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  Book Series

  Modernizing Financial Systems

  Since the 1980s many changes have taken place in the financial system in the United States and to some extent in other countries—uniform capital requirements have been instituted, regulations have been eased, and market share consolidation of firms in the financial services business has been allowed. But more substantive reforms are necessary to avert crises […]
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  Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 56

  Risk Reduction in the New Financial Architecture

  The causes for the instability that has marked the financial system over the past decade lie deep in the economic theory that urges easy and efficient substitution of one piece of paper for another, in the technology-driven tight articulation of receipts and payments, and in the growth of leverage that diminishes the creditworthiness of major […]
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  Public Policy Brief No. 56

  Risk Reduction in the New Financial Architecture

  The causes for the instability that has marked the financial system over the past decade lie deep in the economic theory that urges easy and efficient substitution of one piece of paper for another, in the technology-driven tight articulation of receipts and payments, and in the growth of leverage that diminishes the creditworthiness of major […]
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  Working Paper No. 289

  New Perspectives on the Guaranteed Income

  Renewed interest in a guaranteed income is evident from the number of books that have been published on the topic in the 1990s. This paper compares seven of those books. They are: Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform, edited by Philippe Van Parijs; Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can […]
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  Working Paper No. 288

  Is There a Wage Payoff to Innovative Work Practices?

  During the 1980s, wage inequality increased dramatically and the American economy lost many high wage, low- to medium-skill jobs, which had provided middle class incomes to less skilled workers. Increasingly, less skilled workers seemed restricted to low wage jobs lacking union or other institutional protections. Although “good” jobs for less skilled workers are unlikely to […]
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  Working Paper No. 287

  Functional Finance

  The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the theory of functional finance, as explicated by its originator, Abba Ptachya Lerner, is put forward; second, the reader is introduced to the use, standard in money and banking texts, of T-account balance sheet entries. Although no important conclusions will rest solely on the reader’s ability to […]
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  Working Paper No. 286

  The History of Wage Inequality in America, 1820 to 1970

  In recent decades the United States has experienced a pronounced widening of its wage structure. For the most part, analysis of the recent rise in wage inequality has taken place with the benefits of hindsight—that is, without placing recent changes in the wage structure in historical context. This paper presents such an historical context, by […]
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  Report No. 4

  Report November 1999

  In a Special Report, Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley argues that the long expansion of the American economy has been propelled by forces that cannot be sustained into the medium term. These forces include a wholly exceptional rise in private expenditure relative to disposable income: at no time during the last 40 years has private expenditure […]
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  Working Paper No. 285

  Computers and the Wage Structure

  A leading explanation for the rapid growth in wage inequality in the United States in the last 20 years, consistent with both human capital and postindustrial theories, is that advanced technology has increased job skill requirements and reduced the demand for less skilled workers. Krueger’s 1993 study showing a wage premium associated with using computers […]
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  Working Paper No. 284

  The Distribution of Wages

  This paper presents a non-parametric procedure to analyze the effects of different factors on observed movements in any distribution. These effects are estimated by applying kernel density methods to weighted samples in order to obtain counterfactual distributions. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a direct means of investigating if these factors have […]
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  Working Paper No. 283

  Financing Long-Term Care

  The nation is ill-prepared to finance the quantum jump in long-term care spending that is on its way as the baby boom ages. By default rather than by design, Medicaid has become the main source of funds for long-term care. But reliance on Medicaid has fostered the institutionalization of the disabled elderly, has given rise […]
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  Working Paper No. 282

  The Economic and Monetary Union

  The euro was adopted as legal tender, albeit in a virtual form, by 11 countries of the European Union on January 1, 1999. The intention was that notes and coins denominated in euros would be introduced and the national currencies phased out during the first six months of that year, and that the euro would […]