The Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) is a research center at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The initiative supports original research on international business,

financial market A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial market ...

s, and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

. 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.

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 , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

) the 2007 U.S.

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...

conference in

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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: 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. Responses of all poll participants (excluding No Opinion responses), along with confidence level and comment, are available on the IGM Forum poll results page, allowing analysts to better understand the reasoning behind the poll responses. In addition, an unweighted and confidence-weighted summary of responses is available.

Size and composition of the IGM Panel

As of December 2022, the US Economic Experts Panel consists of 43 active economists. The IGM Forum website includes a biography and vote history for each panelist. According to economist

Justin Wolfers Justin James Michael Wolfers, born in 1972, is an Australian economist and public policy scholar. He is professor of economics and public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a Senior Fellow at ...

, the US panel is geographically and ideologically diverse and are "a good sample of the leading economists in the nation". Since 2016, IGM has also surveyed a European panel, currently consisting of 49 active economists).

Coverage

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' has cited the IGM polls on raising the minimum wage, the utility to consumers of allowing services such as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

and

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...

to compete on equal footing with taxi firms, and the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

. ''

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'' has also cited the IGM poll on high-skilled immigration, noting the consensus in favor of immigration. '' U.S. News & World Report'' has cited the IGM poll on tax cuts.

Reception

'' praised the IGM polls for providing "an easily digested summary of the insights of mainstream economics into continuing political controversies". Nobel Memorial Prize laureate

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...

, 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 The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

is probably falling prey to groupthink.

Notes

External links

Official website

Official website of the IGM Forum

References

{{reflist, 30em Booth School of Business