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Mark Thoma

Affiliation: University of Oregon

Mark Thoma is a member of the Economics Department at the University of Oregon. He joined the UO faculty in 1987 and served as head of the Economics Department for five years. His research examines the effects that changes in monetary policy have on inflation, output, unemployment, interest rates and other macroeconomic variables with a focus on asymmetries in the response of these variables to policy changes, and on changes in the relationship between policy and the economy over time. He has also conducted research in other areas such as the relationship between the political party in power, and macroeconomic outcomes and using macroeconomic tools to predict transportation flows. He received his doctorate from Washington State University.

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Mark Thoma's Latest Articles | 116

Government Can and Should Create Jobs

Mar 8, 2010| 1

In a town in a country suffering through a recession, a wealthy person just happens to live next door to an unemployed worker. The worker has experience in a variety... Read »

The Threat of an Arrogant Laboring Class

Mar 2, 2010| 2

As you’ve probably heard, even though we are just beginning to see a way out of a deep recession that has long-term unemployment rising to historic levels,... Read »

Who Pays the Costs of the Recession?

Feb 23, 2010| 

The distribution of the benefits in the run-up to the recession as reflected in growing inequality has been widely discussed, as has the distribution of benefits... Read »

Volcker: We’ve got a Problem in Governing in this Country

Feb 12, 2010| 

This is from a long Q&A the Financial Times held with Paul Volcker (covering a variety of topics, but focused on a discussion of the “Volcker rule”): FT:... Read »

Did Obama Change the Conversation?

Jan 30, 2010| 

I think it’s too soon to be talking about deficit reduction given the state of the economy, and particularly the state of labor markets, but there’s... Read »

‘Obama Sounded Like a Good Old-Fashioned Mercantilist’

Jan 28, 2010| 1

Andrew Samwick on Obama’s the State of the Union speech: One item that stood out as different was the acknowledgement that we are on our way to export-led... Read »

A Dangerous Split

Dec 27, 2009| 

The split developing within the Democratic Party is worrisome. Old fault lines that were on display in events like the WTO protests in Seattle are opening again.... Read »

Will the Present Upward Trend of Unemployment Continue?

Dec 24, 2009| 1

The excess capacity series is defined as 100 – capacity utilization rate. The unemployment series is the civilian unemployment rate. The excess capacity series... Read »

Cutting Wages Won’t Help

Dec 16, 2009| 

Conservatives are using the recession to revive their long-standing opposition to the minimum wage. The argument they are making this time is that cutting the minimum... Read »

Too Big to File Suit?

Dec 14, 2009| 

I’ve been somewhat encouraged by this administration’s attention to anti-trust issues, but so far there’s been more talk than action. I don’t... Read »

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