What Have We Learned?

Top economists consider how to conduct policy in a world where previous beliefs have been shattered by the recent financial and economic crises.

Since 2008, economic policymakers and researchers have occupied a brave new economic world. Previous consensuses have been upended, former assumptions have been cast into doubt, and new approaches have yet to stand the test of time. Policymakers have been forced to improvise and researchers to rethink basic theory. George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate and one of this volume's editors, compares the crisis to a cat stuck in a tree, afraid to move. In April 2013, the International Monetary Fund brought together leading economists and economic policymakers to discuss the slowly emerging contours of the macroeconomic future. This book offers their combined insights.

The editors and contributors-who include the Nobel Laureate and bestselling author Joseph Stiglitz, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, and the former Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer-consider the lessons learned from the crisis and its aftermath. They discuss, among other things, post-crisis questions about the traditional policy focus on inflation; macroprudential tools (which focus on the stability of the entire financial system rather than of individual firms) and their effectiveness; fiscal stimulus, public debt, and fiscal consolidation; and exchange rate arrangements.

George Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel Laureate, is Guest Scholar at the International Monetary Fund and Daniel Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Olivier Blanchard is C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. He was Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2008 to 2015. David Romer is Herman Royer Professor of Political Economy at the University of California, Berkeley. Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel Laureate, is University Professor at Columbia University. Olivier Blanchard is C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. He was Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2008 to 2015. Claudio Borio is Head of Research and Policy Analysis at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. Stanley Fischer is former Governor of the Bank of Israel and has been nominated as Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve]. He is the author of IMF Essays from a Time of Crisis: The International Financial System, Stabilization, and Development (MIT Press). Jean Tirole, the 2014 Nobel Laureate in Economics, is Scientific Director of IDEI (Institut d'Economie Industrielle), Chairman of the Board of TSE (Toulouse School of Economics), and Annual Visiting Professor of Economics at MIT. Sir John Vickers is Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University. Adair Turner, Chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority from September 2008 to March 2013, is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and at Cass Business School, City University London, and the author of Just Capital: The Liberal Economy. Jay C. Shambaugh is a Visiting Associate Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and was the Senior Economist for International Economics and then Chief Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011. George Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel Laureate, is Guest Scholar at the International Monetary Fund and Daniel Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. David Romer is Herman Royer Professor of Political Economy at the University of California, Berkeley. Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel Laureate, is University Professor at Columbia University.

Since 2008, economic policymakers and researchers have occupied a brave new economic world. Previous consensuses have been upended, former assumptions have been cast into doubt, and new approaches have yet to stand the test of time. Policymakers have been forced to improvise and researchers to rethink basic theory. George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate and one of this volume's editors, compares the crisis to a cat stuck in a tree, afraid to move. In April 2013, the International Monetary Fund brought together leading economists and economic policymakers to discuss the slowly emerging contours of the macroeconomic future. This book offers their combined insights. The contributors consider the lessons learned from the crisis and its aftermath. They discuss, among other things, post-crisis questions about the traditional policy focus on inflation; macroprudential tools (which focus on the stability of the entire financial system rather than of individual firms) and their effectiveness; fiscal stimulus, public debt, and fiscal consolidation; and exchange rate arrangements.

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