Report February 1997

With the discussion of the balanced budget amendment intensifying as it comes up for a vote again, the February Report highlights analysis of how the amendment might affect the future of the economy, including an editorial by President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and an interview with Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Contents: The Levy Report Interview: Alan S. Blinder Discusses the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Federal Reserve, Tax Reform, and the Role of the Economist in Policy Making * Debates-Debates: The Balanced Budget Amendment * Editorial: Balanced Budget Amendment Is Good Rhetoric, Bad Policy (Dimitri B. Papadimitriou) * New Working Papers: Protracted Frictional Unemployment as a Heavy Cost of Technical Progress * The Utilization of Human Capital in the United States, 1975-1992: Patterns of Work and Earnings among Working-Age Males * Which Immigrant Occupational Skills? Explanations of Jewish Economic Mobility in the United States and New Evidence, 1910-1920 * Literacy among the Jews of Russia in 1897: A Reanalysis of the Census Data * Corporate Governance and Corporate Employment: Is Prosperity Sustainable in the United States? * The New Welfare: How Can It Be Improved?