Publications

1681 publications found

• Working Paper No. 311 August 01, 2000

  Racial Wealth Disparities

  Maury Gittleman, and Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  A vast literature in economics has examined the economic progress of African Americans during this century. Most of these studies have focused on income–or on even narrower measures of economic well-being, such as earnings–to assess the extent to which any gains made relative to other racial groups can be attributed to such factors as declining […]

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• Working Paper No. 310 August 01, 2000

  Race and the Value of Owner-occupied Housing, 1940–1990

  William J. Collins, and Robert A. Margo
  Abstract

  The racial gap in the value of owner-occupied housing has narrowed substantially since 1940, but this narrowing has not been even over time or across space. The 1970s stand out as an unusual decade in which the value gap did not narrow despite continued convergence in the observed characteristics of housing. A decline in the […]

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• Working Paper No. 309 August 01, 2000

  Profits

  S. Jay Levy
  Abstract

  Profits are the incentive for production and therefore employment in almost all of the world’s economies; they also may represent exploitation of workers and consumers. Jerome Levy, using a complex process, derived the profits identity during the years 1908–1914. Michal Kalecki, taking advantage of the development of national accounting, derived it in the 1930s. Levy […]

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• Working Paper No. 308 August 01, 2000

  Discontinuities in the Distribution of Great Wealth

  Leonard Broom, and William Shay
  Abstract

  National surveys of household economics and well-being in the United States usually focus on income. In those income surveys with supplemental wealth modules, the very rich are underrepresented if not unrepresented. Typically, wealth data are truncated such that they do not afford a view of the extreme top of the distribution. Therefore, we attempt to […]

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• Working Paper No. 312 August 01, 2000

  Demographic Outcomes of Ethnic Intermarriage in American History

  Joel Perlmann
  Abstract

  This paper presents a new approach to measuring the extent of intermarriage among Americans of different ethnic origins. Using Census Bureau microdata and CPS data, measurements of the rates of Italian-American intermarriages across four generations are made to demonstrate that these rates were not merely high following the immigrant generation, but that even low estimates […]

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• Working Paper No. 307 July 01, 2000

  An Examination of Changes in the Distribution of Wealth from 1989 to 1998

  Arthur B. Kennickell
  Abstract

  This paper considers the distribution of wealth in the period from 1989 to 1998 as an indicator of the economic condition of households. It examines changes in the distribution of wealth over that period, mostly using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Some of the SCF data used here have previously been studied […]

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• Working Paper No. 306 July 01, 2000

  Household Savings in Germany

  Axel Börsch-Supan, Anette Reil-Held, Reinhold Schnabel, and Joachim Winter
  Abstract

  This paper describes how German households save and how their saving behavior is linked to public policy, notably pension policy. The analysis is based on a synthetic panel of four cross sections of the German Income and Expenditure Survey (“Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichproben,” EVS, 1978, 1983, 1988, and 1993). The paper carefully distinguishes between several saving […]

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• Working Paper No. 305 July 01, 2000

  Can European Banks Survive a Unified Currency in a Nationally Segmented Capital Market?

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  The euro was expected to become a substitute for the American dollar as an international currency. However, compromises made during its creation make it a less than perfect substitute in the medium term. Among these compromises was the application of macro convergence and micro diversity in financial markets and supervision at the national level. This […]

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• Policy Notes No. 7 July 01, 2000

  Why Does the Fed Want Slower Growth?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  The Fed has raised interest rates six times in the past year to slow the economy, in the belief that unemployment is too low. There is scant evidence, however, that low unemployment leads to inflation, that the economy is in danger of overheating, or that higher interest rates will reduce inflation. Instead, the Fed is […]

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• Working Paper No. 304 July 01, 2000

  Family Structure, Race, and Wealth Ownership

  Lisa A. Keister
  Abstract

  Researchers have documented racial inequalities in wealth ownership and have offered a variety of explanations to account for these differences. One potentially important contributing factor that has received little attention is racial differences in family structure. This paper explores racial differences in the structure of family of origin and family in adulthood and examines the […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 60 June 08, 2000

  A Dual Mandate for the Federal Reserve

  Willem Thorbecke
  Abstract

  The Federal Reserve currently has two legislated goals—price stability and full employment—but a debate continues about making price stability the Fed’s primary and overriding goal. Evidence from the recent history of monetary policy contradicts arguments in favor of assigning primacy to inflation fighting and supports giving full employment equal importance. Economic performance under the dual […]

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• Policy Notes No. 6 June 01, 2000

  Drowning in Debt

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  The economic expansion in the United States has been driven to an unusual extent by falling personal saving and rising borrowing by the private sector. If this process goes into reverse, as has happened under comparable circumstances in other countries, there will be severe recession unless there is a big relaxation in fiscal policy.

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• Working Paper No. 303 June 01, 2000

  “It” Happened, but Not Again

  Marc-André Pigeon
  Abstract

  This paper asks two questions: First, can we explain Japan’s ongoing financial crisis by means of an institutional analysis similar to the one Hyman P. Minsky applied to the American economy during the postwar period? Second, what are the implications of this analysis for what is going on in the Canadian and American economies today? […]

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• Working Paper No. 302 June 01, 2000

  Kaleckian Models of Growth in a Stock-flow Monetary Framework

  Wynne Godley, and Marc Lavoie
  Abstract

  This paper presents a simple growth model grounded in a stock-flow monetary accounting framework. The framework ensures that all stocks and all flows are accounted for and that the real and financial sides of the economy are coherent with one another. Credit, money, equities and stocks of real capital link periods of time with one […]

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• Working Paper No. 300 May 01, 2000

  Recent Trends in Wealth Ownership, 1983–1998

  Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, I find that wealth inequality continued to rise in the United States after 1989, though at a reduced rate. The share of the wealthiest 1 percent of households rose by 3.6 percentage points from 1983 to 1989 and by another 0.7 percentage points from 1989 to 1998. […]

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• Policy Notes No. 5 May 01, 2000

  Can the Expansion Be Sustained?

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Hyman P. Minsky’s insights into the relationship between profits, economic growth, and the public and private financial balances are particularly relevant to today’s conditions. How can a Minskyan view be applied to explain the processes that brought the economy to its current state and to recommend a policy stance for the future?

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• Working Paper No. 301 May 01, 2000

  Trends in Direct Measures of Job Skill Requirements

  Michael J. Handel
  Abstract

  It is commonly assumed that jobs in the United Sates require ever greater levels of skill and, more strongly, that this trend is accelerating as a result of the diffusion of information technology. This has led to substantial concern over the possibility of a growing mismatch between the skills workers possess and the skills employers […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 April 01, 2000

  Health Care Finance in Need of Rethinking

  Walter M. Cadette
  Abstract

  Hospitals have been squeezed by the Balanced Budget Act; the uninsured population is still on the rise; and long-term care is paid for largely by welfare grants. The nation’s flawed structure of health care finance ultimately will adversely affect the quality of care for all.

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• Policy Notes No. 3 March 01, 2000

  Welfare College Students

  Thomas Karier
  Abstract

  The rules and regulations that were developed to reduce welfare rolls through immediate employment discourage the achievement of economic independence through the pursuit of higher education.

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• Working Paper No. 299 March 01, 2000

  The Public Commodities Problem

  Karl Widerquist
  Abstract

  The decision about how much to spend on a public program depends on the answers to two questions: Should the government pursue the goal of this program? Given that the program’s goal should be adopted, what is the optimal level of spending to achieve it? If the answer to the first question is yes, it […]

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• Working Paper No. 298 March 01, 2000

  Krugman on the Liquidity Trap

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  Paul Krugman has argued that Japan is in a liquidity trap and that it can recover only if the central bank there follows a policy of “credible inflation.” This paper argues that Krugman’s proposal, which is similar to what Fisher proposed during the Depression, is based on a different interpretation of the liquidity trap from […]

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• Working Paper No. 297 March 01, 2000

  What’s Behind the Recent Rise in Profitability?

  Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  Profitability in the United States has been rising since the early 1980s and by 1997 was at its highest level since its postwar peak in the mid 1960s, and the profit share, by one definition, was at its highest point. In this paper I examine the role of the change in the profit share and […]

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• Working Paper No. 296 March 01, 2000

  An Alternative Stability Pact for the European Union

  Philip Arestis, Kevin McCauley, and Malcolm Sawyer
  Abstract

  This paper proposes an alternative stability and growth pact among European Union (EU) governments that would underpin the introduction of a single currency and a “single market” within the EU. The alternative pact embraces a number of new aspects of integration within the EU that are based on a different monetary analysis (different from that […]

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• Policy Notes No. 2 February 05, 2000

  Is the New Economy Rewriting the Rules?

  James K. Galbraith
  Abstract

  Full employment without inflation can continue—with the right leadership, prudent policy changes to manage the dangers, and cooperation from all branches of the government.

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