The author of this brief asks why welfare, workforce development, and unemployment insurance are operated as separate entities. If the goal of the new welfare law is to end dependency and foster a work ethic, then it needs to be tied more closely to existing policy aimed at developing the workforce. Instead of viewing the new welfare system as welfare policy with a new flexibility, we should see it as an opportunity to create a more comprehensive and coherent employment program to replace outmoded public assistance.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 31A, 1997 PDF (50.50 KB)

Alicia H. Munnell, member of the Council of Economic Advisers, discusses Social Security, the Consumer Price Index, and income inequality in The Levy Report Interview.

Contents: Seventh Annual Conference on Financial Structure: Developments in the Financial System: National and International Perspectives * The Levy Report Interview: Alicia H. Munnell Discusses the Future of Social Security, the Consumer Price Index, and Income Inequality in America * Debates-Debates: European Monetary Union; Trade Sanctions and Human Rights * Seminar: Leonard Nakamura Raises Questions about the CPI * Editorial: On Bridges to the Twenty-first Century: Figuratively and Literally (David Alan Aschauer) * New Working Papers: Disinflationary Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income * Gender Wage Differentials, Affirmative Action, and Employment Growth on the Industry Level * Real Estate and the Capital Gains Debate * No Easy Answers: Comparative Labor Market Problems in the United States versus Europe * Levy Institute News: Reconceiving Liberalism, a New Book by Resident Scholar Oren M. Levin-Waldman * Research on Alternative Plans for Financing Social Security * Distinguished Scholar Hyman P. Minsky Remembered

 

Download Volume 7, No. 2 PDF (375.27 KB)

With health care delivery increasingly shaped by market and budgetary discipline, the provision of health care for all seems an ever-more-distant goal.The high cost of American health care is the inevitable by-product of its method of financing. Walter M. Cadette proposes shifting the tax subsidies to health care from the tax exclusion of employment-based health insurance to an income-scaled tax credit for the individual purchase of basic health insurance. This plan holds out promise of improving the operation of the health insurance market, making the labor market more efficient, reducing overall health care costs, and providing protection for the unemployed.

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 30A, 1997 PDF ()

With the discussion of the balanced budget amendment intensifying as it comes up for a vote again, the February Report highlights analysis of how the amendment might affect the future of the economy, including an editorial by President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and an interview with Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Contents: The Levy Report Interview: Alan S. Blinder Discusses the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Federal Reserve, Tax Reform, and the Role of the Economist in Policy Making * Debates-Debates: The Balanced Budget Amendment * Editorial: Balanced Budget Amendment Is Good Rhetoric, Bad Policy (Dimitri B. Papadimitriou) * New Working Papers: Protracted Frictional Unemployment as a Heavy Cost of Technical Progress * The Utilization of Human Capital in the United States, 1975-1992: Patterns of Work and Earnings among Working-Age Males * Which Immigrant Occupational Skills? Explanations of Jewish Economic Mobility in the United States and New Evidence, 1910-1920 * Literacy among the Jews of Russia in 1897: A Reanalysis of the Census Data * Corporate Governance and Corporate Employment: Is Prosperity Sustainable in the United States? * The New Welfare: How Can It Be Improved?

 

Download Volume 7, No. 1 PDF (380.96 KB)

Scholars have begun to find explanations for the growing earnings inequality in the United States—not in inexorable market forces, foreign competition, or technological change in itself, but in corporate choices regarding pay, skill, and the adoption of new technology. This issue of the Summary reports on the work of several scholars in this area: William Lazonick compares the distribution of organizational learning in the American and Japanese auto industries, Robert Forrant studies the decline of the machine tool industry in the United States, and Philip Moss proposes case studies of firms’ strategies as more productive than econometric analysis.

Contents: New Working Papers: Minimum Wage and Justice? * Earnings Inequality and the Quality of Jobs: The Status of Current Research and Proposals for an Expanded Research Agenda * Second Generations: Past, Present, Future * Organizational Learning and International Competition: The Skill-Base Hypothesis * Skiki vono ko shtuvalo? The Seignorage Loss from Monetary Stabilization in Ukraine * Good Jobs and the Cutting Edge: The US Machine Tool Industry and Sustainable Prosperity * Aggregate Demand, Investment, and the NAIRU * The NAIRU: A Critical Appraisal * Institute News: Immigration Symposium * Debates-Debates * Research Update: Cambridge University Visiting Scholars

Download Volume 6, No. 4 PDF (266.32 KB)

Among the activities summarized in this issue are a series of three papers in which Visiting Scholar David A. Aschauer estimates static and dynamic effects of public capital investment on output and employment growth.

Contents: New Working Papers: Real Estate and the Capital Gains Debate * Do States Optimize? Public Capital and Economic Growth * Output and Employment Effects of Public Capital * Dynamic Output and Employment Effects of Public Capital * Social Security: The Challenge of Financing the Baby Boom’s Retirement * The Second Generation and the Children of the Native Born: Comparisons and Refinements * Gender Wage Differentials, Affirmative Action, and Employment Growth on the Industry Level * No Easy Answers: Comparative Labor Market Problems in the United States versus Europe * The Working Poor: Lousy Jobs or Lazy Workers? * “Multiracials,” Racial Classification, and American Intermarriage—The Public’s Interest * Disinflationary Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income * The Impact of Declining Union Membership on Voter Participation among Democrats * Conferences: Promoting Employment and Economic Growth * Developments in the Financial System: National and International Perspectives * Institute News: New Book by Resident Scholar Oren M. Levin-Waldman

Download Volume 6, No. 3 PDF (140.96 KB)

At an ASSA session, “The Contributions of Hyman Minsky,” scholars from the Levy Institute and elsewhere presented seven papers on the development and lasting influence of the distinguished scholar’s work. Portions of the papers are synopsized in this issue.

Contents: Exploring the Politics of the Minimum Wage * Protracted Frictional Unemployment as a Heavy Cost of Technical Progress * The Utilization of Human Capital in the US, 1975-1992: Patterns of Work and Earnings among Working-Age Males * Which Immigrant Occupational Skills? Explanations of Jewish Economic
Mobility in the United States and New Evidence, 1910-1920 * Literacy among the Jews of Russia in 1887: A Reanalysis of Census Data * Taxes, Saving, and Macroeconomics * The New Welfare: How Can It Be Improved? * What Do Micro Data Reveal about the User Cost Elasticity? New Evidence on the Responsiveness of Business Capital Formation * Seminar: The Working Poor in the Inner City

Download Volume 6, No. 2 PDF (172.99 KB)

Featured in this double issue are reports on a workshop on the future of the welfare state, papers on assimilation of past and present immigrants and on selective migration among immigrants around 1900 by Joel Perlmann, and papers on alternative definitions of the United States’ fiscal deficit by Neil H. Buchanan.

Contents: New Public Policy Brief: Making Work Pay * New Working Papers: The Minimum Wage and the Path toward a High-Wage Economy * Assimilation: The Second Generation and Beyond, Then and Now * Selective Migration as a Basis for Upward Mobility? The Occupations of the Jewish Immigrants to the United States, ca. 1900 * Comparing Alternative Methods of Adjusting US Federal Fiscal Deficits for Cyclical and Price Effects * Which Deficit? Comparing Thirteen Measures of the US Fiscal Deficit on Theoretical and Empirical Grounds * A Critique of Competing Plans for Radical Tax Restructuring * Money, Finance, and National Income Determination: An Integrated Approach * Rethinking Health Care Policy: The Case for Retargeting Tax Subsidies * Debates-Debates:
The Dole Tax Plan * The Economics of Aging * Seminar: Cultural Captivity: Japan’s Financial Dinosaurs Resist Change * Workshop: The Future of the Welfare State * Institute News: Alan S. Blinder Rejoins Board of Advisors

Download Volume 6, No. 1 PDF (311.85 KB)

This issue features the Debates-Debates program on the advisability of implementing tax cuts, Katherine Newman’s findings on the ability of the working poor to find work, Eugene R. Dattel’s view of structural flaws in the Japanese financial sector, and Resident Scholar Neil Buchanan’s critique of several tax proposals and analysis of the relation between taxes and saving.

Contents: Debates-Debates: Tax Cuts: Reducing the Burden or Robin Hood for the Rich? * Lecture Series: Rachel Friedberg: Russian Jews, Palestinians . . . and Thais: Immigrants, "Guest Workers," and the Undocumented in Israel * Eugene R. Dattel: Cultural Captivity: Japan’s Financial Dinosaurs Resist Change * Katherine Newman: The Working Poor in the Inner City * New Working Papers: Selective Migration as a Basis for Upward Mobility? The Occupations of the Jewish Immigrants to the United States, ca. 1900 * A Critique of Competing Plans for Radical Tax Restructuring * The Politics of the Minimum Wage * Taxes, Saving, and Macroeconomics

 

Download Volume 6, No. 6 PDF (368.87 KB)

In this issue: a summary of a Debates-Debates program on the economics of aging, with Chairman S. Jay Levy; an examination of the "Wisconsin plan" for welfare reform; an analysis of the source of the collapse of wages for low-skill workers; and an interview with New York State Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross.

Contents: Debates-Debates: Chairman S Jay Levy Participates in PBS Debate on the Economics of Aging * The Levy Report Interview: Betsy McCaughey Ross Discusses Health Care Reform, Education, and Welfare * The Cost of Meaningful Welfare Reform Policy Analysis * New Public Policy Briefs: Making Work Pay: Wage Insurance for the Working Poor * Institutional Failure and the American Worker * New Working Paper: Rethinking Health Care Policy: The Case for Retargeting Tax Subsidies * Levy Institute News: In Memoriam: Hyman P. Minsky, Distinguished Scholar * Alan S. Blinder Rejoins the Board of Advisors * New Scholars and Projects * Levin-Waldman Discusses Unemployment Insurance Reform on CNN

 

Download Volume 6, No. 5 PDF (461.43 KB)

Is the marketplace a social enemy? Is there a role for government intervention? Is downsizing good or bad? These were among the questions considered in a recent Firing Line debate taped at the Levy Institute. Also in this issue: Senator Bill Bradley talks about economic policy, race, aging, and the public’s disenchantment with government.

Contents: Firing Line * Debates-Debates * Forum: Immigration and Ethnicity * The Levy Report Interview: Senator Bill Bradley Discusses Domestic and International Economic Policy, Race, Aging, and Public Disenchantment with Government * Lecture Series: Susan G. Regan: Ethical Problems in Managing Health Care: Onions in the Petunia Patch * New Working Papers: Assimilation: The Second Generation and Beyond, Then and Now * Money, Finance, and National Income Determination: An Integrated Approach * The Minimum Wage and the Path Toward a High-Wage Economy * Comparing Alternative Methods of Adjusting US Federal Fiscal Deficits for Cyclical and Price Effects

 

Download Volume 6, No. 4 PDF (326.00 KB)

Speaking at the Levy Institute’s sixth annual conference on the financial structure, summarized in this issue, Federal Reserve Governor Janet L. Yellen expresses concern that financial innovation has complicated regulating traditional measures of financial soundness.

Contents: Annual Conference on Employment * Sixth Annual Conference on the Financial Structure * Forums: Immigration and Ethnicity * The Levy Report Interview: J. Kenneth Blackwell Discusses Derivatives, Tax Reform and Affirmative Action * New Working Papers: Uncertainty and the Institutional Structure of Capitalist Economies * Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism * Lecture Series: Alan Krueger: The Legacy of Separate and Unequal Schooling * Robert Frank: Economic Policy for a Winner-Take-All Society * Richard J. Murnane: The New Basic Skills

 

Download Volume 6, No. 3 PDF (463.70 KB)

Highlights of this issue are a synopsis of the Levy Institute symposium on the globalization of financial markets, a summary of Clair Brown’s lecture on standard of living indexes for American families, and an interview with Edward V. Regan, chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation.

Contents: Lecture Series: Clair Brown: American Standards of Living * The Levy Report Interview: Edward V. Regan Discusses Fiscal Responsibility, General Economic Conditions, and Politics * Symposium: Global Capital Flows in Economic Development * New Working Papers: Technology and the Demand for Skills * The Consumer Price Index as a Measure of Inflation and Target of Monetary Policy * Understanding the 1994 Election: Still No Realignment * Unemployment, Inflation, and the Job Structure * New Public Policy Brief: Reforming Unemployment Insurance: Toward Greater Employment * Levy Institute News: New Member of the Board of Advisors * Levy Institute Participants in National Conferences * Forum on Immigration and Ethnicity * The Levy Institute on the World Wide Web

 

Download Volume 6, No. 2 PDF (534.52 KB)

In this issue: a series of working papers growing out of the symposium “Global Capital Flows in Economic Development,” sponsored by the Levy Institute and UNCTAD; a summary of the annual conference on employment; and a summary of the sixth annual conference on reconstituting the financial structure.

Contents: Conferences: The Employment Act of 1946: 50 Years Later * Recent Developments in the Financial Structure * Forums: Immigration and Ethnicity * Seminars: The Legacy of Separate and Unequal Schooling * Economic Policy for a Winner-Take-All Society * The New Basic Skills * Symposium: Global Capital Flows in Economic Development * New Working Papers: Uncertainty and the Institutional Structure of Capitalist Economies * The Consumer Price Index as a Measure of Inflation and Target of Monetary Policy * Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism * A New Facility for the IMF? * Capital Inflows and Macroeconomic Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa * The Anatomy of the Bond Market Turbulence of 1994 * Intervention Versus Regulation: The Role of the IMF in Crisis Prevention and Management * Globalization, Capital Flows, and International Regulation * Capital Account Regulations and Macroeconomic Policy: Two Latin
American Experiences * Managing Foreign Capital Flows: The Experiences of Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia * Understanding the 1994 Election: Still No Realignment

Download Volume 5, No. 3 PDF (179.63 KB)

New Working Papers in the research program on employment and labor market structure address nonparticipation in welfare programs by the working poor, trends in workplace skill requirements, and a structural approach to wage determination. A series of papers focusing on federal buget policy includes an analysis of biennial budgeting.

Contents: New Working Papers: The Working Poor and Welfare Recipiency * Technology and the Demand for Skills * Unemployment, Inflation, and the Job Structure * Biennial Budgeting for the Federal Government: Lessons from the States * Reforming Unemployment Insurance: Toward Greater Employment *Seminars: How Credible Are Estimates of the Economic Returns to Schooling? * American Standards of Living * R&D and Innovation * New Public Policy Brief: Revisiting Bretton Woods * Institute News: Two New Members of the Board of Advisers * New Book

Download Volume 5, No. 2 PDF (165.09 KB)