Economics Faculty

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Michael Martell, Director

Program Affiliations: Economics and Finance, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Global Public Health

B.A., University of Oregon; M.A., Ph.D., American University.  Teaching and research interests include labor and industrial relations, health and demographic economics, public policy, LGBTQ+ Economics, household and feminist economics as well as the economics of inequality and discrimination. He has served as an economist in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor; at the Office of Regulatory Analysis, U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and at the Office of Safety and Health Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. He previously taught at Franklin and Marshall College, American University, Elizabethtown College, and University of Mary Washington. Publications include articles in Review of Economics of the Household, Economics Letters, Contemporary Economic Policy, Education Economics, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Review of Social Economy and others.   His work has been supported by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the AU Innovative Research in Gender Economics program, and the Social Science Research Council of Canada. He is a Fellow at the Global Labor Organization and a member of the inaugural American Economic Association Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession.  At Bard since 2016.

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Youssef Ait Benasser

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Economics

Biography: Professor Benasser (they/he) specializes in international trade policy analysis, with complementary interests in applied econometrics, financial economics, and political economy. Their research focuses on analyzing trade policy irregularities in the context of weakening multilateralism. Publications include “Measuring Trade Policy Uncertainty and Its Impact on Financial Market Volatility” (under review); working papers addressing the symmetry of trade policy and the trade diversion impact of China’s commercial diplomacy; and the works-in-progress “Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion: A Network Approach” and “Labor Bargaining Power along the Value Supply Chain.” Benasser comes to Bard from Reed College, where they taught courses in macroeconomics and international trade. Born in Rabat, Morocco, Professor Benasser also has experience in the private and public sectors, having worked for several years at firms in Paris, including S&P Global Ratings and La Banque Postale, as well as the French Treasury, Tunisia and Libya office, in Tunis. They are the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from both the University of Oregon and Sciences Po.

BA, political science, Sciences Po Paris; MSc, economics and public policy, Ecole Polytechnique and Sciences Po Paris; PhD, University of Oregon. At Bard since 2023.

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Sanjaya DeSilva

Area of Specialization: Development, Economic History, South and Southeast Asia

Professor DeSilva’s teaching fields include economic development, Asian economic history, international trade, and econometrics. Areas of research include urbanization; race, ethnicity, and immigration; and economic history of development. His current project explores the intersection of ethnicity, space, and urban development in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from a historical perspective. Recent publications include “Access to Markets and Farm Efficiency: A Study of Bicol Rice Farms Over Two Decades,” in Technology, Innovations, and Economic Development: Essays in Honour of Robert E. Evenson (Sage, 2015); “Long-term Benefits from Temporary Migration: Does the Gender of the Migrant Matter?”, Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 756 (2013); and “Racial and Ethnic Price Differentials in a Small Urban Housing Market” (with A. Pham and M. Smith), Housing Policy Debate, Vol. 22, No. 2 (2012). DeSilva is a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and Verité Research in Sri Lanka.

BA, Macalester College; MA, MPhil, PhD, Yale University. At Bard since 2000.

Interests:

• Research Interests: Race, ethnicity and migration ; urban development; Asian economic history 
• Teaching Interests: Development economics; Asian economic history; Econometrics

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Aniruddha Mitra

Program Affiliations: Economics, Economics and Finance, Global and International Studies

M.A., Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University; M.S., Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Teaching and research interests include microeconomics; game theory; industrial organization; developmental economics; the economics of race, ethnicity, and gender; and the economics of migration. His research employs both theoretical and empirical methods to investigate the phenomena of discrimination, ethnic conflict, and the international migration of skilled labor. He has published in Applied Economics Letters, Eastern Economic Journal, Mathematical Social Sciences, and Economic Systems. He previously taught at Middlebury College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At Bard since 2012.

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Dimitri B. Papadimitriou

B.A., Columbia University; M.A., Ph.D., Graduate Faculty of the New School University, Department of Economics. Minister of Economy and Development, Hellenic Republic (2016–18). Visiting Distinguished Scholar, Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (2002). Visiting scholar, Center for Economic Planning and Research, Athens; Wye Fellow, Aspen Institute (1985); Center for Advanced Economic Studies Fellowship (1983, 1986); Whittemore Fellowship (1968); Anglo-American Hellenic Fellowship (1968, 1969). Consultant, Greek Ministry of Education (2002–05); board of directors, William Penn Life Insurance Company (1972–2010); vice chairman, Trade Deficit Review Commission, U.S. Congress (1999–2001); member, Capital Allocation Subcouncil of the Competitiveness Policy Council (1993–98). Trustee and chairman, American Symphony Orchestra; advisory board member, Women’s World Banking; fellow, Economists for Peace and Security; member, Economic Club of New York, The Bretton Woods Committee, American Economic Association, American Finance Association, Association for Evolutionary Economics, Royal Economic Society (UK), Eastern Economic Association, European Economic Association, and Hellenic-American Bankers Association. 

Articles in International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, The Milken Institute Review, Analyst, Journal of Applied Business Research, Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy, Eastern Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economic Studies, Working USA, Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Political Economy, The Economic Journal, Challenge, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, New York Times, European Journal of Political Economy. Editor and contributor, Financial Conditions and Macroeconomic Performance: Essays in Honor of Hyman P. Minsky, with Steven M. Fazzari (1992); Profits, Deficits, and Instability (1992); Poverty and Prosperity in the U.S.A. in the Late Twentieth Century, with Edward N. Wolff (1993); Aspects of the Distribution of Wealth and Income (1994); Stability in the Financial System (1996); Modernizing Financial Systems (2000); Hyman P. Minsky’s Induced Investment and Business Cycles (2004); The Distributional Effects of Government Spending and Taxation (2006); Government Spending on the Elderly (2007); Hyman P. Minsky’s John Maynard Keynes and Stabilizing an Unstable Economy, with L. Randall Wray (2008); The Elgar Companion to Hyman Minsky, with Wray (2010); Contributions in Stock-flow Modeling: Essays in Honor of Wynne Godley, with Gennaro Zezza (2012); Contributions to Economic Theory, Policy, Development and Finance: Essays in Honor of Jan A. Kregel (2014); and The Collected Economic Papers of Hyman P. Minsky (forthcoming). Author, Levy Institute Strategic Analysis reports; the Public Policy Briefs Community Development Banking and A Path to Community Development, with Ronnie J. Phillips and Wray; An Alternative in Small Business Finance, Targeting Inflation: The Effects of Monetary Policy on the CPI and Its Housing Component, Does Social Security Need Saving? and Fiddling in Euroland as the Global Meltdown Nears, with Wray; Endgame for the Euro, with Wray and Yeva Nersisyan; Monetary Policy Uncovered, Understanding Deflation: Treating the Disease, Not the Symptoms and Cracks in the Foundations of Growth, with Greg Hannsgen and Zezza; The New New Deal Fracas, Debts, Deficits, Economic Recovery, and the U.S. Government, Will the Recovery Continue: Four Fragile Markets, Four Years Later, Fiscal Traps and Macro Policy after the Eurozone Crisis, with Hannsgen; and After Austerity: Measuring the Impact of a Job Guarantee Policy for Greece, with Rania Antonopoulos, Sofia Adam, Kijong Kim, and Thomas Masterson; and the Policy Notes Fiscal Stimulus, Job Creation, and the Economy: What Are the Lessons of the New Deal, with Hannsgen; Fiscal Policy for the Coming Recession, Are We All Keynesians (Again)?, The April AMT Shock, Time to Bail Out: Alternatives to the Bush-Paulson Plan, and Euroland’s Original Sin,, with Wray; The Greek Public Debt Problem, with Michalis Nikiforos and Gennaro Zezza; What Should Be Done with Greek Banks to Help the Country Return to a Path of Growth?, with Emilios Avgouleas; and Complementary Currencies and Economic Stability. 

Member, editorial board, Challenge, The Bulletin of Political Economy, and Journal of Economic Analysis; book reviewer, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Journal of Comparative Economic Studies, The Economic Journal, and Atlantic Economic Journal. Frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Witness to U.S. Senate and House Committee Hearings on Banking, Finance, and Small Business. 

At Bard since 1977.

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Pavlina Tcherneva

Affiliated Programs: Economics and Finance, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Global and International Studies

Pavlina R. Tcherneva is professor of economics at Bard College, founding director of the OSUN Economic Democracy Initiative, and research scholar at the Levy Economics Institute. She specializes in macroeconomic theory and policy. Her teaching interests include money and banking, employment policy; and the history of economic thought.
 
Her areas of research include monetary and fiscal policy coordination, the Bernanke doctrine, direct employment policies, and policy responses during the 2008 and 2020 COVID-induced economic crises. Her work has appeared in the Eastern Economic Journal, Review of Social Economy, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Journal of Economic Issues, International Journal of Political Economy, Revista de Economía Crítica, Revue Européenne du droit, and other journals and book volumes.

Tcherneva's book The Case for a Job Guarantee (Polity 2020), recognized by the Financial Times in 2020 and translated in eight languages, is a sought-after guide to the benefits of one of the most transformative public policies being discussed today. Her early work assessed Argentina’s adoption of a large-scale job creation proposal she had developed with colleagues in the United States. Tcherneva has worked with experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Labor Organization, members of the European Parliament, and policy makers from the United States and abroad on developing and evaluating employment programs.
 
Tcherneva is the co-editor of Full Employment and Price Stability: The Macroeconomic Vision of William S. Vickrey (Edward Elgar 2004), a rare collection of writings on employment and inflation by the Nobel Prize–winning economist, adapted for the modern day. In 2012, Tcherneva received the Association for Social Economics’ Helen Potter Prize for the best paper in the Review of Social Economy.

Tcherneva is a two-time grantee from the Institute for New Economic Thinking for her work on rethinking fiscal policy, job creation, and public goods provisioning. She holds a BA in mathematics and economics from Gettysburg College and an MA and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

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Oleksandr Valchyshen

Oleksandr Valchyshen is an interdisciplinary PhD student at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and a research fellow at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He holds an MS degree in economic theory and policy from the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. He completed his master’s thesis under the supervision of L. Randall Wray and Jan Kregel. With more than 20 years of experience in Ukraine’s banking and financial markets, including at some of Ukraine’s major banks and financial firms, Valchysen served as an officer of Prominvestbank; financial analyst for ART-Capital; financial analyst for Ukrsotsbank; head of Research for ING Ukraine; and head of research for the investment firm ICU, Ukraine’s major fixed-income firm and one of the largest asset management firms in the country.   

 While at Prominvestbank, Valchyshen handled reserve balances trading, FX trading for the bank’s branch accounts, and oversaw the accounting of the FX operations of the bank’s branch as well as its clients. While with ING, he was part of the team of economists of the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) covering Ukraine’s economy and its financial markets. In 2007, he took part in an ING-led economists’ trip to the bank’s Asian buy-side clients based in Singapore and Manila. Three years in a row, during 2015–17, Cbonds.info, a fixed-income analytics firm, named a research team led by Valchyshen the top research house on Ukraine’s fixed-income markets and its macroeconomic conditions. During 2016–17, he supervised a team that translated Wray’s Modern Money Theory and Why Minsky Matters into Ukrainian. He has also served as visiting instructor in finance at Bard and adjunct instructor at Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City.

MS, electrical engineering, Vinnitsya Politechnic University, Ukraine; MS, banking, Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, Ukraine; MS, Levy Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy; PhD candidate, University of Missouri–Kansas City. At Bard: 2018; 2022– .