Boston College Economics, in collaboration with experts from the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Census Bureau, McKinsey Global Institute and the Brookings Institution, is holding a one-day symposium on October 4 on “critical features of the current economic expansion”.

The “post Covid shock” expansion has been distinct from so many perspectives. The resilience of the economy over the period 2020 to 2024 has been impressive: employment, productivity and growth have expanded, and it is reasonable to foresee a sustained expansion into 2025 and beyond.

The symposium comes at the crux of a major turning point of successful efforts across all contributors in the economy to restore stability in prices after a series of major global shocks. The Federal Reserve has taken some initial steps to lower interest rates and ease up on the burden of the high cost of borrowing, which differentially impacts young people, young firms and households with relatively low net worth.

The symposium will offer a unique opportunity to look “under the hood” and examine where we are, where we are going, and how we can continue to underpin positive business dynamics, and support the expansion of opportunities, employment, income, and wealth across the spectrum of society.

The first panel will feature speakers William Wascher and Christopher Nekarda, from the Federal Reserve Board, who will focus on the socioeconomic and labor market benefits of a high-pressure economy, with particular focus on the post Covid shock expansion from the second half of 2020 to the first half of 2024.

The U.S. economy was 50% more concentrated in 2022 than it was 50 years prior. On the second panel, Falk Brauning, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, will discuss how this may have impacted the “pass-through” of cost shocks on prices from supply chain disruptions, such as the disruptions that we saw in the first two years of the Covid cycle. Romain Duval from the International Monetary Fund will discuss how variation in market power, firm age, and financial constraints, in advanced economies, can differentially influence the transmission of monetary policy on firm output across the economy. This is a critical issue when there are sharp wide swings in the stance of monetary policy, such as the period from 2020 to 2024.

Our keynote speaker, William Rodgers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Institute of Economic Equity, will discuss challenges in terms of the income and wealth inequalities that persist, despite the benefits of the remarkable post-Covid expansion explored by panel I.

Panel III includes Maggie Jones from the Census bureau, who will present pathbreaking work done by the census bureau with scholars from Harvard and Brown Universities, which examines the childhood roots of social mobility, and how local economic policies potentially can be crafted to be more effective in addressing the specific needs of neighborhoods. Jeff Fuhrer from the Brookings Institution will share some thought provoking observations on social mobility based on his recent MIT press book “The Myth that Made Us”, and Marc Canal Noguer will present some work done by the McKinsey Global Institute on the puzzle relating to the declining share of labor income in overall income in the economy, and how concerned we should be about this trend in the context of social mobility challenges presented by Jones and Fuhrer.

Friday, October 4, 2024 | Yawkey Athletics Center, Murray Room, 4 th floor | Please register to attend