Areas of expertise
Macroeconomics • Globalization • Social insurance • Public investment
Biography
Josh Bivens is the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). His areas of research include macroeconomics, inequality, social insurance, public investment, and the economics of globalization.
Bivens has written extensively for both professional and public audiences, with his work appearing in peer-reviewed academic journals (like the Journal of Economic Perspectives) and edited volumes (like The Handbook of the Political Economy of Financial Crises from Oxford University Press), as well as in popular print outlets (like USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times).
Bivens is the author of Failure by Design: The Story behind America’s Broken Economy (EPI and Cornell University Press) and Everybody Wins Except for Most of Us: What Economics Really Teaches About Globalization (EPI), and is a co-author of The State of Working America, 12th Edition (EPI and Cornell University Press).
Bivens has provided expert insight to a range of institutions and media, including formally testifying numerous times before committees of the U.S. Congress.
Before coming to EPI, he was an assistant professor of economics at Roosevelt University. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Education
Ph.D., Economics, New School for Social Research
B.A., Economics, University of Maryland at College Park
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Recent data indicate that a “soft landing” is still in reach—the Fed should try to secure it: Ignoring disinflation signs heightens risk of recession
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CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,460% since 1978: CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021
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Inflation, minimum wages, and profits: Protecting low-wage workers from inflation means raising the minimum wage
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Will secular stagnation return? The stakes for current economic debates and fiscal policy
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Rising inflation is a global problem: U.S. policy choices are not to blame
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What to watch on jobs day: Can wage growth normalize without substantially higher unemployment?
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Not a recession—yet: The Fed’s overly aggressive interest rate hikes increase risk of recession
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Inflation is no excuse for inaction on needed tax reforms and investments
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A recession would be worse than today’s inflation
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Will Friday’s wage growth numbers stop the Fed from snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory?
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Against panic: The Fed should not be given permission to cause a recession in the name of inflation control
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Inequality’s drag on aggregate demand: The macroeconomic and fiscal effects of rising income shares of the rich
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Ignoring the role of profits makes inflation analyses a lot weaker
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Wage growth has been dampening inflation all along—and has slowed even more recently
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Building on a Strong Foundation With Investments Today for a More Competitive Tomorrow: Testimony before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee Hearing
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Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. How should policymakers respond?
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Reclaiming corporate tax revenues: Corporate income tax revenues are critical to the ability of state and local governments to provide basic services to their residents
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Child care and elder care investments are a tool for reducing inflationary expectations without pain
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Profits, wages, and inflation: What’s really going on
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Inflation and the policy response in 2022
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The Biden administration’s Federal Reserve nominees are highly qualified and deserve a fair hearing
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U.S. workers have already been disempowered in the name of fighting inflation: Policymakers should not make it even worse by raising interest rates too aggressively
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EPI’s top charts of 2021
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OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate is smart public policy
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Fiscal policy and inflation: A look at the American Rescue Plan’s impact and what it means for the Build Back Better Act
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The Build Back Better Act’s macroeconomic boost looks more valuable by the day
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Moral policy = Good economics: Lifting up poor and working-class people—and our whole economy
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How to boost unemployment insurance as a macroeconomic stabilizer: Lessons from the 2020 pandemic programs
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Abolish the debt ceiling before it commits austerity again: The GOP used the debt ceiling to force spending cuts in 2011. It can’t be allowed again.
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The stakes for workers in how policymakers manage the coming shift to all-electric vehicles