Clark Center Forum

Please rate the importance (0=none; 5= highest) of each item below (presented to panelists in randomized order) in contributing to the 2008 global financial crisis. © 2017. Initiative on Global Markets. Source: IGM Economic Experts Panels www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel © 2017. Initiative on Global Markets. Source: IGM Economic Experts Panels www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel The following items were presented to […] 

 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Holding labor market institutions and job training fixed, rising use of robots and artificial intelligence is likely to increase substantially the number of workers in advanced countries who are unemployed for long periods.

B) Rising use of robots and artificial intelligence in advanced countries is likely to create benefits large enough that they could be used to compensate those workers who are substantially negatively affected for their lost wages. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statement:

The influx of refugees into Germany beginning in the summer of 2015 will generate net economic benefits for German citizens over the succeeding decade. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) If the Fed changed its inflation target from 2% to 4%, the long-run costs of inflation for households would be essentially unchanged.

B) Raising the inflation target to 4% would make it possible for the Fed to lower rates by a greater amount in a future recession. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements:

A)    Holding labor market institutions and job training fixed, rising use of robots and artificial intelligence is likely to increase substantially the number of workers in advanced countries who are unemployed for long periods.

B)    Rising use of robots and artificial intelligence in advanced countries is likely to create benefits large enough that they could be used to compensate those workers who are substantially negatively affected for their lost wages. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

If the US reduced its fiscal deficit, then its trade deficit would also shrink. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements:

A)   Consumers will be better off, on balance, if European cities treat firms that provide ride-sharing platforms (such as Uber) as substantively different from taxi firms, and thus not necessarily warranting the same regulation.

B)   Assuming that taxi and ride-sharing companies were treated as substantively similar — including requirements that they operate on an equal footing regarding safety, insurance and taxation — letting ride-sharing services compete without restrictions on prices or routes would raise consumer welfare.
 
C)    Regardless of how ride-sharing services are treated, existing regulations for traditional taxi firms in many European cities harm consumers by limiting competition. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel Statements:

A)    The US should increase spending now on roads, railways, bridges and airports (including new projects, maintenance or both).
 
B)    The advisability of increasing federal spending on roads, railways, bridges and airports is independent of whether the US also enacts tax cuts that substantially lower revenues. 

This week’s European Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Revising France’s labor market policies — by reducing employment protection, decentralizing labor negotiations to the firm level, and making training programs more accessible and responsive to labor demands — would, all else equal, increase productivity in France’s economy.

B) Reducing employment protection would reduce the equilibrium unemployment rate in France.