Political Economy Research Institute

The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst[1]

Also known as PERI, are under commission by the Center for American Progress [[2]] and a coalition of labor and environmental groups.

About PERI:

The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) promotes human and ecological well-being through original research. Their approach is to translate what they learn into workable policy proposals that are capable of improving life on this planet today and in the future. In the words of the late Professor Robert Heilbroner, those at PERI “strive to make a workable science out of morality.”

Established in 1998, PERI is an independent unit of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with close ties to the Department of Economics. PERI staff frequently work collaboratively with faculty members and graduate students from the University of Massachusetts, and other economists from around the world. Many of these colleagues have become PERI Research Associates. Since its founding, PERI has become a leading progressive source of research and policy initiatives on issues of globalization, unemployment, financial market instability, central bank policy, living wages and decent work, and the economics of peace, development, and the environment.

PERI’s goals for the future are to:

• continue producing high-quality research;
  
• increasingly focus the public economics debate on human and ecological welfare;
  
• expand the number of economists collaborating on PERI projects;
  
• and continue to raise our profile in the full range of communities that are concerned with economic policy,questions.
  

One of their many progressive studies is the publication: Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy. The authors are Robert Pollin, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, James Heintz, and Helen Scharber of PERI.

Focusing for now on a short-term clean energy and jobs program, Green Recovery reports that a short-term green stimulus package would create two million jobs nationwide over two years. Later in the fall, PERI and CAP will co-publish a fuller study that addresses the longer-term challenges and opportunities created by building a clean-energy economy.

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