Damaging myths persist about the impact of U.S. government spending on economic growth. The conventional wisdom is that government spending and taxes hurt economic growth, but this point of view—which has adversely influenced the nation’s social spending and public investment—is not supported by the evidence.
In How Big Should our Government Be?, Jon Bakija, Lane Kenworthy, Peter Lindert, and Jeff Madrick present evidence about the effects of government spending on economic growth. They argue the United States can afford and would benefit from a significantly larger government presence to make the needed public investment to improve our economic future.
The authors will present their findings at the Economic Policy Institute on September 23 at 10 a.m. ET. This event is co-sponsored by the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative at the Century Foundation. The authors will be joined by John Halpin of the Center for American Progress and Cate Gormley of Lake Research Partners to discuss whether the American electorate would favor the expansion of government.
Who: Jon Bakija, Professor of Economics and Chair of Political Economy Program, Williams College
Lane Kenworthy, Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought, University of California, San Diego
Peter Lindert, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis
Jeff Madrick, Director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative at the Century Foundation
John Halpin, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress
Cate Gormley, Senior Analyst at Lake Research Partners
Moderated by Christian Dorsey of the Economic Policy Institute
What: discussion of new book, How Big Should our Government Be?
Where: Economic Policy Institute
1225 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
6th floor
When: Friday September 23, 2016
10 a.m. ET
To RSVP please email news@epi.org.