Macroeconomics, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:: United States

Author:: Olivier Jeanne and Anton Korinek
Publication Date:: 05-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: This paper analyzes prudential controls on capital flows to emerging markets from the perspective of a Pigouvian tax that addresses externalities associated with the deleveraging cycle. It presents a model in which restricting capital inflows during boom times reduces the potential outflows during busts. This mitigates the feedback effects of deleveraging episodes, when tightening financial constraints on borrowers and collapsing prices for collateral assets have mutually reinforcing effects. In our model, capital controls reduce macroeconomic volatility and increase standard measures of consumer welfare.
Topic:: Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis

Author:: Olivier Jeanne and Anton Korinek
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:: We study a dynamic model in which the interaction between debt accumulation and asset prices magnifies credit booms and busts. We find that borrowers do not internalize these feedback effects and therefore suffer from excessively large booms and busts in both credit flows and asset prices. We show that a Pigouvian tax on borrowing may induce borrowers to internalize these externalities and increase welfare. We calibrate the model with reference to (1) the US small and medium-sized enterprise sector and (2) the household sector and find the optimal tax to be countercy - clical in both cases, dropping to zero in busts and rising to approximately half a percentage point of the amount of debt outstanding during booms.
Topic:: Debt, Economics, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States

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