Major Faculty Research Areas

Macroeconomic Policy Program

The Macroeconomic Policy Program sponsors research and public discussions on topics of current interest in macroeconomics, including the determinants of economic growth, explanations for recession and recovery, and the link between financial markets and economic performance.

The program is directed by Professor Steven Fazzari, Bert A. and Jeanette L. Lynch Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis; Chair of the Department of Sociology; and Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center..  The current focus of the program's activities is the crisis in the U.S. financial markets and fiscal policy. The Program's research on causes and consequences of household debt growth cluminated in a publication by Professor Fazzari, After the Great Recession: The Struggle for Economic Recovery and Growth, published by Cambridge University Press (co-edited with Barry Cynamon and Mark Setterfeld).  Professor Fazzari and the research team continued to study how spending decisions by households, firms, and governments affect growth in developed economies. To this end, the "Muddy Water Macro" website was developed in order to educate the public to better understand macroeconomics and economic policy more generally.

In 2013, Professor Fazzari delivered three related talks open to the University community and the general public as part of the Weidenbaum Center Lecture Series program. The talks were as follows: "The Rising Financial Fragility in the Consumer Age," "Anatomy of a Historic Recession," and "Challenges to Recovery."

American Politics

The Program in American Politics sponsors major studies of important aspects of American politics.  It is directed by Center Director Steven Smith.  The program has produced a multitude of books, journal articles, and publications related to the study of American Politics. The most recent The Senate Syndrome: The Evolution of Procedural Warfare in the U.S. Senate The American Congress (published in 2014 and authored by Smith), puts the present problems of the Senate—the “Senate syndrome,” as Smith calls them—into historical context by explaining how particular ideas and procedures were first framed and how they transformed with the times.. Recent presented papers in 2014 include those on “Ideological Labels in America,” and “Public Attitudes About Supreme Court Decision-Making: Sources of Instability in Beliefs about Legal Realism.”  

An NSF-funded project by Professors Steve Smith and James Gibson, "Majority Rule and Minority Rights: A Panel Study of Democratic Values and Attitudes toward Senate Filibuster Among the American Public," examined public attitudes about majority rule, minority rights, and the Senate filibuster. The reserarchers used the data and results collected to provide a missing link in studies of mass attitudes, instituional legitimacy, and support, as well as elite behavior in American national institions. Visit  http://thedata.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/wc  to see the results of the data.

On June 27, 2009 Professor Springer was asked to testify at the initial meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Democratic Change Commission in Washington, DC.  Her presentation was a lecture drawing on her work in the book.  The focus was on issues regarding timing of the current nomination process and the historical information on the nomination process.  In her talk, she also presented some findings about public attitudes toward reform drawing from her survey work with James Gibson.

BOOKS AND PAPERS 

July 2017 - Politics Over Process: Partisan Politics and Post-Passage Processes in the U.S. Congress - by Hong Min Park, Steven S. Smith, and Ryan J. Vander Wielen

June 2015 - The Particularistic President: Executive Branch Politics and Political Inequality - by Douglas Kriner and Andrew Reeves (Washington University in St. Louis)

June 2014 -  Harry Reid and the Study of Senate Party Leadership - by Steven Smith - not for quotation or citation

August 2013 - The Wartime President: Executive Influence and the Nationalizing Politics of Threat (Chicago Series on International and Domestic Institutions) - by William Howell, Saul Jackman, and Jon Rogowski (Washington University in St. Louis)

December 2012- The Social Citizen: Peer Networks and Political Behavior (Chicago Studies in Ameircan Politics) - by Betsy Sinclair (Washington University in St. Louis)

March 2006 - The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court - by Thomas Hansford and James Spriggs (Washington University in St. Louis)

Experimental Social Science

The researchers in the program on Experimental Social Science use social, cognitive and emotional factors to help understand the economic decisions of individuals and institutions performing economic functions. This interdisciplinary approach looks at consumers, borrowers and investors, and their effects on market prices, returns and the resource allocation.  Not only are the researchers involved in this program concerned with the effects of market decisions but also with public choice. The program supports research and other scholarly activity.

Faculty Associates

The program supports the research of faculty at Washington University and elsewhere on an interdisciplinary basis.  Leaders of the program are:

  • Professor Steven Fazzari, Bert A. and Jeanette L. Lynch Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis; Chair of the Department of Sociology; and Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center
  • Professor Brian Rogers, Associate  Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis.
  • Professor Steven S. Smith, Washington University’s Kate M. Gregg Professor of Social Sciences and one of the most distinguished scholars in the study of American and Russian politics. Professor Smith directs the Weidenbaum Center.