Department Chair

About

Biography

Daniele Tavani is Professor and Chair in the Department of Economics at Colorado State University. His research examines the interactions between wealth inequality, technological change, taxation, and long-run macroeconomic performance. He studies how automation, technological change, and capital accumulation shape economic growth, income and wealth distribution, and labor market outcomes.

His work contributes to the fields of macroeconomics, political economy, growth theory, and stratification economics. Current research focuses on the economic consequences of AI and automation, the design and effects of wealth taxation, racial and wealth inequality, and the dynamics of demand, productivity, and structural change.

His research has appeared in leading journals in economics and political economy and has been supported by collaborations with scholars in the United States and internationally. He is a a coauthor of Growth and Distribution, Second Edition (Harvard University Press, 2019).

Research Interests

  • Wealth inequality and wealth taxation
  • Artificial intelligence, automation, and economic growth
  • Macroeconomic dynamics and technological change
  • Political economy and income distribution
  • Stratification economics and racial inequality
  • Secular stagnation and effective demand
  • Growth, productivity, and structural change

Publications

Books

Growth and Distribution, Second Edition, with Duncan K. Foley and Thomas R. Michl. Harvard University Press, 2019.

Refereed Journal Articles

  1. Aggregate Demand Externalities and Capacity Utilization: a Response to Gahn (2023). Review of Keynesian Economics, Summer 2026.
  2. The End of Laissez-Faire in Classical-Marxian Models of Growth and Distribution, with Luke Petach. Review of Political Economy, published online February 2026.
  3. Institutional Change, Effective Demand and Inequality: a Structuralist Model of Secular Stagnation, with Vinicius Cicero. Metroeconomica, OnlineFirst (Open Access), May 2025.
  4. Labor Market Institutions, Endogenous Technical Change and Inequality: Demand-Side Secular Stagnation, with Luca Zamparelli. Review of Political Economy, Published online February 2025.
  5. Group Conflict, Racial Inequality, and Stratification, with Brendan Brundage. Review of Black Political Economy, Online First, August 2024.
  6. Secular Stagnation: a Classical-Marxian View, with Manuel David Cruz. Review of Keynesian Economics vol. 11 (4), 554-584, October 2023.
  7. Classical and Keynesian Models of inequality and Stagnation, with Codrina Rada, Rudiger von Arnim, and Luca Zamparelli. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 211, pp. 442-461, July 2023.
  8. Pandemics and Economic Activity: a Framework for Policy Analysis, with Peter Flaschel, Giorgos Galanis, and Roberto Veneziani. Review of Behavioral Economics, 9: 1-44, 2022.
  9. The Distributive Cycle: Evidence and Current Debates, with Jose Barrales, Ivan Mendieta-Munoz, Codrina Rada, and Rudiger von Arnim. Journal of Economic Surveys, 36(2): 468-503, 2022.
  10. Aggregate Demand Externalities, Income Distribution, and Wealth Inequality, with Luke Petach. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 60: 433-446, 2022.
  11. Path Dependence and Stagnation in a Classical Growth Model, with Thomas R. Michl. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(1): 195-281, 2022.
  12. Path Dependence, the Covid-19 Crisis, and Inequality in the United States. European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention 18(2): 198-206, 2021.
  13. Differential Rates of Return and Racial Wealth Inequality, with Luke Petach. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy 4(3): 115-165, 2021.
  14. Labor-augmenting Technical Change and the Wage Share: New Microeconomic Foundations, with Luca Zamparelli. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 56: 27-34, 2021.
  15. Consumption Externalities and Growth: Theory and Evidence for the United States, with Luke Petach. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 183: 976-997, 2021.
  16. Firm Beliefs and Long-Run Demand Effects in a Labor-Constrained Model of Growth and Distribution, with Luke Petach. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 31(2): 353-377, 2020.
  17. Income Shares, Secular Stagnation, and the Long-run Distribution of Wealth, with Luke Petach. Metroeconomica 71 (1): 235-255, 2020.
  18. Climate Change, Innovation, and Growth: the Contributions of William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, with Anders Fremstad and Luke Petach. Review of Political Economy 31 (3): 336-355, 2019.
  19. No one is Alone: Strategic Complementarities, Capacity Utilization, Growth, and Distribution, with Luke Petach, 2019. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 50: 203-215, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2019.07.001
  20. Marx-Biased Technical Change and Income Distribution: a Panel Data Analysis, with Travis Campbell, 2019. Metroeconomica, https://doi-org/10.1111/meca.12247.
  21. Growth, Income Distribution, and the `Entrepreneurial State', with Luca Zamparelli.  Journal of Evolutionary Economics (2018), Online first.
  22. Endogenous Technical Change in Alternative Theories of Growth and Income Distribution, with Luca Zamparelli. Journal of Economic Surveys Vol. 31 No. 5: 1272-1303, 2017.
  23. Government Spending Composition, Aggregate Demand, Growth, and Distribution, with Luca Zamparelli. Review of Keynesian Economics, Vol. 5 No. 2: 239-258, 2017.
  24. Integrating Engineering Outputs from Natural Disaster Models into a Dynamic Spatial Computable General Equilibrium Model of Centerville, with Harvey Cutler, Martin Shields, and Sammy Zahran. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Vol. 1 No. 3-4: 169-187, 2016.
  25. A Tale of Two Ginis in the US, 1921-2012, with Markus Schneider. International Review of Applied Economics, Vol. 30 No. 6: 677-692, 2016.
  26. Public Capital, Redistribution and Growth in a Two-class Economy, with Luca Zamparelli. Metroeconomica Vol. 67 No. 2: 458-476, 2016.
  27. Endogenous Technical Change, Employment and Distribution in the Goodwin Model of the Growth Cycle, with Luca Zamparelli.  Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics, Vol. 19 No. 2: 209–226, 2015.
  28. Credit-Driven Investment, Heterogeneous Labour Markets and Macroeconomic Dynamics, with Matthieu Charpe, Peter Flaschel, Hans–Martin Krolzig, Christian Proano, and Willi Semmler. Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Vol. 10 No. 1: 163-181, 2015.
  29. Capitalists, Workers, and Managers: Wage Inequality and Effective Demand, with Ramaa Vasudevan. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Vol. 30: 120–131, 2014.
  30. Redistribution in a Neo-Kaleckian Two-Country Model, with Rudiger von Arnim and Laura Carvalho. Metroeconomica, Vol. 65 No. 3: 430-459, 2014.
  31. Daily Variation in Natural Disaster Casualties: Information Flows, Safety, and Opportunity Costs in Tornado Versus Hurricane Strikes, with Sammy Zahran and Stephan Weiler, Risk Analysis, Vol. 33 No. 7: 1265-1280, 2013.
  32. Bargaining over Productivity and Wages when Technical Change is Induced: Implications for Growth, Distribution, and Employment, Journal of Economics, Vol. 109 No. 3: 207-244, 2013.
  33. Wage Bargaining and Induced Technical Progress in a Linear Economy: Model and Application to the US (1963-2003), Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Vol. 23 No. 2: 117-126, 2012.
  34. Embedding Care and Unpaid Work in Macroeconomic Modeling: a Structuralist Approach, with Elissa Braunstein and Irene van Staveren. Feminist Economics, Vol. 17 No. 4, 2011.
  35. Estimated Non-linearities and Multiple Equilibria in a Model of Distributive-Demand Cycles, with Peter Flaschel and Lance Taylor. International Review of Applied Economics, Vol. 25 No. 5, 2011.

Book Chapters

  • The Classical Model of Growth and Distribution. Chapter 1 in Setterfield, M., ed., 2026: Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, Second Edition, Taylor and Francis
  • A Structuralist Model of the Wage-Price Spiral with Non-Linear Demand Pressure Terms, with Peter Flaschel and Lance Taylor. Chapter 4 in Flaschel, P., and Luchtenberg, S. 2012: Roads to Social Capitalism, Edward Eldgar.
  • The Distributive Cycle with a Non-Linear Wage-Phillips Curve. In Chiarella, C., Flaschel, P., and Semmler, W. (2011): Reconstructing Keynesian Macroeconomics - Part I: Partial Perspectives. Routledge. 

Reprints

  • Daily Variation in Natural Disaster Casualties: Information Flows, Safety, and Opportunity Costs in Tornado Versus Hurricane Strikes, with Sammy Zahran and Stephan Weiler. In Preparing for, Responding to, and Recovering from Hurricane Flooding Disasters, Risk Analysis Virtual Special Issue, September 2018. 
  • Endogenous Technical Change in Alternative Theories of Growth and Income Distribution, with Luca Zamparelli. Chapter 6 in In Veneziani, R., and Zamparelli, L., eds. (2018): Analytical Political Economy, Wiley.

Working Papers

Non-refereed Journal Articles

  • Le Teorie Economiche Alternative e la Crisi. Critica Marxista No. 3-4, 2011: 51-55 (In Italian).

Popular Writings

Courses

  • ECON 704- Macroeconomic Analysis II

    Second-year graduate course in macro theory, with a focus on endogenous growth, income distribution and macroeconomics, institutions and economic performance, and modern unemployment theories, treated from a mathematically rigorous standpoint. Strong emphasis on welfare analysis and policy considerations.

  • ECON 705 – Heterodox Approaches to Economics

    Second-year grad course focusing on contemporary micro and macro topics in political economy, with an analytical focus. Micro topics include: institutions, evolutionary games, coordination failures, and rationing in labor and credit markets. Macro topics include: growth and distribution in Classical and post-Keynesian frameworks, endogenous technical change, and the distribution of wealth.

  • ECON792A – Theory Seminar – Macro & Distribution

    Advanced PhD Seminar class focusing on the interaction between macroeconomic variables, income and wealth distribution. Topics include technical change, aggregate demand, and the long-run distribution of wealth.

  • ECON 404 – Macroeconomic Policy

    Covers advanced, contemporary topics in macroeconomic policy with a focus on modeling techniques and data handling. The main goal of the course is to write a research paper about a policymaking event.

  • ECON606 – Microeconomic Analysis I

    First year graduate course in Microeconomic Theory. Covers consumption theory, production theory, expected utility, general equilibrium, and elements of welfare economics.