Publications

1695 publications found

• Public Policy Brief No. 41 July 03, 1998

  Side Effects of Progress

  Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  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 […]

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• Policy Notes No. 7 July 01, 1998

  Goldilocks and the Three Bears

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Unlike the Papa, Mama, and Baby Bears faced by the storybook Goldilocks, our Goldilocks faced three ferocious grizzlies: a cascading, global financial crisis, global deflation and excess capacity (or insufficient demand), and a domestic fiscal surplus in conjunction with record private deficits.

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• Working Paper No. 244 July 01, 1998

  Can Taxes and Bonds Finance Government Spending?

  Stephanie A. Kelton
  Abstract

  This paper investigates the commonly held belief that government spending is normally financed through a combination of taxes and bond sales. The argument is a technical one and requires a detailed analysis of reserve accounting at the central bank. After carefully considering the complexities of reserve accounting, it is argued that the proceeds from taxation […]

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• Working Paper No. 243 July 01, 1998

  State Type and Congressional Voting on the Minimum Wage

  Oren Levin-Waldman
  Abstract

  How members of Congress vote on increases in the minimum wage is a function of several factors, most notably party affiliation and constituent interest. But also among those factors is the existence of “right-to-work” laws in the representative’s state and the presence of labor unions, especially as they represent a voting constituency. This paper examines […]

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• Working Paper No. 242 July 01, 1998

  Money and Credit in a Keynesian Model of Income Determination

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  This paper formally integrates the theory of money and credit derived ultimately from Wicksell into the Keynesian theory of income determination, with assets allocated according to Tobinesque principles. The model deployed has much in common with the modern “endogenous money” school initiated by Kaldor which emphasizes the essential role played by credit in any real […]

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• Working Paper No. 241 July 01, 1998

  Optimal Financing by Money and Taxes of Productive and Unproductive Government Spending

  David Alan Aschauer
  Abstract

  This paper contains an investigation of the effects of different means of financing government spending on economic growth, inflation, and welfare. In this setting, two different types of government spending are considered: productive expenditures that provide services to the private sector in its production activities, and unproductive expenditures that have no direct influence on the […]

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• Working Paper No. 240 July 01, 1998

  The Place of Cultural Explanations and Historical Specificity in Discussions of Modes of Incorporation and Segmented Assimilation

  Joel Perlmann
  Abstract

  In this new working paper, Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann discusses cultural, structural, and contextual explanations of segmented assimilation among the children of immigrants. In it he addresses a number of questions about modes of incorporation as an explanation for ethnic differences in behavior—what, for example, is the status of cultural explanations for ethnic behavior if […]

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• Working Paper No. 239 July 01, 1998

  An Ethical Framework for Cost-Effective Medicine

  Walter M. Cadette
  Abstract

  HMO medicine has been effective in controlling once-runaway health care costs. But it sets up inevitable conflict between patient care and the financial well-being of the health plan and of its employee or contract physicians. This paper looks at the ethical problems posed by managed care (in particular, at its incentives to physicians to economize […]

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• Working Paper No. 245 July 01, 1998

  Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income

  Karl Widerquist
  Abstract

  This paper argues that a guaranteed income is not only consistent with the principle of reciprocity but is required for reciprocity. This conclusion follows from a three-part argument. First, if a guaranteed income is in place, all individuals have the same opportunity to live without working. Therefore, those who choose not to work do not […]

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• Policy Notes No. 6 June 01, 1998

  What to Do with the Surplus

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Neither Congress nor the president is on the right track. Rather than protecting the surplus, we should be increasing spending and cutting taxes to contain the looming world recession.

  Download Policy Note 1998/6 PDF (120.12 KB)
• Working Paper No. 238 June 01, 1998

  The Macroeconomics of Industrial Strategy

  Philip Arestis, and Malcolm Sawyer
  Abstract

  This paper explores some of the links between macroeconomic policy and industrial strategy. The perspective of the present paper is to emphasize the role of the output and investment activities of enterprises rather than the general focus on the labor market in the determination of economic performance. We have explored this aspect in some detail […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 40 May 02, 1998

  Overcoming America’s Infrastructure Deficit

  Walter M. Cadette, and S. Jay Levy
  Abstract

  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 No. 40, 1998 PDF (5.25 MB)
• Policy Notes No. 5 May 01, 1998

  The Fed Should Lower Interest Rates More

  Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Some analysts have argued against monetary ease, fearing that it might fuel a speculative boom. Alas, given the recent substantial “market correction,” this objection may safely be put away.

  Download Policy Note 1998/5 PDF (71.24 KB)
• Public Policy Brief No. 39 May 01, 1998

  The Unmeasured Labor Force

  Barry Bluestone, and Stephen Rose
  Abstract

  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 No. 39, 1998 PDF (388.31 KB)
• Working Paper No. 237 May 01, 1998

  Speed of Technical Progress and Length of the Average Interjob Period

  Edward N. Wolff
  Abstract

  The mean duration of unemployment approximately doubled in the United States between the early 1950s and the mid-1990s, with most of the increase occurring since the early 1970s. Using a simple model linking the average duration of unemployment with the speed of technical change, and aggregate time-series data, the authors find strong evidence that both […]

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• Working Paper No. 236 May 01, 1998

  An Important Inconsistency at the Heart of the Standard Macroeconomic Model

  Wynne Godley, and Anwar M. Shaikh
  Abstract

  The standard neoclassical model is the foundation of most mainstream macroeconomics. Its basic structure dominates the analyis of macroeconomic phenomena, the teaching of the subject, and even the formation of economic policy. And, of course, the modern quantity theory of money and its attendant monetarist prescriptions are grounded in the model’s strict separation between real […]

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• Working Paper No. 235 May 01, 1998

  East Asia Is Not Mexico

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  What was different about the collapse of the Asian emerging markets in 1997? The free fall of the Mexican peso and the collapse of the Mexican Bolsa produced a “Tequila effect” that spread through most of South America. But it did not create a sell-off in the global financial markets similar to that which occurred […]

• Working Paper No. 234 April 01, 1998

  Yes, “It” Did Happen Again

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  The title of Visiting Senior Scholar Jan Kregel’s working paper is a reference to Hyman P. Minsky’s book Can “It” Happen Again? The Minskian “it” is the debt deflation scenario that led to the Great Depression, and Kregel makes the case that the recent Asian crisis is just such a scenario. Minsky defined three types […]

• Working Paper No. 233 April 01, 1998

  Public Capital and Economic Growth

  David Alan Aschauer
  Abstract

  Empirical research largely suggests that there is a positive role for public capital and a negative role for taxation and debt, and the effectiveness of public capital depends critically on its efficiency. Research Associate David Alan Aschauer develops a common framework to investigate the importance of three aspects of public capital: how much you have, […]

• Working Paper No. 232 April 01, 1998

  The Asian Disease

  Martin Mayer
  Abstract

  The Asian crisis is a textbook case of the “financial instability hypothesis” first expressed in 1966 by the late Hyman P. Minsky. Minsky’s “hypothesis” was proposed to explain instability in a large, insulated, developed economy. Despite its intuitive appeal, it was not widely accepted among financial economists (Charles Kindleberger being a notable exception) because, they […]

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• Working Paper No. 231 April 01, 1998

  The Hierarchy of Money

  Stephanie A. Kelton
  Abstract

  This paper attempts to bring together several of Hyman P. Minsky’s insights in order to suggest a relationship between the state’s ability to tax and the money of the economy. Minsky recognized that money represents an IOU or promise to pay and that “acceptability” is its important feature. He further recognized that the State can […]

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• Policy Notes No. 4 April 01, 1998

  Small Business and the New Welfare

  Oren Levin-Waldman, and George W. McCarthy
  Abstract

  To what extent have small businesses hired former welfare recipients and what might induce them to hire more? The Levy Institute conducts a national survey of small firms in many industries to find out.

  Download Policy Note 1998/4 PDF (64.21 KB)
• Working Paper No. 230 March 01, 1998

  The Romance of Assimilation?

  Joel Perlmann
  Abstract

  Little research has been done on the role of intermarriage in the blending of peoples in the American past, and even less has been done on the effect of past intermarriage on the ethnic identity of today’s Americans. Senior Scholar Joel Perlmann sees value in studying intermarriage to show fault lines in society (social distance […]

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• Policy Notes No. 3 March 01, 1998

  Small Business and the Minimum Wage

  Oren Levin-Waldman, and George W. McCarthy
  Abstract

  To what extent have small businesses hired former welfare recipients and what might induce them to hire more? Do small businesses change their hiring and employment practices in response to an increase in the minimum wage? The Levy Institute conducts a national survey of small firms in many industries to find out.

  Download Policy Note 1998/3 PDF (93.68 KB)