Erin Lockwood
  • May 5, 2026

  • Program funding will support the political scientist’s research on the role and accountability of the Federal Reserve in providing economic security

    • -----

Erin Lockwood, UC Irvine political science assistant professor, has been named one of six inaugural Roosevelt Institute Good Life Residents. The six-month program, which includes $3,000 in funding, will support her research on the powers and independence of the Federal Reserve. Specifically, she’s exploring the Fed's expansion into the provision of financial stability, its forays into financial inclusion, and its role in managing Treasury market liquidity.

"In each of these areas, the Fed has taken on responsibilities that, according to some, far exceed their conventional dual mandate as narrowly understood, but which also implicitly acknowledge the active role that central banking has always played in allocating credit and the costs of monetary stability," she says. “As a Good Life Resident, my work will help shape the kinds of questions and topics that characterize political and media debate of the Fed chair confirmation process, Fed independence, and the role of the Federal Reserve more broadly to rebalance power between private actors and the public and to reimagine the role of government in promoting a more equitable, resilient, and green future.”

“I hope to spur reflection on the tensions between the Fed’s mandate as conventionally understood and the forces of credit exclusion and systemic risk that may well be insufficiently governed via open market operations and the discount rate,” she adds. “How can the Federal Reserve be accountable to those disproportionately affected by shifts in monetary policy but generally absent from meaningful roles within the monetary policymaking process: borrowers, those facing exclusion from credit markets, low-wage workers, green investors, and others?”

Lockwood earned her Ph.D. at Northwestern University and joined the UC Irvine faculty in 2017. Her research on global financial markets and the international political economy of inequality has been featured in multiple journals as well as book chapters, and she’s a frequent contributor to the Project Syndicate where she writes on various topics in finance. She's currently working on a book project, under contract with Routledge’s RIPE series in Global Political Economy, that examines the financial market practices through which both the market for over-the-counter derivatives and the authority of private financial actors were constructed.

The Roosevelt Institute is an economic policy think tank comprised of researchers, organizers, policymakers, and practitioners focused on corporate and public power, labor and wages, and the economics of race and gender inequality. Good Life Residents is a new initiative designed to develop emerging leaders and generate people-centered ideas across economic policy priorities. Lockwood is one of three residents focusing on the Federal Reserve; the other half of the 2026 cohort are pursuing research on Social Security financing. Future groups will take on topics in AI and housing.

Lockwood’s virtual residency runs March-August of this year and will conclude with an in-person research showcase.

 

Related News Items

Archive

Connect with us: