Economist Josh Bivens has been named Research and Policy Director at the Economic Policy Institute. Bivens joined EPI in September 2002, and his primary research area is macroeconomics.
In addition to dozens of research reports and a number of academic papers, Bivens wrote two books in his capacity as EPI economist. The most recent, “Failure by Design: The Story Behind America’s Broken Economy,” examined how the three decades prior to the Great Recession were marked by policy choices that systematically slowed the growth of working families’ living standards and exacerbated income inequality. It also analyzed the economic wreckage of the Great Recession and identified ways to strengthen the still struggling recovery. “Failure by Design” was published in 2011, in concert with the launch of the State of Working America website. In 2008, Bivens authored “Everybody Wins, Except for Most of Us: What Economics Teaches About Globalization,” which explained the relationship between income inequality and the integration of the U.S. into the global economy. In 2005, he co-edited “Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia, and South Africa.” He is also a co-author of the 12th edition of “The State of Working America,” which EPI will release in August.
In addition to making regular media appearances to discuss issues relating to U.S. and global economic performance, Social Security, and health reform, Bivens has testified before Congress on fiscal policy, monetary policy, green jobs and the impact of environmental regulatory changes on employment growth.
“Intellectual honesty and research excellence put in the service of social justice can be powerful forces,” said Bivens. “EPI has a well-deserved and hard-earned reputation for being utterly scrupulous with economic research, and the most important thing to me in this new job is to preserve it. There are much better funded institutions in Washington with bigger megaphones in the policy debate, and our prime competitive advantage relative to them in these debates is the confidence we’ve earned from policymakers and other economic observers for getting it right every time.”
“EPI is fortunate to have Josh Bivens as EPI’s next Research and Policy Director,” said Lawrence Mishel, EPI’s president. “Josh’s economic knowledge is both broad and deep, and his vision and the research he plans to undertake will help EPI be the best it can be.”