Archived Publication Types

Asia presents a cumulation of apparently rational decisions that produced disastrous results—a textbook illustration of “financial instability” developing from the economics of euphoria. A combination of factors produced the crisis as enormous capital inflows were drawn to the “Asian miracle”-pegged exchange rates with fluctuating interest rates, integrated economies, moral hazard created by central banks, and […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 44A, 1998 PDF (83.03 KB)

Investment in infrastructure is necessary for a strong, flexible, and growing economy. However, the relationship between public capital and economic growth is not linear. At a certain level, the tax burden associated with financing and maintaining public capital reduces the returns to private industry, which in turn reduces growth; also, different types of spending have […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 43A, 1998 PDF (168.86 KB)

The fact that every change in the minimum wage requires an act of Congress means that debate over the wisdom of having a minimum is repeatedly returned to the political arena. As inflation continues to erode the value of the minimum wage, each legislative delay means that a larger increase is required. The larger the […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 42A, 1998 PDF (130.57 KB)

In this issue, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan talks with Sanjay Mongia about Social Security, tax reform, income inequality, and trade. Moynihan argues that Social Security should return to a pay-as-you-go system that allows participants to invest part of their contribution in a savings plan.   Contents: Symposium on Employment Policy and Labor Markets: Is There […]

Download Volume 8, No. 3 PDF (648.72 KB)

Why does a dynamic growing economy have a persistent long-term unemployment problem? Research Associates Baumol and Wolff have isolated one cause. Although technological change, the engine of growth and economic progress, may not affect or may even increase the total number of jobs available, the fact that it creates a demand for new skills and […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 41A, 1998 PDF (105.75 KB)

This symposium examined the claim by information technology companies that the industry faced a shortage of qualified workers, and considered policy approaches to meeting current and future demands for qualified labor. The symposium was held on June 12, 1998, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood on the campus of Bard College, […]

Download Proceedings, June 12, 1998 PDF (123.63 KB)

Condemned bridges, dilapidated school buildings, contaminated water supplies, and other infrastructure shortcomings threaten American growth, productivity, and prosperity. The authors of this brief propose a plan for financing infrastructure projects that is designed to have minimal effect on the federal budget and to promote sound fiscal operation. Federal zero-interest mortgage loans to state and local […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 40A, 1998 PDF (133.21 KB)

Is the current labor market as tight as official statistics would seem to indicate? If incumbent workers increase their hours of work, it is irrelevant to the unemployment rate, but hardly irrelevant to the level of labor supply. The authors of this brief find that job insecurity and stagnating wages have made Americans willing to […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 39A, 1998 PDF (98.21 KB)

Alice M. Rivlin, vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and other participants at the Levy Institute’s annual Minsky conference on financial structure discuss the causes and worldwide effects of the Asian crisis and policies to prevent similar crises in the future. Contents: Editorial Can We Grow Faster? (Stephanie Bell […]

Download Volume 8, No. 2 PDF (568.10 KB)

The Asian financial crisis has indeed brought the globalization of financial markets home to policymakers, academics, and the American public. In his editorial, Visiting Senior Scholar Jan Kregel questions the appropriateness of IMF policies in managing recent crises and also calls for democratic accountability in an institution of global financial governance. Contents: The Levy Report […]

Download Volume 8, No. 1 PDF (339.67 KB)

In this issue, a new Working Paper by Research Associates William J. Baumol and Edward N. Wolff finds a relationship between accelerating technological change and increased duration of unemployment. Contents: Speed of Technical Progress and Length of the Average Interjob Period · “Inability to Be Self-reliant” as an Indicator of Poverty · Symposium: Is There […]

Download Volume 7, No. 4 PDF (123.63 KB)

The fragility of the international financial system continues as a topic of discussion in worldwide policy circles. Alice Rivlin, Martin Mayer, Jan Kregel, and others discuss the causes of and recovery from the Asian crisis in remarks at a Levy Institute conference and in working papers. Contents: New Working Papers: The Political Economy of Corporate […]

Download Volume 7, No. 3 PDF (124.50 KB)

Of special interest in this issue is a summation of a congressional policy briefing by Wynne Godley and Jan Kregel. Also of note are summaries of working papers on an assessment of the contributions of Hyman Minsky to economic theory, the relevance of Kaleckian analysis to today’s capitalist economies, and policy formulation as a discovery […]

Download Volume 7, No. 2 PDF (111.20 KB)

Scholars take different approaches to the questions of the possibility and desirability of attaining full employment. Barry Bluestone and Stephen Rose explore the effects of labor market slack on the inflation-unemployment trade-off, Malcom Sawyer and Philip Arestis advocate a return to Keynesian policies to secure full employment, and Beth Almeida looks to corporate strategies to […]

Download Volume 7, No. 1 PDF (104.98 KB)

Using theoretical predictions, econometric results, and the example of the Volcker disinflation, Willem Thorbecke establishes that through disinflation’s burden on the durable goods and construction industries, small firms, and low-wage workers and its benefits to bond market investors, it effects a redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich. Because of this distributional consequence, […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 38A, 1997 PDF (51.62 KB)

Since the 1970s corporate America has become obsessed with shedding employees to cut costs and with distributing revenue to stockholders. However, the way for it to regain its competitive edge and thus to restore the promise of secure and remunerative employment for its workers is to reform its system of governance. It must reject organizational […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 37A, 1997 PDF (54.33 KB)

Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley warns of the "headless monster" that might be created if European nations plunge into monetary union before establishing new political processes and institutions to replace the powers the nations surrender. In the Levy Report Interview, Congressman Tom Campbell discusses the Federal Reserve, tax reform, immigration, and affirmative action. Contents: The Levy […]

Download Volume 7, No. 4 PDF (292.76 KB)

The concept of a labor market, responding to familiar underpinnings of supply and demand, completely colors thought on the relationship between employment, wages, and inflation, according to James K. Galbraith. However, he asserts, wages are determined not by such market forces, but by what he calls the job structure—a complex set of status and pay […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 36A, 1997 PDF (53.78 KB)

On the United States’ census form, American citizens are told they may list any ethnic ancestries with which they identify, but are instructed to “mark one only” in the question on race. Joel Perlmann asserts that it is in the public interest to allow people to declare themselves as having origins in more than one […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 35A, 1997 PDF (56.05 KB)

The falling ratio of workers to retirees in the United States has raised concerns about Social Security’s ability to continue to provide a base level of support for all retired workers and to remain in balance with all of government’s other fiscal obligations. Of alternative plans that have been proposed to safeguard the system, Walter […]

Rebecca M. Blank considers how the flexibility of American labor markets and the regulation and redistribution policies of European labor markets may determine employers’ responses to worldwide economic transformations that result in increasing wage disparity in the United States and continuing high unemployment in Europe. She suggests that since the transformations will undoubtedly continue, governments […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 33A, 1997 PDF (89.59 KB)

The recent enactment of a capital gains tax cut resulted, according to the authors, from the absence of a true appreciation or consideration of the real beneficiaries of such a cut, its probable actual effects, the distinction between productive and nonproductive sources of capital gains (two-thirds of capital gains accrue to real estate, which is […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 32A, 1997 PDF (54.13 KB)

In an exploration of policy proposals to expand employment opportunities, participants at this year’s Levy Institute employment conference discuss workforce development, welfare-to-work, institutional and structural labor market changes, and economic growth. In an interview with Sanjay Mongia, author and editor William Grieder calls for a global perspective to save the worldwide economic system from its […]

Download Volume 7, No. 3 PDF (421.13 KB)

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 […]

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