Center for Economic and Policy Research

Last updated
Center for Economic and Policy Research
AbbreviationCEPR
Formation1999;25 years ago (1999)
Type Economic policy think tank
Headquarters1611 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, D.C., United States
Co-directors
 Dean Baker
Mark Weisbrot
Revenue (2019)
$4,333,658
Expenses (2019)$2,392,792 [1]
Website www.cepr.net

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999. [2]

Contents

Considered a left-leaning organization, [3] [4] [5] notable CEPR contributors include Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recipients Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Solow.

History

Politically, CEPR has been described as both progressive [6] and left-leaning. [3] [4] [5] CEPR contributors include Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recipients Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Solow.

Issues

United States

Healthcare

CEPR supports the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stating that it is "a family-friendly policy" and that the policy "has allowed thousands of workers to voluntarily reduce their work hours to care for children or elderly parents, or to explore new opportunities." Despite the increase in the percentage of workers employed on a part-time basis, CEPR concluded that such statistics were not sufficient to make any overall judgments on the health of the labor market. [7] [8]

Employment

CEPR backs alongside the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) the Full Employment Caucus, a group on United States House officials that advocate for full employment in the United States. [9]

Minimum wage

A 2014 study by CEPR shows that 13 states that increased their minimum wage had an average payroll of 0.99% compared to 0.68% in other states, though the CEPR stated the analysis was "far from scientific". [10] In response to criticism of President Joe Biden's support for a $15 minimum wage, Baker calculated that, had wages risen alongside increases in productivity since 1968, the minimum wage would be around $24 an hour. [11] This was later revised to $21.50 per hour on March 16, 2022, after a spreadsheet error was found and corrected. [12]

Taxes

In a 2014 report in Fortune , CEPR co-founder Dean Baker suggested that according to poll findings, many citizens of the United States did not notice a 2% increase in their Social Security tax. [13]

Latin America

CEPR has been supportive of left-leaning governments in South America. [14]

Brazil

In 2008, Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim cited CEPR's work to explain why Brazil had no interest in signing a free trade agreement with the United States. He said that the CEPR report concluded that the most severe impacts from the financial crisis of 2007–08 would be suffered by those economies most integrated to United States, those that have free trade agreements with the US. [15]

Venezuela

CEPR and its founder Mark Weisbrot have analysed and often written about the crisis in Venezuela. In an October 2012 op-ed for The New York Times , Weisbrot wrote "[a]lthough some media have talked of Venezuela’s impending economic collapse for more than a decade, it hasn’t happened and is not likely to happen." [16] In a July 2014 article, for Fortune , Weisbrot said the Venezuelan economy had performed well for the period from 2004, when the government gained control of the oil industry from the opposition, to 2012. He stated that, during the past two years, however a number of problems like the inflation and a shortage of essential consumer goods worsened. He said many problems are connected to the exchange rate system and for the things to get better, the government would have to bring inflation down and manage the transition to a new exchange rate regime. [17] In a June 2016 article in The New York Times, Weisbrot wrote that "Washington has caused enormous damage to Venezuela in its relentless pursuit of 'regime change' for the last 15 years." He suggested the US end its intervention, which he said included economic sanctions, funding of opposition groups and refusal to accept presidential election results. [18]

Bolivia

in 2019, CEPR criticized the Organization of American States (OAS)'s audit of the 2019 Bolivian general election, which concluded that the results of the elections should be voided because there were "drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results after the closing of the polls". Weisbrot wrote that the report "provides absolutely no evidence — no statistics, numbers, or facts of any kind — to support this idea", and called on the OAS to retract its press release. [19]

CEPR commissioned researchers at the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, John Curiel and Jack R. Williams, to independently verify their work on the 2019 Bolivian election. [20] [14] The MIT researchers published a statistical analysis on 27 February 2020, confirming the results of the CEPR study and finding that there was no "statistical evidence of fraud that we can find — the trends in the preliminary count, the lack of any big jump in support for Morales after the halt, and the size of Morales’s margin all appear legitimate. All in all, the OAS's statistical analysis and conclusions would appear deeply flawed" and that "it is highly likely that Morales surpassed the 10-percentage-point margin in the first round" as originally presented. [21] [22] Several left-leaning governments like Argentina under Alberto Fernandez cited the CEPR report as a reason to support the old Bolivian president Morales, while right-leaning governments like Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro backed the OAS. [23] The OAS dismissed the report as "neither honest, nor fact-based nor comprehensive" [24] and called it "unscientific". [23] Three researchers from the University of Pennsylvania further criticised the OAS report in a study and according to the New York Times the OAS consultant refused to share the data or methods of the OAS analysis, while an expert from the University of Miami like the OAS stated there was fraud in the election. [25] Two economists from the Mercatus Center and the College of Business and Entrepreneurship, writing for Project Syndicate, argued that the assumptions of the study of the MIT scientists commissioned by CEPR, were questionable for methodological reasons. [26]

Personnel

CEPR's staff includes Ha-Joon Chang, [27] Eileen Appelbaum, [28] [29] John Schmitt and Deborah James. [30] [31]

CEPR contributors include Advisory Board Members Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Solow. [32]

As of 2017, CEPR's Board of Directors includes: [33]

Julian Bond served as CEPR's Board Chair in the past. [34]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolivia</span> Country in South America

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west. The seat of government and administrative capital is La Paz, which contains the executive, legislative, and electoral branches of government, while the constitutional capital is Sucre, the seat of the judiciary. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales, a mostly flat region in the east of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organization of American States</span> International organization of states in the Americas

The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Stiglitz</span> American economist (born 1943)

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. He is also a former member and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support for the Georgist public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists, and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Solow</span> American economist (1924–2023)

Robert Merton Solow, GCIH was an American economist and Nobel laureate whose work on the theory of economic growth culminated in the exogenous growth model named after him. He was Institute Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a professor from 1949 on. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 1961, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1987, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. Four of his PhD students, George Akerlof, Joseph Stiglitz, Peter Diamond, and William Nordhaus, later received Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences in their own right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolivarian Revolution</span> 21st-century political process in Venezuela

The Bolivarian Revolution is a political process in Venezuela that was led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement and later the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and his successor Nicolás Maduro. The Bolivarian Revolution is named after Simón Bolívar, an early 19th-century Venezuelan revolutionary leader, prominent in the Spanish American wars of independence in achieving the independence of most of northern South America from Spanish rule. According to Chávez and other supporters, the Bolivarian Revolution seeks to build an inter-American coalition to implement Bolivarianism, nationalism and a state-led economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evo Morales</span> President of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019

Juan Evo Morales Ayma is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from its indigenous population, his administration worked towards the implementation of left-wing policies, focusing on the legal protections and socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized indigenous population and combating the political influence of the United States and resource-extracting multinational corporations. Ideologically a socialist, he has led the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party since 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 Venezuelan recall referendum</span> Refendum in Venezuela to recall President Hugo Chávez

The Venezuelan recall referendum of 15 August 2004 was a referendum to determine whether Hugo Chávez, then President of Venezuela, should be recalled from office. The recall referendum was announced on 8 June 2004 by the National Electoral Council (CNE) after the Venezuelan opposition succeeded in collecting the number of signatures required by the 1999 Constitution to effect a recall. The result of the referendum was not to recall Chávez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Baker</span> American economist

Dean Baker is an American macroeconomist who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) with Mark Weisbrot. Baker has been credited as one of the first economists to have identified the 2007–08 United States housing bubble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Weisbrot</span> American economist and columnist

Mark Alan Weisbrot is an American economist and columnist. He is co-director with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. Weisbrot is President of Just Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization dedicated to reforming United States foreign policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolivia–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Bolivia–United States relations were established in 1837 with the first ambassadorial visit from the United States to Peru–Bolivian Confederation. The Confederation dissolved in 1839, and bilateral relations did not occur until 1848 when the United States recognized Bolivia as a sovereign state and appointed John Appleton as the Chargé d'Affaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pink tide</span> 21st century success of left-leaning Latin American leaders

The pink tide, or the turn to the left, is a political wave and turn towards left-wing governments in Latin America throughout the 21st century. As a term, both phrases are used in political analysis in the news media and elsewhere to refer to a move toward more economic progressive or social progressive policies in the region. Such governments have been referred to as "left-of-centre", "left-leaning", and "radical social-democratic". They are also members of the São Paulo Forum, a conference of left-wing political parties and other organizations from the Americas.

The history of Bolivia involves thousands of years of human habitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Paul Fitoussi</span> French economist (1942–2022)

Jean-Paul Fitoussi was a French economist and sociologist of Sephardi Jewish descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis Almagro</span> Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, and politician

Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes is a Uruguayan lawyer, diplomat, and politician who currently serves as the 10th Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. A former member of the Broad Front, Almagro served as Minister of Foreign Relations of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 under president José Mujica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaime Aparicio Otero</span> Bolivian diplomat, lawyer, journalist (born 1955)

Jaime Aparicio Otero is the Bolivian Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States and was Bolivian Agent to the International Court of Justice, in the Hague, in the process against Chile related to the Silala waters. Ambassador Aparicio is a career diplomat, lawyer, journalist and a Washington-based legal and political advisor. He was also a political analyst working in international public and corporate affairs in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. He has a Law Degree from the Higher University of San Andrés of La Paz, the Bolivian Diplomatic Academy and the Institute d’Etudes Politiques commonly referred as Sciences Po de Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Bolivian general election</span>

General elections were held in Bolivia on 20 October 2019. Voters elected all 130 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 36 senators and cast ballots for a joint slate of president and vice president. The Bolivian constitution allows the President and Vice-President to put themselves forward for re-election only once, limiting the number of terms to two, and the elections took place after in 2016 a referendum to amend the constitution was rejected, but that the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that all public offices would have no term limits despite what was established in the constitution and allowing Morales to run for a fourth term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Bolivian protests</span> Protests against electoral fraud allegations in the 2019 Bolivian elections

The 2019 Bolivian protests, also known as the Pitita Revolution, were protests and marches from 21 October 2019 until late November of that year in Bolivia, in response to claims of electoral fraud in the 2019 general election of 20 October. After 11 November 2019, there were protests by supporters of the outgoing government in response to Jeanine Áñez becoming the acting president of Bolivia. The claims of fraud were made after the suspension of the preliminary vote count, in which incumbent Evo Morales was not leading by a large enough margin (10%) to avoid a runoff, and the subsequent publication of the official count, in which Morales won by just over 10%. Some international observers expressed concern over the integrity of the elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Bolivian political crisis</span> Series of resignations by Bolivias highest political leaders following disputed election results

A political crisis occurred in Bolivia on 10 November 2019, after 21 days of civil protests following the disputed 2019 Bolivian general election in which incumbent President Evo Morales was initially declared the winner. The elections took place after a referendum to amend the Bolivian constitution, which limits the number of terms to two, was rejected in 2016. In 2017 under political pressure and a legal demand from the Morales government, the Constitutional Tribunal (TCP) ruled that all public offices would have no term limits despite what was established in the constitution and allowing Evo Morales to run for a fourth term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reactions to the 2019 Bolivian political crisis</span>

The following is a list of reactions to the 2019 Bolivian political crisis.

The political history of South America during the 2010s covers political events which happened in the countries of the region between 2010 and 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Center For Economic And Policy Research - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  2. ↑ "About CEPR". Center for Economic and Policy Research. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 Rosenberg, Tina (4 November 2007). "The Perils Of Petrocracy". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2014. … Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning Washington policy group.
  4. 1 2 Sussman, Anna Louie (7 September 2015). "Are Women the New Face of Organized Labor?". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  5. 1 2 Fox, Maggie (24 July 2013). "Obamacare won't slash workers' hours, report finds". NBC News. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  6. ↑ Dolny, Michael (March 2008). "The Incredible Shrinking Think Tank". Fair. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  7. ↑ Hiltzik, Michael (2 October 2014). "Obamacare at one year: a birthday assessment". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Verhage, Julie (August 7, 2015). "Dean Baker: There's a Big Economic Benefit to Obamacare That Isn't Getting Much Attention". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2015-09-14. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  9. ↑ Marans, Daniel (18 September 2015). "Senior Democrat Has A New Plan To Trim Unemployment". The Huffington Post . Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Davisdson, Paul (7 July 2014). "Study: States that raised minimum wage had stronger job growth". USA Today. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  11. ↑ Schwarz, Jon (2021-03-05). "Forget $15 an Hour — the Minimum Wage Should Be $24". The Intercept. Archived from the original on 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  12. ↑ Baker, Dean (16 March 2022). "CORRECTION: This is What Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace with Productivity". CEPR. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  13. ↑ Baker, Dean (30 September 2014). "The tax hike that almost nobody noticed". Fortune. Archived from the original on 3 October 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
  14. 1 2 "M.I.T. Researchers Cast Doubt on Bolivian Election Fraud". The New York Times. 2020-02-29. Archived from the original on 2020-02-29. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  15. ↑ "Diversified markets have cut Brazil's exposure to US crisis". MercoPress. 4 April 2008. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Weisbrot, Mark (2012-10-09). "Opinion | Why Chávez Was Re-elected". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  17. ↑ "How to fix Venezuela's troubled exchange rate". Fortune. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "How to save Venezuela". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  19. ↑ Beeton, Dan. "OAS Should Retract Its Press Release on Bolivian Election, CEPR Co-Director Says Press Releases CEPR". cepr.net. Archived from the original on 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  20. ↑ Williams, Jack. "Analysis of the 2019 Bolivia Election". Center for Economic and Policy Research. CEPR. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  21. ↑ Curiel, John; Williams, Jack R. (27 February 2020). "Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  22. ↑ "US centre: No evidence of fraud in Bolivia's October polls - Evo Morales News". Al Jazeera. 2020-02-28. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  23. 1 2 Laing, Aislinn (2020-03-02). "Study casting doubt on Bolivian election fraud triggers controversy". U.S. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  24. ↑ "Bolivia after the ouster of Evo Morales, a leftist strongman". The Economist. ISSN   0013-0613. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  25. ↑ "A Bitter Election. Accusations of Fraud. And Now Second Thoughts". The New York Times. 7 June 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  26. ↑ Escobari, Diego (2020-03-17). "Bolivia's Electoral Fraud Reckoning | by Walter D. Valdivia & Diego Escobari". Project Syndicate. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  27. ↑ "Ha-Joon Chang". CEPR. 30 January 2007. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  28. ↑ "Eileen Appelbaum". CEPR. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  29. ↑ "Eileen Appelbaum". Russell Sage. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  30. ↑ "Deborah James". Global Exchange. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  31. ↑ "Staff". CEPR. Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  32. ↑ "Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Solow". CEPR. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  33. ↑ "Board of Directors". Center for Economic and Policy Research. March 2017. Archived from the original on 2008-03-10. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  34. ↑ "Center for Economic and Policy Research - GuideStar Profile". www.guidestar.org. Archived from the original on 2017-04-01. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
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