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Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 41Side Effects of Progress
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 […] -
Public Policy Brief No. 41Side Effects of Progress
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 245Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 244
Can Taxes and Bonds Finance Government Spending?
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 243
State Type and Congressional Voting on the Minimum Wage
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 242
Money and Credit in a Keynesian Model of Income Determination
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 241
Optimal Financing by Money and Taxes of Productive and Unproductive Government Spending
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 240
The Place of Cultural Explanations and Historical Specificity in Discussions of Modes of Incorporation and Segmented Assimilation
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 […] -
Working Paper No. 239
An Ethical Framework for Cost-Effective Medicine
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 […] -
Policy Notes No. 7Goldilocks and the Three Bears
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. -
Press ReleaseLabor Supply Is Deeper Than Official Unemployment Rate Suggests
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Conference Proceedings
Symposium: Is There a Shortage of Information Technology Workers?
This symposium examined the claim by information technology companies that the industry faced a shortage of qualified workers, and considered policy approaches to meeting current and future demands for qualified labor. The symposium was held on June 12, 1998, at the Levy Institute’s research and conference center at Blithewood on the campus of Bard College, […]