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  Working Paper No. 219

  Linking the Minimum Wage to Productivity

  One of the principal problems with the minimum wage is that adjustments to it must be voted on by Congress. Although recent congressional action solves the immediate problem of restoring value to a wage that has otherwise failed to keep pace with inflation, it has not removed the issue from the political agenda. Every time […]
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  Working Paper No. 218

  Selective Use of Discretionary Public Employment and Economic Flexibility

  Flexibility is a desirable feature of an economic system. Structural rigidities can result in sluggish growth and inflationary pressures; many economic models, however, display considerable system flexibility because of the use of unacceptably unrealistic assumptions. The primary “real-life” features endowing the system with flexibility are unemployment and excess capacity. While realistic, unemployment is economically costly […]
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  Working Paper No. 217

  The Economic Contributions of Hyman Minsky

  Financial economist Hyman P. Minsky believed that because there are many types of capitalism determined by circumstances and an evolving set of institutional structures, an abstract economic theory could not be applicable in all times and places but must be institution-specific. Therefore, he focused his attention on the changing institutional structure of developed capitalist economies […]
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  Working Paper No. 216

  The Impact of Racial Segregation on the Education and Work Outcomes of Second-generation West Indians in New York City

  Mary C. Waters, a professor of sociology at Harvard University, examines one way in which race matters in the United States by studying black children of immigrants in New York City. She demonstrates that the segregation and concentrated poverty in black neighborhoods have long-lasting effects on the acquisition of skills. These youth face direct employment […]
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  Working Paper No. 215

  Achievement and Ambition among Children of Immigrants in Southern California

  The influx of immigrants to the United States after 1965 has reached levels not seen since the early part of the century. The ability of these recent immigrant groups and their children to succeed in the American economy has been hotly debated but, until recently, little studied. Rubin G. Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at […]
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  Working Paper No. 214

  The School-to-Work Transition of Second-generation Immigrants in Metropolitan New York

  Social scientists have only begun to study the experiences of the 15 million immigrants who have settled in the United States since 1965 and have learned even less about their children. Several speculate that the children of immigrants, being restricted to poor inner city schools, bad jobs, and shrinking economic niches, will experience downward mobility, […]
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  Working Paper No. 213

  Government As Employer of Last Resort

  Since the Employment Act of 1946 a stated policy of the United States government has been to pursue simultaneously high employment and stable prices. However, because many economists and policymakers do not believe that it is possible to have both high employment and stable prices, monetary policy has generally been geared, at least for the […]
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  Working Paper No. 212

  An Efficiency Argument for the Guaranteed Income

  Authors Karl Widerquist and Michael A. Lewis use a “multischool” approach to poverty policy, asking the following question: Given the many proposed causes for poverty, and the conflicting theories about how potential solutions would work, what conclusions can we draw about policy? They conclude that the guaranteed income is the most efficient and comprehensive policy […]
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  Working Paper No. 211

  Income Distribution, Macroeconomic Analysis, and Barriers to Full Employment

  The distribution of income is conspicuous by its absence from most mainstream macroeconomic analysis. Visiting Scholar Malcolm Sawyer, of the University of Leeds, makes an effort to remedy this situation by discussing three aspects of the relationship between macroeconomics and the distribution of income: the effect of conflicts over the distribution of income on the […]
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  Working Paper No. 210

  The Effects of Immigrants on African-American Earnings

  The improvement in the relative economic status of African American workers in the 1960s and 1970s was reversed in the 1980s. During that decade immigration to the United States reached its highest level since the early part of this century, and many immigrants entered lesser-skilled labor markets, where most African American labor is concentrated. Yet, […]
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  Report No. 4

  Report November 1997

  Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley warns of the "headless monster" that might be created if European nations plunge into monetary union before establishing new political processes and institutions to replace the powers the nations surrender. In the Levy Report Interview, Congressman Tom Campbell discusses the Federal Reserve, tax reform, immigration, and affirmative action. Contents: The Levy […]
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  Press Release

  How Should the Government Measure the Changing Face of America?