Latin America - Economic Development Issues

Latin America – Economically Better Prepared to Deal With Shocks?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/world/americas/an-economic-boom-recedes-but-south-america-might-avert-the-bust.html

China and Latin America

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/12/pdf/elson.pdf

Inequality in Latin America

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/business/economy/income-gap-shrinks-in-chile-for-better-or-worse.html

Resource Wealth and Redistribution

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/12/pdf/gupta.pdf

Related Post -

http://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2014/12/emerging-markets-commodity-prices.html

Long-Term Sovereign Debt

Britain decides to payoff some debt issued nearly 300 years ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/world/that-debt-from-1720-britains-payment-is-coming.html

Toulouse and Paris School of Economics - Two of the World's Best

France now has two of the best economics departments in the world:
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21632506-tale-two-french-economists-and-their-rival-schools-toulouse-v-paris

Debate on Elasticity of Labor Supply

Noah Smith on Taxes and Labor Supply

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-24/do-higher-taxes-make-us-work-less

Employment Rate vs. Tax Rate – Cross-Country Evidence

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/upshot/nordic-nations-show-that-big-safety-net-can-allow-for-leap-in-employment-rate-.html

Demographic Changes - Key Readings

Global Life Expectancy Rises by Six Years

As noted in the WSJ, during the past two decades global life expectancy has risen:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-life-expectancy-increases-by-about-six-years-1418861100

“7 Billion and Counting” by David E. Bloom. Science 29 July 2011: 333 (6042), 562-569

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6042/562.full

Demographic Transition in Asia

http://press.anu.edu.au//wp-content/uploads/2013/03/whole51.pdf

Demographics and Economic Stagnation

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21633860-demography-may-explain-secular-stagnation-no-country-young-people

Piketty and the Inequality Debate

An excellent piece from The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/22/we-need-a-wealth-tax-thomas-piketty-2014s-most-influential-thinker

Important Reviews of Capital in the 21^st Century

Branko Milanovic’s review:

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/52384/1/MPRA_paper_52384.pdf

Related: Milanovic, Branko. 2014. "The Return of "Patrimonial Capitalism": A Review of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century." Journal of Economic Literature, 52(2): 519-34.

Pareto and Piketty: The Macroeconomics of Top Income and Wealth Inequality by Charles I. Jones

http://www.nber.org/papers/w20742

Robert Solow’s review:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117429/capital-twenty-first-century-thomas-piketty-reviewed

Paul Krugman’s highly favorable review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/

Debraj Ray’s critique:

http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Papers/Piketty.pdf

Deirdre McCloskey’s critique:
http://ejpe.org/pdf/7-2-art-4.pdf

Update:

AEA meeting debate on Piketty’s book:

http://events.mediasite.com/Mediasite/Play/b6d6725ea1df49c896fc82465f732e9b1d

Science and Entrepreneurship

Behavioral Economics – Applications

Two Percent Inflation Target

A fascinating piece on how central banks came to settle on 2% as the preferred long-term inflation target:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/upshot/of-kiwis-and-currencies-how-a-2-inflation-target-became-global-economic-gospel.html

Graphene – The Wonder Material

A fascinating piece in the New Yorker on the discovery of graphene and the search for real world applications involving the ‘wonder material’:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question

Emerging Markets - Commodity Prices, Capital Flows and Contagion

Capital Flows, Contagion and Sudden Stop

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/bond-investors-are-skittish-over-emerging-markets/

Latin America and China

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/business/international/slowdown-in-china-bruises-economy-in-latin-america.html

Oil dependent Russian economy appears to be headed for a crisis:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/15/russias-economy-is-doomed-its-that-simple/

Decline in Commodity Prices

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/how-crude-oil’s-global-collapse-unfolded

http://www.project-syndicate.org/print/commodities-oil-falling-prices-by-jeffrey-frankel-2014-12

Technology and Jobs - Automation and the Labor Market

An interesting piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/upshot/as-robots-grow-smarter-american-workers-struggle-to-keep-up.html

Reforming Wall Street

Michael Lewis offers his suggestions for reforming Wall Street and the finance profession:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-15/michael-lewis-eight-things-i-wish-for-wall-street