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, fiscal and monetary policy, the economics of globalization, social insurance, and public investment. He frequently appears as an economics expert on news shows, including the Public Broadcasting Service’s “NewsHour,” the “Melissa Harris-Perry” show on MSNBC, WAMU’s “The Diane Rehm Show,” American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and programs of the BBC.
As a leading policy analyst, Bivens regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress on fiscal and monetary policy, the economic impact of regulations, and other issues. He has also provided analyses for the annual meeting of Project LINK of the United Nations and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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). He is the co-author of The State of Working America, 12th Edition (EPI and Cornell University Press) and a co-editor of Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia and South Africa (EPI).
His academic articles have appeared in the International Review of Applied Economics, the Journal of Economic Issues and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Bivens has also provided peer-reviewed articles to several edited collections, including The Handbook of the Political Economy of Financial Crises (Oxford University Press), Public Economics in the United States: How the Federal Government Analyzes and Influences the Economy (ABC-CLIO), and Restoring Shared Prosperity: A Policy Agenda from Leading Keynesian Economists (AFL-CIO and the Macroeconomic Policy Institute).
Prior to becoming director of research, Bivens was a research economist at EPI. Before coming to EPI, he was an assistant professor of economics at Roosevelt University and provided consulting services to Oxfam America. 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
By Content:
By Area of Research:
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Today’s inflation data show zero sign of sustained economic overheating
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The American Jobs Plan’s tax provisions are valuable but not the limit on possible spending
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Next round of recovery spending is about meeting social needs, not filling macroeconomic gaps
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Projected state and local revenue shortfalls are shrinking, but the value of substantial federal aid to state and local governments is not
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The Biden relief and recovery proposal spends the right amount: Concerns over the pace of its spend-out make sense, but even these concerns are overstated and easy to address
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CBO analysis confirms that a $15 minimum wage raises earnings of low-wage workers, reduces inequality, and has significant and direct fiscal effects: Large progressive redistribution of income caused by higher minimum wage leads to significant and cross-cutting fiscal effects
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The Biden rescue plan is neither risky nor a distraction from structural issues
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A $15 minimum wage would have significant and direct effects on the federal budget
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The U.S. economy could use some ‘overheating’: Biden’s relief and recovery plan meets the scale of the economic crisis
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News from EPI › President-elect Biden’s relief and recovery proposal would be a lifeline to workers and their families
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Reinstating and extending the pandemic unemployment insurance programs through 2021 could create or save 5.1 million jobs
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Principles for the relief and recovery phase of rebuilding the U.S. economy: Use debt, go big, and stay big, and be very slow when turning off fiscal support
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Counties that pivoted to Trump had lower wage growth than other counties
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Curb your enthusiasm: Rapid third-quarter GDP growth won’t mean the economy has healed
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The Trump administration was ruining the pre-COVID-19 economy too, just more slowly
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The first big gash of austerity: The cutback to the $600 boost to unemployment benefits reduced personal income by $667 billion (annualized) in August
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State and local governments still desperately need federal fiscal aid to prevent harmful austerity measures
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More FAQS on deficits and debt: Where is the money coming from?
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Different economic crisis, same mistake: The Fed cannot make up for the Republican Senate’s inaction
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Health insurance and the COVID-19 shock: What we know so far about health insurance losses and what it means for policy
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The Way Out through State and Local Aid: A bipartisan panel of the nation’s top economists discuss the action needed to avoid the calamitous effects of cratering state and local revenues
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News from EPI › The coronavirus shock was historically large—and the bounceback has already likely stalled
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Cutting UI benefits by $400 per week will significantly harm U.S. families, jobs, and growth: 3.4 million fewer jobs will be created over the next year as a result
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Ambitious investments in child and elder care could boost labor supply enough to support 3 million new jobs
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Recovering fully from the coronavirus shock will require large increases in federal debt—and there’s nothing wrong with that
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Debt and deficits in the coronavirus recovery: Answers to frequently asked questions
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Cutting off the $600 boost to unemployment benefits would be both cruel and bad economics: New personal income data show just how steep the coming fiscal cliff will be
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Without federal aid to state and local governments, 5.3 million workers will likely lose their jobs by the end of 2021: See estimated job losses by state
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The Fed’s crisis response: Helping corporations, yes, but mostly at the expense of financial predators