We come from decades of slow but constant structural changes, involving the decline in share of income going to workers, the increase in firms’ markups and profits - which is accompanied by productivity slowdown - lower GDP growth, and increased income and wealth inequality. Recent years have seen renewed interest in the potential macroeconomic effects of market power. Strong empirical evidence has been found on broad growth inmeasured profit rates, price-cost margins, and concentration since at least 2000, if not even earlier. These increases in firms’ market power were accompanied by drops in measured investment rates, firmentry rates, and labour’s share of income. These patterns have originated a new macroeconomic debate in a topic traditionally confined to the microeconomic realmof the single industry or market. If market power has increased globally, this is likely to lower consumers’ welfare and the economywide wellbeing including investment, innovation, total output, and the distribution of income. DYNARE CONFERENCE All of these issues will be analysed at the 16th annual Dynare Conference, which we will host here at Lancaster UniversityManagement School at the end of June and start of July. The Dynare Conference is a wellestablished event among leading experts in macroeconomics, hosting presentations from both scholars in academia and policymakers on relevant current topics. This editionwill host presentations of papers onmonetary and fiscal policy response, inequality, business dynamism and structural changes, and green economy transition, among others. Keynote speakers will be Professor Jan Eeckhout (University of Pompeu Fabra) and Professor Silvana Tenreyro (London School of Economics, Bank of England). Both bring extensive research and practical knowledge from across the macroeconomic sphere, and their work is at the heart of what is important to face the next global economic challenges (see panel). FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 9 Professor Silvana Tenreyro is a leading expert in monetary policy and economic growth. She serves as an external member of the Bank of England’sMonetary Policy Committee and is Professor at London School of Economics. Among her other roles, she is President of the European EconomicAssociation, a former co-director and boardmember of the Reviewof Economic Studies, andChair of theWomen’s Committee of the Royal Economics Society. Her works on inflation have been influential both in academia and in policy circles. Her papers on volatility and development have also focused on the contribution of technological diversification and the role of shocks affecting developing and developed economies emerging in the growth process. Professor Jan Eeckhout’s research expertise centres around labour markets and the macroeconomic implications of market power. His work has been published in the American Economic Review, Econometrica and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, FT, The New York Times and Bloomberg. In his recent book The Profit Paradox, he explains clearly howmarket power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil. Expert Insight Professor Lorenza Rossi is Chair in Macroeconomics in the Department of Economics. Dr Stefano Fasani and Dr Giorgio Motta are Lecturers in Macreconomics. The 16th Dynare Conference is hosted by Lancaster University Management School on June 30th and July 1st 2022. The two-day meeting is organised by the LUMS Department of Economics with Banque de France, DSGE-net, and the Dynare project at CEPREMAP. The conference programme will include 19 contributed parallel sessions, with 69 presenters from academia, Central Banks and prestigious policy institutions around the world. l.rossi@lancaster.ac.uk; s.fasani@lancaster.ac.uk; g.motta@lancaster.ac.uk
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