International Monetary Fund

Labor Markets through the Lens of the Great Recession

Thirteenth  Jacques  Polak  Annual  Research Conference Research  Department, IMF

IMF Economic Forum

Date: NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Time: 5:00–6:30pm

Venue: HQ2 Conference Hall 1
1900 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.

In the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis, the unemployment rate went up dramatically in most countries and has remained, for the most part, stubbornly high to date across much of the advanced world.

This has ignited an extensive debate on the causes of high unemployment and on the effectiveness of monetary, fiscal and supply-side policies in fostering job creation—both cyclically and structurally—as well as in mitigating income and wealth inequality. The 13th Jacques Polack annual conference puts together a set of papers by leading and upcoming researchers intended to shed new light on this important and timely policy debate.

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Labor Markets through the Lens of the Great Recession

Moderated by
Olivier Blanchard OLIVIER BLANCHARD

Economic Counselor and Director of IMF Research Department

A citizen of France, Olivier Blanchard has spent his professional life in Cambridge, U.S. After obtaining his Ph.D in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977, he taught at Harvard University, returning to MIT in 1982, where he has been since then.


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Featuring
Ricardo Hausmann RICARDO HAUSMANN

Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University

Ricardo is one of the foremost thinkers on how regions and countries can accelerate growth. His research includes issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development.


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Lawrence F. Katz LAWRENCE F. KATZ

Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research

His research focuses on issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. He is the author (with Claudia Goldin) of The Race between Education and Technology (Harvard University Press, 2008), a history of U.S. economic inequality and the roles of technological change and the pace of educational advance in affecting the wage structure.


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Adriana Kugler ADRIANA KUGLER

Chief Economist to U.S. Labor Secretary, Hilda L. Solis

She is currently on leave from her position as Full Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Dr. Kugler is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Labor Studies program.


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Martin Rama MARTIN RAMA

Director of the World Development Report (WDR), The World Bank

The World Development Report (WDR) is the annual flagship publication of the World Bank. Its preparation builds on economic research, country experiences and extensive consultations.


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Conference Organizing Committee: Luis Catão (Chair), Rudolfs Bems, Era Dabla-Norris, Marcello Estevão, Martin Evans, and Ayhan Kose, (all IMF), and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas (Editor of the IMF Economic Review, University of California, Berkeley).

Conference Coordinator: Tracey Lookadoo