Economic Policy in the 21st Century : The Four Great Challenges

Explores four current economic problems – crises, stagnation, efficiency and equity, and globalization – and the difficulty of taming them. The content is equally accessible to readers with a basic knowledge of economics, those with no knowledge of economics, and those well trained in economics.

Economic policy is facing crises on multiple fronts. With the effects of the last financial crisis still with us, it is now faced with the new challenges of post-Covid economic recovery and dealing with the negative effects of over consumption on the climate. This book explores the future of economic policy in relation to what the author sees as the four great policy challenges of the first half of the 21st century: the after effects of the last financial crisis and the catastrophic impact of the Covid pandemic, secular stagnation, growing poverty and inequality, and globalization. The existence of these economic problems has become increasingly relevant since some of the tools available to public action have become useless. As economists begin to suggest new instruments of economic policy, this book will help the reader understand the nature of the economic and political facts that influence both current and future generations.