Publications
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1681 publications found
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Working Paper No. 179
December 01, 1996
Protracted Frictional Unemployment As a Heavy Cost of Technical Progress
AbstractIn this working paper, Research Associates William Baumol and Edward N. Wolff, both of New York University, explore the effects of the rate of technological progress on unemployment. They hypothesize that the sunk costs associated with a worker’s training will depend on his or her previous training and education and the current pace of technological […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 28
November 10, 1996
Making Work Pay
AbstractBarry Bluestone of the University of Massachusetts and Teresa Ghilarducci of the University of Notre Dame show that although the poverty rate for elderly Americans has declined over the past three decades, the total number of persons in poverty has grown and the number of poor nonelderly adults in poverty has nearly doubled since 1970. […]
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Working Paper No. 178
November 01, 1996
The Collapse of Low-skill Wages
AbstractNo recent development in the American labor market has been more dramatic and troubling than the collapse in the buying power of workers’ paychecks. This drop in the value of wages coincided with a sharp increase in earnings inequality. Perhaps the most highly publicized characteristic of recent earnings trends has been the widening gap between […]
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Working Paper No. 177
November 01, 1996
Taxes, Saving, and Macroeconomics
AbstractResident Scholar Neil H. Buchanan offers an analysis of the macroeconomic effects of current proposals to reform the tax system (e.g., a flat tax or a national sales tax), focusing on the aspects of the proposals aimed at promoting saving. Buchanan notes that a drawback in the way in which saving is officially defined is […]
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Working Paper No. 176
November 01, 1996
Exploring the Politics of the Minimum Wage
AbstractResident Scholar Oren M. Levin-Waldman argues that, although the minimum wage is a serious economic issue, enacting an increase in the minimum wage is a political one. He finds that because the empirical results of an increase in the wage floor are “inconclusive,
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Working Paper No. 175
November 01, 1996
What Do Micro Data Reveal about the User Cost Elasticity?
AbstractThe responsiveness of business investment to user costs (interest rates, taxes, and depreciation rates) is important in determining the effect of fiscal policy and aggregate stabilization policy on the economy and for assessing the transmission mechanism of monetary policy to real economic variables. Although this responsiveness is central to the theoretical underpinnings of most economic […]
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Working Paper No. 174
November 01, 1996
The Second Generation and the Children of the Native-Born
AbstractRecent discussion and some preliminary research have given a negative prognosis for children of immigrants. Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann and Roger Waldinger, professor of sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles, examine 1990 Census Public Use Samples (PUMS) to determine if conditions for the children of immigrants are as poor as indicated. They […]
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Working Paper No. 173
October 01, 1996
A Critique of Competing Plans for Radical Tax Restructuring
AbstractAt almost any time there exists a plan to alter the structure of taxation, and their number seems to increase during election years. Resident Scholar Neil Buchanan analyzes several recent tax proposals in terms of their effects on the budget deficit, on different groups of taxpayers, and on taxpaying households as a whole. Buchanan groups […]
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Working Paper No. 172
October 01, 1996
Selective Migration As a Basis for Upward Mobility?
AbstractThe upward mobility of Jews who migrated to the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century has been explained as a function of premigrational cultural characteristics (such as a tradition of learning) or premigrational structural attributes (skills in certain industries and occupations that could be applied in the new country). In this working […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 27
September 09, 1996
Targeting Inflation
AbstractThe targets for monetary policy adopted by the Fed in recent years have not proven to be closely correlated with inflation, leading some theorists and policymakers to advocate the use of a price index, such as the consumer price index (CPI), as both the target and the goal of monetary policy. The authors of this […]
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Book Series
September 01, 1996
Stability in the Financial System
AbstractThe S&L crisis of the 1990s led many analysts to review the events that culminated in the banking crisis of the 1930s and the subsequent passage of the Emergency Banking Act, the Banking Act of 1933, the Banking Act of 1935, and other related legislation. The restructuring of the financial system accomplished by this legislation […]
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Working Paper No. 171
July 21, 1996
Rethinking Health Care Policy—The Case for Retargeting Tax Subsidies
AbstractMore than 40 million Americans currently have no access to health care for reasons of income. Moreover, plans enacted or discussed at the state level to cover the uninsured face problems of cost and quality of service as well as the question of who pays for such programs. To solve the problem of access, Senior […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 26
July 08, 1996
Making Unemployment Insurance Work
AbstractWhat is needed to solve the problem of growing long-term unemployment is a two-tiered system that distinguishes between short-term and long-term unemployment. The system should continue to function as an insurance program for 26 weeks to allow workers to search for employment that represents the best match with their experience, skills, and credentials. The first […]
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Working Paper No. 170
June 11, 1996
Which Deficit?
AbstractFor some time economists have acknowledged that reported budgetary data do not necessarily reflect actual economic activity. Agreement has not been reached, however, on how budget figures should be adjusted to reflect such activity accurately. In this working paper, Resident Scholar Neil H. Buchanan examines 13 alternative measures of the budget deficit in order to […]
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Working Paper No. 169
June 10, 1996
Comparing Alternative Methods of Adjusting US Federal Fiscal Deficits for Cyclical and Price Effects
AbstractIn this working paper, Resident Scholar Neil H. Buchanan statistically tests six alternative definitions of the federal budget deficit to determine if these definitions improve the results of econometric studies that use the deficit as an exogenous variable. His objectives are (1) to evaluate Robert Eisner’s conclusion that a price-adjusted deficit definition improves econometric results […]
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Working Paper No. 168
June 09, 1996
Assimilation
AbstractAssimilation of today’s immigrants is one topic in the current debate on immigration. Some observers assert that recent immigrants are unable to assimilate into American society as easily as past immigrants were able to. Others counter that the pressures against assimilation today are not strong. In this working paper, Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann and Research […]
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Working Paper No. 167
June 08, 1996
Money, Finance, and National Income Determination
AbstractTraditional economic models have largely failed to account adequately for the roles of money and finance in economic operations. For example, traditional models assume an exogenously determined, fixed money stock and ignore the outcomes of spending changes that result from changes in bank loans. As such, traditional models take place outside of historical time and […]
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Working Paper No. 166
June 01, 1996
The Minimum Wage and the Path towards a High Wage Economy
AbstractAccording to Resident Scholar Oren M. Levin-Waldman, the arguments both in favor of raising the minimum wage (to restore its real spending power to levels of previous years, to increase the incentive to work, and, as a matter of fairness, to allow those who work to earn incomes above the poverty line) and against raising […]
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Working Paper
June 01, 1996
The Minimum Wage and the Path Toward a High Wage Economy
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Book Series
May 01, 1996
Money in Motion
AbstractIn its analysis of money, contemporary economics has focused on money’s function as a store of value, neglecting its role as a medium of circulation. When circulation is put center stage, it becomes apparent that the supply of money does indeed adapt to the needs of trade, and it does so in myriad ways that […]
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Working Paper No. 165
May 01, 1996
Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism
AbstractIn this working paper, Distinguished Scholar Hyman P. Minsky and Visiting Scholar Charles Whalen search for reasons to account for the split in post-World War II economic performance—that is, the difference in performance between the 1946–66 period and the 1966–96 period. The authors discuss a number of economic problems that have arisen during the past […]
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Working Paper No. 164
May 01, 1996
The Consumer Price Index As a Measure of Inflation
AbstractA consensus is emerging among economists and policymakers that the consumer price index (CPI) as a measure of cost of living has an upward bias. As a result, downward revisions of cost-of- living adjustments are frequently recommended, especially in discussions about deficit reduction. Such revisions would lower the rate of increase of some entitlements and […]
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Working Paper No. 163
May 01, 1996
Managing Foreign Capital Flows
AbstractBetween 1990 and 1994, developing countries in Asia posted $261 billion in net capital inflows, an amount equivalent to about half the total inflows to all developing countries. Although foreign direct investment accounts for the largest portion of net inflows to Asia, the share of portfolio investment has been steadily rising, from an average of […]
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Working Paper No. 162
May 01, 1996
Capital Account Regulations and Macroeconomic Policy
AbstractA resurgence of perceived opportunities by international investors has resulted in a new policy debate regarding the regulation of capital flows into certain South American countries. The integrationist camp defends totally open markets on the grounds that they result in a more efficient financial sector, greater asset diversification, and other benefits; those in the isolationist […]
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