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  Working Paper No. 310

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

  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

  Profits

  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

  Discontinuities in the Distribution of Great Wealth

  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. 307

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

  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

  Household Savings in Germany

  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

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

  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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  Working Paper No. 304

  Family Structure, Race, and Wealth Ownership

  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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  Policy Notes No. 7

  Why Does the Fed Want Slower Growth?

  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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  Public Policy Brief No. 60

  A Dual Mandate for the Federal Reserve

  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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  Conference Proceedings

  Saving, Intergenerational Transfers, and the Distribution of Wealth

  Coordinated by Senior Scholar Edward N. Wolff of the Levy Institute and New York University, this conference examined wealth trends, and extremes, in the United States in the 1990s. The conference was held June 7–9, 2000, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood on the campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. […]
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  Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 60

  A Dual Mandate for the Federal Reserve

  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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  Working Paper No. 303

  “It” Happened, but Not Again

  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? […]