Prices and Quantities

Prices and Quantities PDF Author: Arthur M. Okun
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815764793
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
During the past decade Arthur M. Okun, like many economists, focused attention on finding ways to fight inflation without sacrificing goals of high employment and prosperity. In recent years the economy has been plagued by stagflation--the simultaneous persistence of high inflation and high unemployment. Traditional methods of aggregate demand management that have been reasonably successful in curing either one or the other of these problems have not been effective, and the nation has not been able to contain inflation even in periods of economic slack. It now seems clear that the economists’ traditional model that presumes short-run flexibility in wages and prices no longer holds for most of the industrial world, and hence the response of inflation to shifts in macroeconomic policy is weak. In this volume Okun seeks to explain that loss of responsiveness by analyzing how modern labor and product markets work and how they are structured. A central feature of Okun’s analysis is implicit contract theory, which recognizes that efficiency-maximizing decisions by business firms reflect long-term considerations as well as short-term changes in markets. His interpretation of microeconomic behavior and macroeconomic performance provides a basis for the design of policies to deal with stagflation.

Prices and Quantities

Prices and Quantities PDF Author: Arthur M. Okun
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815764793
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the past decade Arthur M. Okun, like many economists, focused attention on finding ways to fight inflation without sacrificing goals of high employment and prosperity. In recent years the economy has been plagued by stagflation--the simultaneous persistence of high inflation and high unemployment. Traditional methods of aggregate demand management that have been reasonably successful in curing either one or the other of these problems have not been effective, and the nation has not been able to contain inflation even in periods of economic slack. It now seems clear that the economists’ traditional model that presumes short-run flexibility in wages and prices no longer holds for most of the industrial world, and hence the response of inflation to shifts in macroeconomic policy is weak. In this volume Okun seeks to explain that loss of responsiveness by analyzing how modern labor and product markets work and how they are structured. A central feature of Okun’s analysis is implicit contract theory, which recognizes that efficiency-maximizing decisions by business firms reflect long-term considerations as well as short-term changes in markets. His interpretation of microeconomic behavior and macroeconomic performance provides a basis for the design of policies to deal with stagflation.

Global Linkages

Global Linkages PDF Author: Warwick J. McKibbin
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815716680
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
With the rapid deterioration of the U.S. trade balance in the 1980s, the United States was forced to finance deficits by borrowing heavily from the rest of the world. In doing so, the United States went from being the world's largest creditor country to the world's largest debtor, while Japan and West Germany experienced a rise in trade surpluses. Such a shift in international trade flows has had profound effects on the world economy. McKibbin and Sachs address a range of issues involving macroeconomic imbalances in the world economy. Through the use of a new simulation model of the world economy they explore how policy actions undertaken in one country affect the trade flows and macroeconomic patterns among the other counties. The authors show that key macroeconomic features of the 1980s can be explained by shifts in monetary and fiscal policies in the major economies and by supply shocks due to changes in oil prices. In addition to showing how the global macroeconomic experience can be understood, they focus on a number of current policy issues, including the reduction of global trade imbalances, the consequences of U.S. fiscal consolidation, the effects of an oil price shock, the implications for the U.S. economy of increases in Japanese and German fiscal spending, the effects of targeting exchange rates among the major currencies, and the gains of increased coordination of macroeconomic politics among the major economies. In several cases, their conclusions are shown to be quite different from those that form the basis of many conventional views. The authors also analyze the importance of interaction between policymakers in industrial economies and conclude by reemphasizing the need for U.S. politicians and policy experts to recognize that macroeconomic results in the U.S. now depend heavily on events abroad.

Policy and Choice

Policy and Choice PDF Author: William J. Congdon
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815704984
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Argues that public finance--the study of the government's role in economics--should incorporate principles from behavior economics and other branches of psychology.

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Fall 2019

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Fall 2019 PDF Author: Janice Eberly
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815738293
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research on current economic issues. Contents: All Medicaid Expansions Are Not Created Equal: The Geography and Targeting of the Affordable Care Act Craig Garthwaite, John Graves, Tal Gross, Zeynal Karaca, Victoria Marone, and Matthew J. Notowidigdo Policies and Payoffs to Addressing America’s College Graduation Deficit Christopher Avery, Jessica Howell, Matea Pender, and Bruce Sacerdote The Optimal Inflation Target and the Natural Rate of Interest Philippe Andrade, Jordi Galí, Hervé Le Bihan, and Julien Matheron Inflation Dynamics: Dead, Dormant, or Determined Abroad? Kristen J. Forbes Macri’s Macro: The Elusive Road to Stability and Growth Federico Sturzenegger Progressive Wealth Taxation Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman

The Brookings Model

The Brookings Model PDF Author: Gary Fromm
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780444106230
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 679

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Book Description


Econometric Model Performance

Econometric Model Performance PDF Author: Lawrence R. Klein
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512803561
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Models of the American economy exist in government, research institutes, universities, and private corporations. Given the proliferation, it is wise to take stock because these models come from diverse sources and describe different conditions from alternative points of view. They could be saying different things about the economy. The high-level comparative studies in this volume, gathered from several issues of the International Economic Review, with a substantive introduction and the addition of more comparative material, evaluate the performance of eleven models of the American economy: the Wharton Mark Ill Model; Brookings Model; Hickman-Coen Annual Model; Liu-Hwa Monthly Model; Data Resources, Inc. (DRI) Model; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Model; Michigan Quarterly Econometric (MOEM) Model; Wharton Annual and Industry Model; Anticipation Version of the Wharton Mark Ill Model/Fair Model; U.S. Department of Commerce (BEA) Model. Each of the proprietors or builders of these models describes his own system in his own words. These studies come closer than ever before to standardizing model operations for testing purposes. Some of the models are monthly, while others are annual. but the quarterly unit of time is the most frequent. Some are demand oriented, others are supply oriented, and focus on the input-output sectors of the economy. Some use only observed. objective data; others use subjective. anticipatory data. Both large and small models are included. In spite of the diversity, the contributors have cooperated to trace the differences between their models to root causes and to report jointly the results of their research. There are also some general papers that look at model performance from outside the CEME group.

Getting Ahead

Getting Ahead PDF Author: Daniel P. McMurrer
Publisher: The Urban Insitute
ISBN: 9780877666745
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Adapted in part from the "Opportunity in America" series of policy briefs, this volume focuses on social and economic mobility in the United States. Class or family background has a strong effect on individual success, the authors find. They examine the possible reasons for this relationship; how it has changed over the past century; and the role of the economy, the welfare system, and education in opening up opportunities for the less fortunate.

Econometric Models of Cyclical Behavior

Econometric Models of Cyclical Behavior PDF Author: Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Economic Stability
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
Conference report on dynamically stable econometrics models of business cycles in the USA and their forecasting properties - examines methodologycal problems, analyses stochastic and non-stochastic simulations in respect of economic policy, etc., and stresses the need for further studies and research. Diagrams, references and statistical tables. Conference held in Cambridge 1969 November 14 and 15.

Risk Topography

Risk Topography PDF Author: Markus Brunnermeier
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022609264X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
The recent financial crisis and the difficulty of using mainstream macroeconomic models to accurately monitor and assess systemic risk have stimulated new analyses of how we measure economic activity and the development of more sophisticated models in which the financial sector plays a greater role. Markus Brunnermeier and Arvind Krishnamurthy have assembled contributions from leading academic researchers, central bankers, and other financial-market experts to explore the possibilities for advancing macroeconomic modeling in order to achieve more accurate economic measurement. Essays in this volume focus on the development of models capable of highlighting the vulnerabilities that leave the economy susceptible to adverse feedback loops and liquidity spirals. While these types of vulnerabilities have often been identified, they have not been consistently measured. In a financial world of increasing complexity and uncertainty, this volume is an invaluable resource for policymakers working to improve current measurement systems and for academics concerned with conceptualizing effective measurement.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness PDF Author: Carol Graham
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815724047
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
In The Pursuit of Happiness, the latest addition to the Brookings FOCUS series, Carol Graham explores what we know about the determinants of happiness, acrossand within countries at different stages of development. She then takes a look at just what we can do with that new knowledge and clearly presents both the promise and thepotential pitfalls of injecting the "economics of happiness" into public policymaking. This burgeoning field, largely a product of collaboration between economists and psychologists, is gaining great currency worldwide. One of a handful of pioneers to studythis topic a mere decade ago, Graham is understandably excited about how far the concept has come and its possible utility in the future. The British, French, and Braziliangovernments already have introduced happiness metrics into their benchmarks of national progress, and the U.S. government could follow suit. But "happiness" as a yardstick to help measure a nation's well-being is still a relatively new approach, and many questions remain unanswered. The Pursuit of Happiness spotlights the innovative contributions of happiness research to the dismal science. But it also raises a cautionary note about the issues that stillneed to be addressed before policymakers can make best use of them. An effective definition of well-being that goes beyond measuring income —the Gross National Productapproach —could very well lead to improved understanding of poverty and economic welfare. But the question remains: how best to measure and quantify happiness? While scholars have developed rigorous measures of well-being that can be included in our statistics —as the British are already doing —to what degree should we use such metrics to shape and evaluate policy, particularly in assessing development outcomes? Graham considers a number of unanswered questions, such as whether policy should be more concerned with increasing day-to-day contentment or with providing greater opportunity to build a fulfilling life. Other issues include whether we care more about the happiness of today's citizens or that of future generations. Policies such as reducing our fiscal deficits or reforming our health care system, for example, typically require sacrificing current consumption and immediate well-being for better long-run outcomes. Another is whether policy should focus on reducing misery or raising general levels ofwell-being beyond their relatively high levels, in the same way that reducing poverty is only one choice among many objectives in our macroeconomic policy. Employing the new metrics without attention to these questions could produce mistakes that might undermine the long-term prospects for a truly meaningful economics of well-being. Despite this cautionary note, Graham points out that it is surely a positive development that some of our public attention is going to better understanding and enhancing the well-being of our citizens, rather than emphasizing the rootsof their divide.