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1681 publications found
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Strategic Analysis
March 01, 2003
The US Economy
AbstractRight through the boom years prior to 2001, the American economy faced a strategic predicament in that the main engine of growth (credit-financed private spending) was unsustainable, from which it followed that the whole stance of the government’s fiscal policy would have to be radically changed if the New Economy were not to become stagnant. […]
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Working Paper No. 373
February 01, 2003
Does Trade Promote Gender Wage Equity?
AbstractThis study explores the impact of competition from international trade on the gender wage gap in Taiwan and South Korea between 1980 and 1999. The dynamic implications of Becker’s 1959 theory of discrimination lead one to expect that increased competition from international trade reduces the incentive for employers to discriminate against women. This effect should […]
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Policy Notes No. 2
February 01, 2003
Reforming the Euro’s Institutional Framework
AbstractThe SGP has been the focus of growing controversy within the eurozone. The ECB continues to argue that reforming the SGP by relaxing its rules would damage the credibility of the euro. The opposite, however, may be closer to reality. Relaxing the rules according to the measures already taken by the European Commission has been […]
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Working Paper No. 372
February 01, 2003
The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being
AbstractOur measure of economic well-being is motivated by the conviction that there is substantial room for improving existing official measures of the level and distribution of household economic well-being. The definition of the scope of our measure is guided by an extended concept of income that fundamentally reflects the resources that a household can command […]
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Working Paper No. 371
February 01, 2003
Credibility of Monetary Policy in Four Accession Countries
AbstractThe aim of this study is to estimate the credibility of monetary policy in four accession countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic), based on the Markov regime-switching (MRS) framework. We utilize the theoretical proposition that in the conduct of monetary policy, there is uncertainty in terms of the type of central […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 71
January 04, 2003
Can Monetary Policy Affect the Real Economy?
AbstractCentral bankers and many economists have abandoned “activist” policies and monetarism and adopted in their place a new view of the role of monetary policy. This view draws on many of the tenets of more traditional theories of money—monetarism’s emphasis on inflation control and skepticism about the use of easy-money policies to permanently increase output, […]
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Policy Notes No. 1
January 01, 2003
The Big Fix
AbstractKeynesian economics is back. As John Maynard Keynes stressed, total spending matters—and not who does it or for what purpose. Tax cuts and deficit spending are, therefore, on the agenda; low interest rates seem here to stay. Stimulus is the watchword of the day. It remains only to fill in the details, or so it […]
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Working Paper No. 370
January 01, 2003
Testing for Financial Contagion between Developed and Emerging Markets during the 1997 East Asian Crisis
AbstractThis paper examines whether, during the 1997 East Asian crisis, there was any contagion from the four largest economies in the region (Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia) to a number of developed countries (Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France). Following Forbes and Rigobon (2002) and Rigobon (2003), we test for contagion […]
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Working Paper No. 369
January 01, 2003
On the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy
AbstractWithin the framework of macroeconomic policy and theory over the past 20 years or so, a major shift has occurred regarding the relative importance given of monetary policy versus fiscal policy. The former has gained considerably in stature, while the latter is rarely mentioned. Further, monetary policy no longer focuses on attempts to control some […]
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Working Paper No. 368
January 01, 2003
How Far Can US Equity Prices Fall under Asset and Debt Deflation
AbstractEquity prices have been falling since March 2000. How far can they fall before they reach bottom? The current bear market differs from the mid-1970s plunge in equity prices in terms of the causes and, consequently, the factors that should be monitored to test its progress. In the 1970s, the bear market was caused by […]
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Working Paper No. 367
December 01, 2002
The Persistence of Hardship over the Life Course
AbstractThis paper focuses on the persistence of hardship from middle age to old age. Proposed status maintenance models suggest that stratification of economic status occurs over the life course (for example, little mobility is seen within the income distribution). Some studies have found evidence to support this, but none have looked at broader measures of […]
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Working Paper No. 366
December 01, 2002
Why the Tobin Tax Can Be Stabilizing
AbstractThis paper clarifies why a transaction tax of the type proposed by James Tobin can have a stabilizing influence in financial markets. It argues that such a tax is potentially stabilizing, not because it reduces the “excessive” volume of transactions, but because it can slow the speed with which market traders react to price changes. […]
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Working Paper No. 365
December 01, 2002
Is There an American Way of Aging?
AbstractThis study examines income dynamics during individuals’ first 12 years of retirement. Two questions are asked: (1) Are the economic experiences of the elderly in the United States unique, or are they similar to those of the elderly in Germany? and (2) What is the role of Social Security in shaping these economic experiences? The […]
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Working Paper No. 364
December 01, 2002
“New Consensus,” New Keynesianism, and the Economics of the “Third Way”
AbstractIn this paper we seek first to set out the economic analysis that underpins the ideas of what has been termed the “third way.” The explicit mention of the “third way” is much diminished since the early days of the Blair government in the UK and the Schroeder government in Germany. We argue that the […]
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Working Paper No. 363
December 01, 2002
Does the Stock of Money Have Any Causal Significance?
AbstractRecent developments in macroeconomics, and in economic policy in general, have produced a “new consensus” economy-wide model. In this model, the stock of money does not play any causal role, but operates as a mere residual in the economic process. The absence of the stock of money in many current debates over monetary policy has […]
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Book Series
November 21, 2002
The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals
AbstractThe change in the way the federal government asked for information about race in the 2000 Census marked an important turning point in the way Americans measure race. By allowing respondents to choose more than one racial category for the first time, the Census Bureau challenged strongly held beliefs about the nature and definition of […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 70
November 03, 2002
Physician Incentives In Managed Care Organizations
AbstractThis brief considers the interaction between physician incentive systems and product market competition in the delivery of medical services via managed care organizations. At the center of the analysis is the process by which health maintenance organizations (HMOs) assemble physician networks and the role these networks play in the competition for customers. The authors find […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 69
November 02, 2002
Should Banks Be “Narrowed”?
AbstractIn this brief, Biagio Bossone of the International Monetary Fund evaluates narrow banking from the perspective of modern theories of financial intermediation. These theories portray the status quo banking system as a solution to otherwise intractable problems of imperfect information, risk, and even moral hazard. The system’s characteristic coupling of liquid liabilities with illiquid assets—seen […]
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Book Series
November 01, 2002
The Mind of Wall Street
AbstractAs stock prices and investor confidence have collapsed in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and the dot-com crash, people want to know how this happened and how to make sense of the uncertain times to come. Into the breach comes one of Wall Street’s legendary investors, Leon Levy, to explain why the market so often […]
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Working Paper No. 362
November 01, 2002
Financial Policies and the Aggregate Productivity of the Capital Stock
AbstractWe collect data on a number of financial restraints, including restrictions on interest rates and capital flows and reserve and liquidity requirements, and capital adequacy requirements from central banks of 14 countries. We estimate the effects of these policies on the aggregate productivity of the capital stock, controlling for the effects of inputs and financial […]
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Working Paper No. 361
November 01, 2002
Credibility of EMS Interest Rate Policies
AbstractThe primary objective of this paper is to use the Markov regime-switching modeling framework to study the credibility of monetary policy in five member countries of the European Monetary System (EMS) during the period 1979 to 1998. The five countries examined for this purpose are Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. The major innovation […]
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Strategic Analysis
November 01, 2002
Is Personal Debt Sustainable?
AbstractThe long economic expansion was fueled by an unprecedented rise in private expenditure relative to income, financed by a growing flow of net credit to the private. On the surface, it seemed that the growing burden of the household sector’s debt was counterbalanced by a spectacular rise in the relative value of its financial assets, […]
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Working Paper No. 356
October 01, 2002
Asset Poverty in the United States, 1984–1999
AbstractUsing PSID data for the years 1984 to 1999, we estimate the level and severity of asset poverty. Our results indicate that the share of asset-poor households remained almost the same and the severity of poverty increased during this period, despite the growth in the economy and the financial markets. The race, age, education, and […]
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Working Paper No. 355
October 01, 2002
Can Monetary Policy Affect the Real Economy?
AbstractCurrent monetary policy involves the manipulation of the central bank interest rate (the repo rate), with the specific objective of achieving the goal(s) of monetary policy. The latter is normally the inflation rate, although in a number of instances this may include the level of economic activity (the monetary policy of the United States’ Federal […]
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