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Are new economic policy rules desirable to mitigate rising national inequalities?

Working Paper #305

Jonathan Ostry, Prakash Loungani, Davide Furceri

Paper  1.16mb pdf

The pursuit of free markets has commanded a consensus among policymakers for over three decades now. Since the 1980s, countries have been increasingly introducing competition in various spheres of economic activity, as illustrated in figure 4.1. At the same time, globalization is also expanding, thanks to the ease of moving funds across borders and the declining role of the state—proxied by the share of government expenditure to GDP. 

About the Authors

Jonathan Ostry
Deputy Director of the Research Department
International Monetary Fund

Jonathan Ostry is Deputy Director of the Research Department (RES) at the International Monetary Fund, where he leads a variety of staff teams dealing with: the IMF-FSB Early Warning Exercise on global systemic macrofinancial risks; vulnerabilities exercises for advanced and emerging market countries; multilateral exchange rate surveillance, including the work of CGER, the Fund’s Consultative Group of Exchange Rates; issues related to the international financial architecture (capital inflows and the appropriate policy response; reform of the Fund’s lending toolkit; country insurance issues); and fiscal sustainability issues. Past positions include leading the division that produces the IMF’s flagship multilateral surveillance publication, the World Economic Outlook, and leading country teams on Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. He holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Oxford (Balliol College) and Queen’s University (Canada), and graduate degrees from the London School of Economics (M.Sc., economics) and the University Chicago (Ph.D., 1988).

Prakash Loungani

Davide Furceri

Publication Information

Type Working Paper
Program -
Posted 01/12/18
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