Publications

1681 publications found

• Working Paper No. 329 May 01, 2001

  Reporting of Two or More Races in the 1999 American Community Survey

  Arthur R. Cresce, Robert DeYoung, Ann Morning, and Leah M. Taguba
  Abstract

  This study presents data on race, collected at selected sites throughout the country for the 1999 American Community Survey (ACS). In particular, the distribution of the population by race and Hispanic or Latino origin is examined, as are the reporting of multiple races, number of races, and major race combinations and the extent to which […]

  Download Working Paper No. 329 PDF (159.08 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 4 April 01, 2001

  Put Your Chips on 35

  James K. Galbraith
  Abstract

  According to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, we live in a time “profoundly different from the typical postwar business cycle.” Our experiences have “defied conventional wisdom” and mark ”veritable shifts in the tectonic plates of technology.” Evidently, the law of supply and demand has been repealed. This is the theme of “Put your chips on […]

  Download Policy Note 2001/4 PDF (86.81 KB)
• Working Paper No. 327 March 01, 2001

  Part-year Operation in 19th Century American Manufacturing

  Jeremy Atack, Fred Bateman, and Robert A. Margo
  Abstract

  Using unpublished data contained in samples from the manuscripts of the 1870 and 1880 censuses of manufactures—the earliest comprehensive estimates available—this study examines the extent and correlates of part-year manufacturing during the late 19th century. While the typical manufacturing plant operated full-time, part-year operation was not uncommon; its likelihood of this varied across industries and […]

  Download Working Paper No. 327 PDF (67.75 KB)
• Working Paper No. 326 March 01, 2001

  Making EMU Work

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This paper investigates the lessons learned from Europe’s convergence process of the 1990s. The paper challenges the conventional focus on labour market institutions and “structural rigidities” as the root cause of Europe’s poor employment record. Instead, it is argued that macroeconomic demand management, particularly monetary policy, played the key role. Concentrating on Germany, the analysis […]

  Download Working Paper No. 326 PDF (533.87 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 63 March 01, 2001

  The Future of the Euro

  Philip Arestis, Kevin McCauley, and Malcolm Sawyer
  Abstract

  This brief provides a detailed description of the Stability and Growth Pact, an agreement entered into by the member states of the European Union that has far-reaching implications for the long-run value of the euro, and therefore, on the real economy in terms of output growth and employment. Yet despite the fact that the pact […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 63, 2001 PDF (142.45 KB)
• Working Paper No. 325 March 01, 2001

  Endogenous Money in a Coherent Stock-flow Framework

  Marc Lavoie
  Abstract

  A method advocated by Wynne Godley to model monetary macroeconomics, is presented. The method, based on a transactions matrix, essentially makes sure that every flow goes somewhere and comes from somewhere, so that there are no black holes. The method is put to use for several purposes: to illustrate the monetary circuit of credit money; […]

  Download Working Paper No. 325 PDF (71.26 KB)
• Working Paper No. 324 March 01, 2001

  The Causes of Euro Instability

  Philip Arestis, Andrew Brown, Iris Biefang-Frisanch Mariscal, and Malcolm Sawyer
  Abstract

  This paper examines the causes of the general decline in the value of the euro. First, it assesses the various explanations proffered in existing literature, and then it offers a more satisfactory one. The argument prevalent in the literature that the decline in value of the euro is due to “US strength” rather than to […]

  Download Working Paper No. 324 PDF (1.07 MB)
• Working Paper No. 323 March 01, 2001

  Easy Money through the Back Door

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This paper assesses the performance of the European Central Bank (ECB) over the first two years of Europe’s new policy regime. The verdict is that the ECB was not actually in charge, as the markets took over and imposed easy money on the euro zone. It is argued that the causes for the ECB’s loss […]

  Download Working Paper No. 323 PDF (873.27 KB)
• Working Paper No. 322 March 01, 2001

  Will the Euro Bring Economic Crisis to Europe?

  Philip Arestis, and Malcolm Sawyer
  Abstract

  It has been argued that the eurozone will face considerable economic difficulties. These will take a number of forms, two of which could qualify as “crises.” First, the euro was launched at a time when unemployment levels were high (10 percent of the workforce) and disparities in the experience of unemployment and standards of living […]

  Download Working Paper No. 322 PDF (65.54 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 3 March 01, 2001

  Financing Health Care

  Walter M. Cadette
  Abstract

  The problem is that the payers of health care—government and employers alike—are in open revolt against costs they never anticipated would become so high. Payers succeeded for a time in limiting increases to rises in the general price level. But it is one thing to remedy the most glaring inefficiencies in the system—to pick, as […]

  Download Policy Note 2001/3 PDF (74.39 KB)
• Policy Notes No. 2 February 01, 2001

  Fiscal Policy for the Coming Recession

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Growing government surpluses, a ballooning trade deficit, and the resulting growth in private sector debt have placed the United States’ economy in a precarious position. Papadimitriou and Wray agree with President Bush that fiscal stimulus is necessary to reinvigorate the economy; in the current economic environment, monetary policy will not work. However, a tax cut […]

  Download Policy Note 2001/2 PDF (78.55 KB)
• Book Series February 01, 2001

  Corporate Governance and Sustainable Prosperity

  William H. Lazonick, and Mary O’Sullivan
  Abstract

  How can we explain the persistent worsening of the income distribution in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s? What are the prospects for the reemergence of sustainable prosperity in the American economy over the next generation? In addressing these issues, this book focuses on the microeconomics of corporate investment behavior, especially as reflected […]

• Policy Notes No. 1 January 01, 2001

  Fiscal Policy to the Rescue

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  The United States’ economic expansion of the past eight years has been fueled by a rise in private sector indebtedness. In 1997 the private sector spending exceeded income for the first time since 1952, and since then the gap between the two has risen markedly. The situation closely mirrors that experienced in the United Kingdom […]

  Download Policy Note 2001/1 PDF (39.59 KB)
• Working Paper No. 321 January 01, 2001

  Testing Profit Rate Equalization in the US Manufacturing Sector

  Ajit Zacharias
  Abstract

  Long-run differentials in interindustrial profitability are relevant for several areas of theoretical and applied economics because they characterize the overall nature of competition in a capitalist economy. This paper argues that the existing empirical models of competition in the industrial organization literature suffer from serious flaws. An alternative framework, based on recent advances in the […]

  Download Working Paper No. 321 PDF (379.40 KB)
• Working Paper No. 320 January 01, 2001

  “Race or People”

  Joel Perlmann
  Abstract

  In 1898, the United States Bureau of Immigration initiated a classification of immigrants into some 40 categories of "race or people." Nearly all the categories covered Europeans. In 1909 an effort was made to extend this system of classification to the US Census, and the relevant measure passed in the Senate. From the outset, organizations […]

  Download Working Paper No. 320 PDF (133.96 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 62 December 10, 2000

  Is There a Skills Crisis?

  Michael J. Handel
  Abstract

  Despite seven years of economic growth a large gap exists in the wages earned by workers at the top of the earnings scale and those at the bottom. The leading explanation for this growth in wage inequality continues to be the skills-mismatch theory. This theory in part posits that gains in technology have resulted in […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 62, 2000 PDF (209.86 KB)
• Working Paper No. 319 December 01, 2000

  Compensatory Inter Vivos Gifts

  Stefan Hochguertel, and Henry Ohlsson
  Abstract

  Empirical studies of intergenerational transfers usually find that bequests are equally divided among heirs while inter vivos gifts tend to be compensatory. Using the 1992 and 1994 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we find that only 4 percent of parents who give divide their gifts equally among their children. Estimating probit models using […]

  Download Working Paper No. 319 PDF (250.06 KB)
• Working Paper No. 318 December 01, 2000

  Origins of the GATT

  James N. Miller
  Abstract

  Fiftieth-anniversary explanations for the efficacy of the GATT imply that the institution’s longevity is testimony to the free trade principles upon which it is based. In this light, the predominantly American architects of the system figure as free trade visionaries who benevolently imposed postwar institutions of international cooperation on their war-torn allies. This paper takes […]

  Download Working Paper No. 318 PDF (79.95 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 61 November 09, 2000

  Whither the Welfare State?

  Jamee K. Moudud, and Ajit Zacharias
  Abstract

  The idea that saving is the force driving private investment and economic growth has become ever more entrenched in mainstream economic thought as well as in the minds of policymakers and the general public. Even though the empirical evidence that increased household saving will directly stimulate private investment and economic growth is scant, the idea […]

  Download Public Policy Brief No. 61, 2000 PDF (198.67 KB)
• Working Paper No. 317 November 01, 2000

  Productivity in Manufacturing and the Length of the Working Day

  Jeremy Atack, Fred Bateman, and Robert A. Margo
  Abstract

  Data from the manuscript census of manufacturing are used to estimate the effects of the length of the working day on output and wages. We find that the elasticity of output with respect to daily hours worked was positive but less than one—implying diminishing returns to increases in working hours. When the annual number of […]

  Download Working Paper No. 317 PDF (51.55 KB)
• Working Paper No. 316 November 01, 2000

  Harrod versus Thirlwall

  Jamee K. Moudud
  Abstract

  This paper contrasts the different approaches to export-led growth used by Harrod and Thirlwall. It argues that, unlike Thirlwall’s model, Harrod emphasized the importance of both demand- and supply-sides in his analysis of growth. The fundamental difference between the two authors lies in their differing characterizations of the long run. While both authors assume unemployment, […]

  Download Working Paper No. 316 PDF (251.36 KB)
• Working Paper No. 315 October 01, 2000

  Crowding In or Crowding Out?

  Jamee K. Moudud
  Abstract

  This paper investigates the effects of budget deficits within a classical-Harrodian framework in a closed economy. In this framework, growth and cycles are endogenous, underutilized capacity is a recurrent phenomenon, capacity utilization fluctuates around the normal level in the long run, and unemployment is persistent. Give the normal rate of profit, the key determinant of […]

  Download Working Paper No. 315 PDF (161.11 KB)
• Working Paper No. 314 September 01, 2000

  Asset Ownership across Generations

  Ngina S. Chiteji, and Frank P. Stafford
  Abstract

  This paper examines cross-generational connections in asset ownership. It begins by presenting a theoretical framework that develops the distinction between the intergenerational transfer of knowledge about financial assets and the direct transfer of dollars from parents to children. Its analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) reveals intergenerational correlations in asset […]

  Download Working Paper No. 314 PDF (9.73 MB)
• Working Paper No. 313 September 01, 2000

  CRA Grade Inflation

  Kenneth H. Thomas
  Abstract

  Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) ratings and performance evaluations are the only bank and thrift exam findings disclosed by financial institution regulators. Inflation of CRA ratings has been alleged by community activists for two decades, but there has been no quantification or empirical investigation of grade inflation. Using a unique grade inflation methodology on […]

  Download Working Paper No. 313 PDF (176.93 KB)