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Working Paper No. 203
August 01, 1997
The NAIRU
AbstractThe nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment, or NAIRU, has acquired a central role in macroeconomic theory. Fear of inflation has led to a reluctance to allow the unemployment rate to fall below the estimated NAIRU. If so much weight is going to be placed on an estimate of a theoretical variable, it is extremely important […]
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Working Paper No. 199
July 01, 1997
Good Jobs and the Cutting Edge
AbstractGood, stable jobs with high earnings started to disappear from the United States economy in the late 1970s. The loss of the majority of these jobs resulted from structural changes, not cyclical variations in the manufacturing sector. Robert Forrant, of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, studies the machine tool industry’s role in the decline of […]
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Working Paper No. 198
July 01, 1997
Earnings Inequality and the Quality of Jobs
AbstractThe increase in earnings inequality in the United States is now a widely accepted fact that much economics literature has attempted to explain. Philip Moss, of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, examines the increase in inequality, evaluates the frequently given explanations for it, and offers an improved methodology for determining its causes.
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Working Paper No. 197
July 01, 1997
Minimum Wage and Justice?
AbstractOpposition to the minimum wage, according to Resident Scholar Oren M. Levin-Waldman, ultimately rests on a popular political philosophy and a popular economic theory. The popular version of classical liberal philosophy stresses individualism over the common project and accordingly puts the employer’s right to pay low wages over the common goal of a high-wage economy. […]
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Working Paper No. 196
July 01, 1997
Skiki vono ko shtuvalo?
AbstractAfter the collapse of the Soviet bloc many of the transition economies experienced significant inflation, largely because their new monetary authorities and undeveloped tax infrastructure induced them to resort to generating revenue through seignorage. In Ukraine inflation rates reached as high as 133 percent per month. Traditional monetary theory holds that raising revenue through money […]
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Working Paper No. 195
June 01, 1997
“Multiracials,†Racial Classification, and American Intermarriage—The Public’s Interest
AbstractHow the census of 2000 is to count “multiracial” people is a hot topic in Washington. A federal task force presented a draft of its recommendations in July, and the Office of Management and Budget, after hearing reactions, will make a final ruling in late October. As immigration and intermarriage increase, this issue is becoming […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 31
May 04, 1997
A New Path from Welfare to Work
AbstractThe 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 […]
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Working Paper No. 194
May 01, 1997
The Working Poor
AbstractMost Americans believe that if they work hard, they should not be poor. Although recent government welfare reform policy is aimed at encouraging people to work more, seven to nine million working Americans remain poor. Visiting Scholar Marlene Kim, of the School of Labor and Management Relations, Cook College, Rutgers University, asks, Why are there […]
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Working Paper No. 193
May 01, 1997
The Impact of Declining Union Membership on Voter Participation among Democrats
AbstractNo further information available.
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Public Policy Brief No. 30
April 03, 1997
Prescription for Health Care Policy
AbstractWith 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 […]
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Working Paper No. 192
April 01, 1997
Social Security
AbstractSome reform of Social Security is needed to keep the system solvent given the additional financial pressure that will be placed on it as the baby boom generation retires: the Social Security Administration estimates that payroll taxes will have to be increased 2.2 percent or benefits reduced by an equal amount to maintain financial balance […]
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Working Paper No. 191
April 01, 1997
Dynamic Output and Employment Effects of Public Capital
AbstractStudies that have examined the effect of public spending on economic growth have reported esmates for the marginal product of public capital that are well in excess of, equal to, and less than the marginal product of private capital. Not only does this wide range of estimates call for further examination, but several questions about […]
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Working Paper No. 190
April 01, 1997
Output and Employment Effects of Public Capital
AbstractStudies that have examined the effect of public spending on economic growth have reported esmates for the marginal product of public capital that are well in excess of, equal to, and less than the marginal product of private capital. Not only does this wide range of estimates call for further examination, but several questions about […]
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Working Paper No. 189
April 01, 1997
Do States Optimize?
AbstractStudies that have examined the effect of public spending on economic growth have reported esmates for the marginal product of public capital that are well in excess of, equal to, and less than the marginal product of private capital. Not only does this wide range of estimates call for further examination, but several questions about […]
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Working Paper No. 188
April 01, 1997
No Easy Answers
AbstractHigh unemployment rates and increasing terms of unemployment have persisted in western European countries for the past 20 years. These problems have been explained as resulting from inflexibility in the labor market created by such policies as protective labor market regulation and generous social assistance. The lower rates and shorter duration of unemployment in the […]
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Working Paper No. 187
March 01, 1997
Real Estate and the Capital Gains Debate
AbstractThe recent budget agreement contains a capital gains tax cut. The principal justification for reducing the capital gains tax rate relies on the efficiency-equity trade-off. The capital gains tax is designed to increase equity by taxing the wealthy, but advocates of rate reduction claim that the tax has the side effect of decreasing efficiency because […]
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Working Paper No. 186
March 01, 1997
Gender Wage Differentials, Affirmative Action, and Employment Growth on the Industry Level
AbstractIn their study of industry wage premia, Research Associates Judith Fields of Lehman College, City University of New York, and Edward N. Wolff of New York University find that gender wage differentials can be explained only in part by the distribution of women and men in different industries, and that other factors, such as discrimination, […]
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Working Paper No. 185
March 01, 1997
Disinflationary Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income
AbstractSome economists and others argue that, despite years of low inflation, a further decrease in the rate of price growth would be beneficial by reducing the dead-weight losses created by inflation-induced distortions. According to Research Associate Willem Thorbecke, of George Mason University, such arguments fail to consider the costs and benefits of changes in the […]
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Public Policy Brief No. 29
February 02, 1997
Institutional Failure and the American Worker
AbstractDavid R. Howell argues that the collapse of low-skill wages in the United States cannot be explained by a skill mismatch resulting from a technology-driven decline in the demand for low-skill labor. He presents evidence refuting the prevailing belief that a substantial shift in demand away from low-skill work characterized the 1980s. Howell asserts that […]
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Working Paper No. 184
January 01, 1997
The New Welfare
AbstractDuring the summer of 1996, President Clinton signed what some consider to be the most sweeping welfare reform since the initial adoption of public assistance programs in 1935. Resident Scholar Oren Levin-Waldman compares the old and new welfare laws, assesses some of the possible effects of the new law, and provides policy prescriptions for how […]
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Working Paper No. 183
January 01, 1997
Corporate Governance and Corporate Employment
AbstractUnless American corporations change their structure of governance, it is unlikely that many will remain prosperous in this age of global competition, argue Research Associates William H. Lazonick and Mary O’Sullivan. US companies are not being hurt by low-wage competition but by their failure to invest in the organizational learning required to remain competitive. US […]
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Working Paper No. 181
December 01, 1996
Which Immigrant Occupational Skills?
AbstractResearchers have long sought explanations for the success of Jews who migrated to the United States at the turn of the century in attaining middle-class status. East European Jews arrived in the United States at the same time as many other ethnic groups between 1880 and 1920, yet achieved economic success far faster. In the […]
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Working Paper No. 180
December 01, 1996
The Utilization of Human Capital in the US, 1975–1992
AbstractThe experience that comes with age and the productive capacity of youth are both assets widely underused in the American labor market, according to Research Associate Robert Haveman and co-authors Lawrence Buron and Andrew Bershadker of the University of Wisconsin. To measure the use of American labor, the authors developed an indicator called the capacity […]
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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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