The Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) is a research center at the
University of Chicago Booth School of Business in the
United States. The initiative supports original research on
international business
International business refers to the trade of goods, services, technology, capital and/or knowledge across national borders and at a global or transnational scale.
It involves cross-border transactions of goods and services between two or more ...
,
financial markets, and
public policy. The IGM is most famous for the weekly polls it conducts of its Economics Experts Panels, consisting of 43 leading economists in the United States panel and 49 such economists in the European panel. The IGM also organizes and sponsors conferences.
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History
The Initiative on Global Markets was launched with a founding grant (4 years, $1.5 million) from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Trust (CME Trust), announced December 14, 2006. IGM began its activities in 2007: it co-sponsored (along with the Rosenberg Institute of Global Finance at Brandeis University) the 2007 U.S. monetary policy conference in Washington, D.C. on March 9, 2007.
IGM polls and the Economics Experts Panel
The IGM maintains an Economics Experts Panel (called the IGM Panel for short) comprising leading economists at top United States universities.[ It circulates poll questions to the IGM Panel and publishes the responses of the IGM Panel members on its website, the IGM Forum.]
Poll format
All IGM poll questions are phrased in the form of a statement, to which participants can choose options from a Likert scale
A Likert scale ( , commonly mispronounced as ) is a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term (or more fully the ...
: Strongly Agree, Agree, Uncertain, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. Participants must also indicate a confidence level in their response (on a scale of 10). They may additionally providing a free-form comment to explain their selection.[
The poll is conducted over email, with one question sent every week to the IGM Panel members. Candidate poll questions can be submitted by the general public through the website. The final decision on what question to include is made by IGM faculty.][ In addition, an unweighted and confidence-weighted summary of responses is available.][
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Size and composition of the IGM Panel
As of December 2022, the US Economic Experts Panel consists of 43 active economists.
Coverage
'' The New York Times'' has cited the IGM polls on raising the minimum wage, the utility to consumers of allowing services such as Uber and Lyft to compete on equal footing with taxi firms,
Reception
'' The New York Times'' praised the IGM polls for providing "an easily digested summary of the insights of mainstream economics into continuing political controversies".Nobel Memorial Prize
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...
laureate Paul Krugman, writing for ''The New York Times'' in January 2013, noted that the IGM polls did not focus on areas that are disputed by macroeconomists.
IGM published a poll entitled "Modern Monetary Theory" in March 2019, in relation to the heterodox macroeconomic theory (MMT) that had been in the news at the time. Bill Mitchell, an MMT scholar, described the poll as "simply a dishonest representation of MMT", stating that he would also "strongly disagree" to both questions being posed, and he argued that the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is probably falling prey to groupthink.
Notes
See also
* Economic forecasting
External links
Official website
Official website of the IGM Forum
References
{{reflist, 30em
Booth School of Business