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The purpose of this article is to explain how the failure of neoclassical economics to embrace Keynes' arguments with regard to the long-run tendency of the economic system to trend toward stagnation and to ignore the problems endemic in the economics of debt facilitated the adoption of economic policies in the United States that contributed to the economic, political, and social problems we face today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness and housing insecurity in the United States are not so much a housing problem or a poverty problem as a visible sign that growing wealth inequality has left millions of people unable to earn enough to afford adequate housing. The classical economists David Ricardo and Henry George linked wealth inequality by arbitrage to unequal income and wages. The greater the inequality of wealth, the greater the inequality of income and the lower the wages at the bottom. Neoclassical economics has largely obscured this relationship. Consequently, proposals from both conservatives and liberals to address homelessness focus narrowly on housing. Ultimately, reducing wealth inequality requires national tax reform and a return to vigorous antitrust enforcement. However, cities can reduce local inequality by making property tax assessments uniform, or, better yet, by shifting to taxing land only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoclassical economic theory delivered upon its promise. It showed how the liberation of markets from government constraints could bring about a rapid expansion in the production of consumer goods. That was a major accomplishment. However, it came with a price in terms of social fragmentation, economic inequality, and a planetary ecosystem that is now overwhelmed by human activity. Continuing to follow the course plotted by conventional economics is a path to disaster. The world needs alternatives. Marxism has been tried and found wanting in many respects, including its abysmal environmental record. This article offers help from an unlikely source: insights of Reformed Protestantism that can be traced back to John Calvin in the 16th century. Although Calvin and Calvinism are better known for a harsh view of human sinfulness, Calvin also contributed to the development of liberal democracies by advocating representative government, universal education, and greater participation by more people. Reformed theology emphasizes the importance of widespread participation in decisions, including economic decisions, at every level of society, and provides a positive role for institutions, including government, to protect the common good. It also points toward the need to situate economic policy in the larger domains of social and ecological health. Above all, it denies the validity of any economic system that deifies economics as such, and provides criteria for judging the effectiveness of economic systems as well as the evils of externalizing social and environmental costs in the name of a false efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on three papers within the issue: "Long-Term Effects of Government Deficits on the U.S. Output Potential," by George von Furstenburg, "Capital Formation and the Recent Productivity Slowdown," by Peter Clark, and "U.S. Productivity Growth Recession: History and Prospects for the Future," by Michael McCarthy. The author discusses each article and criticizes their shortcomings. He looks at von Furstenburg's use of the Phelps-Shell model of dynamic economic growth and notes the usefulness of neoclassical growth theory. The author feels that his discussion on the effects of government deficits on output growth or productivity represent a fruitful economic analysis innovation.

This article looks at how the brokerage business is changing. Drawing upon results of a survey among real estate professionals, the author reveals an increasing public discontent with poor service, anticompetitive practices, and excess charges, but forecasts that change will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Survey participants also predict that specialized professionals will supplant certain of the functions now performed by the broker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American corporate sector saw major rearm movements during the 1980s. Despite frequent admixture in practice, two key movements can be singled out as analytically distinct: financial restructuring (generally debt-financed, often involving mergers), and total quality management (a particular approach to productive restructuring). Unfortunately the precepts and practices of these movements often clashed. This paper examines these tensions and explores them by reference to economic theories of the firm associated with each movement. While financial restructuring has been interpreted through the lens of neoclassical agency theory, total quality management has strong links with alternative approaches that can be grouped under the heading 'capabilities theory'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern macroeconomic theories are customarily classified as either neoclassical or Keynesian. Neoclassical theories are those that assume that most markets are in equilibrium most of the time; in particular, they generally assume that the labor market is always in equilibrium. Keynesian theories are those that assume that many markets are in disequilibrium much of the time; in addition to the labor market, they generally assume that financial markets and markets for capital goods are often in disequilibrium, in this paper, we will be interested in the extent to which a theory assumes that markets are in equilibrium, rather than in the intellectual tradition of the theory, so we will classify theories as "equilibrium theories" or "disequilibrium theories." We will be interested in dynamic theories, which describe the development of prices, stocks, and flows of goods and services over time, rather than in static theories, which describe the impact of events such as a one-time change in tastes, technology, or government policy. One of the purposes of this paper is to develop an aggregate model of the development over time of an economy that includes money and that is in continual equilibrium in the sense described above. Such a model would help in the analysis of the properties of a competitive monetary economy, and would be a logical starting point for the analysis of such phenomena as unemployment and changes in the rate of inflation. Since most Keynesian models of the economy do not pretend to be equilibrium models, let us turn to the neoclassical models of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the incorporation of antitrust regulation under neoclassical economics in the U.S. Topics discussed include laws governing antitrust in the country; incorporating antitrust under evolutionary biology and evolutionary economics; and enactment of Sherman Act governing the same in the country.

This article introduces and analyzes a Walrasian model of worker flows, job flows, vacancies, and unemployment. Calibrating the model to U.S. data, the article finds that all variables comove with output quite well but that they fluctuate too little. However, the failure is not as bad as in 'Shimer's puzzle.' Interestingly, the article also finds that introducing establishment dynamics into the model, while realistic, is irrelevant for understanding unemployment and vacancy fluctuations: The business cycles of the model with establishment dynamics are virtually the same as those of a version with a representative firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern day antitrust policy is grounded firmly in neoclassical economics. It is important, however, to test whether the modelling assumptions accord with the facts. It is also important to assess whether behavior that deviates from the conventional assumptions is systematic and persistent. If the relevant facts suggest that consumers or firms might behave in ways that depart from conventional assumptions, then private parties, government agencies and the courts should consider alternate economic models that account appropriately for the observed behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which addresses the the impacts that employment regulations have on companies' firing costs, efforts to reduce their demand for labor, and youth employment rates in the U.S. American labor markets and the hiring of workers are mentioned, along with job opportunities for young people in America. Other topics include minimum wage laws, monopolies, and neoclassical economic theory. Labor supply and demand in the U.S. and age discrimination statutes are also examined.

The article reflects on the role of money in ecological valuation in the U.S. Topics discussed include monetization of ecosystem services, challenges for capturing nonmarket values, and environmental policy. Also discussed are the fundamental concerns about the market models, internalization of the ecological externalities, and neoclassical economic model.

The article reflects on the valuation of ecosystem services beyond monetization in the U.S. Topics discussed include the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that emerged in 2003 with the concept of ecosystem services, monetization of all ecosystem services, and rise of ecological economics from the alternative to neoclassical economics.

The article reflects on the ecosystem services (ES) in the U.S. Topics discussed include the contribution of ecosystem goods and services towards the welfare of people and society, monetization of ES, and the anthropocentric concept of ES. Also discussed are the neoclassical environmental economic approaches.

Economic development, especially in the Least Developed Countries (LDC), requires use of intellectual property without always compensating the rights holders in the most developed countries.2 Unconventionally, this Article uses neoclassical economics to provide a rational solution to access rights in the LDC while respecting the first principle of intellectual property right--utilitarianism. The price discrimination model provides a useful rubric to segregate developed country markets from developing country markets. Furthermore, it also provides a subtle test in the case of individual uses of intellectual property as to which should be tolerated in developing nations as uncompensated uses and which should be punished as piracy due to their subverting the economic incentive necessary to promote the creation of intellectual property in the more developed nations. This Article concludes that in the long run, tolerated uncompensated uses in nascent LDC markets are more efficient engines of economic development than direct foreign or sporadic technology transfer and therefore, are in the developed countries' best interests to promote a stable global community through economic development in the LDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral economics is both mainstream and timely. The financial crisis raised important issues of market failure, weak regulation, moral hazard, and our poor understanding of how key markets operate. One therefore expects lawyers and economists to bring the current economic thinking to competition agencies, some of which are already taking note. How should the competition agencies respond? This article examines how competition agencies can consider behavioral economics' implications on four levels: first as a gap filler, that is, to help explain “real world” evidence that neoclassical economic theory cannot explain; second, to assess critically the assumptions of specific policies, such as merger review and cartel prosecutions; third, to revisit fundamental questions, such as what is competition and what are the goals of competition law; and fourth, to assess how behavioral economics will affect the degree of convergence of competition law among the over 100 jurisdictions with competition laws today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United States, commentators and politicians demonstrate a deep-rooted persistent adherence to a neoclassical model of the labor market, where a minimum wage increase is seen as an inevitable cause of unemployment, as it is assumed to occur at a point where the labor market was initially in equilibrium. The work of the Minimum Wage Study Commission (1981) uncovered the small size of the unemployment inflation effect, and the new minimum wage research also has corroborated this. Seen against these findings, the persistent rhetoric of sizeable “unemployment effects” of minimum wage increases simply shows the power of employers in a capitalist system. This paper suggests that counteracting the rhetoric is best done by recognizing the agency of the minimum wage worker and portraying this worker not as one who may “suffer unemployment” under a wage increase but who chooses to work fewer hours if hourly wages and benefits become sufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on history, purpose and significance of the use of the traditional neoclassical economic model by the patent scholars to analyze the economic effects of patent law. It examines the costs and benefits of patent law in order to increase social welfare, profit maximization and productive efficiency. It discusses the contributional efforts of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in development of traditional intellectual property scholarship.

The article focuses on U.S. Judge Guido Calabresi's contributions to contemporary American legal theory. Topics include Calabresi's book "The Costs of Accidents," critical legal studies in the U.S., and liberal-rights theory. Information is provided on law and neoclassical economics, tort law in the U.S., and products liability.

The article focuses on U.S. Judge Guido Calabresi's article "Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts." Topics include neoclassical law and economics, free market economics, and the development of tort law in the U.S. Information is provided on property rights in the U.S., tort liability, and resource allocation theory.

Many new technologies display long adoption lags, and this is often interpreted as evidence of frictions inconsistent with the standard neoclassical model. We study the diffusion of the tractor in American agriculture between 1910 and 1960-a well-known case of slow diffusion-and show that the speed of adoption was consistent with the predictions of a simple neoclassical growth model. The reason for the slow rate of diffusion was that tractor quality kept improving over this period and, more importantly, that only when wages increased did it become relatively unprofitable to operate the alternative, labor-intensive, horse technology. (JEL L62, N51, N52, N71, N72, O33, Q11) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis on the factors that caused the 2008 global financial crisis in the U.S. It discusses various explanations of the crisis and the solutions offered by economists from the four schools of thought which include Neoclassicals, Keynesians, Institutionalists and Marxists. It also provides useful insight and view from the different schools of thought regarding the government's response to address the problem and the economic imbalances of the nation. Furthermore, it explores the Marxists' concept on the systemic causes of the crisis and its suggestion on the need for the government to initiate investigations and interventions.

In this article we consider the economic ideas that have influenced climate disruption law both in the USA and the EU. Although economic thought has led to the adoption of ‘market-based’ mechanisms in both places, its impact has been different: it created regulatory inertia in the USA, and green leadership in the EU—at least with respect to responding to climate disruption. We argue that different culture-specific economic conceptions about appropriate policy and policy analysis may help explain this divergence, thereby illustrating both various economic ideas and their distinct impact on climate law, as well as the need for environmental lawyers to engage with a discipline outside their own. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bayesian rationality is the paradigm of rational behavior in neoclassical economics. An economic agent is deemed rational when she maximizes her subjective expected utility and consistently revises her beliefs according to Bayes's rule. The paper raises the question of how, when and why this characterization of rationality came to be endorsed by mainstream economists. Though no definitive answer is provided, it is argued that the question is of great historiographic importance. The story begins with Abraham Wald's behaviorist approach to statistics and culminates with Leonard J. Savage's elaboration of subjective expected utility theory in his 1954 classic The Foundations of Statistics. The latter's acknowledged fiasco to achieve a reinterpretation of traditional inference techniques along subjectivist and behaviorist lines raises the puzzle of how a failed project in statistics could turn into such a big success in economics. Possible answers call into play the emphasis on consistency requirements in neoclassical theory and the impact of the postwar transformation of U.S. business schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding employment for African American women through the lens of neoclassical economics may not be best to help understand their plight. Their pay and the available employment has not been equal to that of men and even more so, African American women have lower paying jobs compared to their white counterparts, despite their achievement of higher levels of education. This paper looks at unemployment rates across the nation and then centers the discussion on black women in the context of the disparities over the past three decades. It combines the types of employment and wages that they have endured in context to white women during the same period of time. It uses Geographical Information Systems to underscore the concentration of income and race and the types of employment in those areas. It then provides some policy recommendations for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Recession of 2008 and onward has drawn attention to the American economic and financial system and has cast a critical spotlight on the theories, policies, and assumptions of the modern, neoclassical school of law and economics--often labeled the "Chicago School"--because this school of legal economic thought has had great influence on the American economy and financial system. The Chicago School's positions on deregulation and the limitation or elimination of oversight and government restraints on stock markets, derivative markets, and other financial practices are the result of decades of neoclassical economic assumptions regarding the efficiency of unregulated markets, the nearreligious- like devotion to a hyper-simplified conception of rationality and self-interest with regard to the persons and institutions participating in the financial system, and a conception of laws and government policies as incentives and costs in a manner that excludes the actual conditions and complications of reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 2000 census and the 2001-08 American Community Surveys, this paper examines the impact of 9/11 on the earnings of US veteran men. Our hypothesis is that the surge in patriotism after 9/11 improved their relative earnings, but this earnings effect was short-lived. In addition, we further consider whether this effect was equally felt across race/ethnicity and along regional dimensions. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find a significant short-term improvement in the relative earnings of US veteran men following 9/11. However, additional analyses suggest that this earnings effect did not evenly occur across demographic and geographic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the intellectual and structural change that German economics experienced after the Second World War. This development often was described as ‘Americanisation’, since it seemed to rest upon the influences of the American occupation regime. In contrast, the paper applies another meaning of ‘Americanisation’. It is considered a ‘discourse’ that serves to structure the disciplinary procedures to produce progress. As it can be shown by the adoption of Keynesianism and neoclassical microeconomics, the change of the discipline was not primarily driven by direct American influences. Rather, in some respect the German reception took a path of its own. That contradiction can be solved by a theoretical modification of the classical concept of ‘Americanisation’. ‘Americanisation’ there meant a change of the operational procedure of German economics to generate progress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the Chicago School of Antitrust and why it should not apply to antitrust law post-2000. Topics include price theory, how economic theory influences U.S. antitrust law, and the Chicago School of Economics. Information is provided on per se legality, broad safe harbors, and the plausibility standard.

The severity of the financial meltdown in September 2008 was such as to trigger major innovations in US public policy, including the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Quantitative Easing, the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The greater public spending associated with many of these changes was initially widely supported, but has now become the subject of sustained criticism from conservative economists and politicians whose self-confidence has rapidly recovered from the blow initially rendered to it by the financial meltdown. After the 2010 midterm elections, with control of the House of Representatives returned to fiscally conservative Republican legislators, deficit reduction emerged as the dominant issue in Washington politics, constraining the capacity of the White House to effectively pursue further stimulus spending. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on the historical institutionalists' emphasis on the effects of ideas on policy making, this paper focuses on the importance of economic ideas and ideologies on China's trade policy making with regard to the signing of the WTO agreement with the United States in 1999. The paper argues that trade liberalization in China was a result of top Chinese leaders' embrace of neoclassical economic ideas which conceive a small role for the state in the marketplace, mainly as the regulator of the macro-economic environment and as the enforcer of the rule of law, rather than as a major player in the marketplace. Top Chinese leaders' socialization with neoclassical economic ideas enabled them to forge a political consensus to link state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms with speedy WTO accession and led to China's major concessions in WTO negotiations with the United States in 1999 which were inconceivable just a few years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the neoclassical model of economics and the erosion of middle class values. It describes the sociopathic nature of person as taught in neoclassical economics and argues for the significance of middle class values of honesty, integrity and concern for community to a healthy society and efficient markets. It examines the advocacy of self-interest as approved behavior, the possibility to change students' moral structures by neoclassical preachments and the notion that neoclassical theory of person pervades the law school curriculum.

The article offers information on the negative effect of market failures in the society. It states that the neoclassical models for the Chicago and Australia Schools of free market economics infused and guided U.S. government policy and enforcement in the past three decades. Thus, it leads to severe cut backs in regulation of banking and investment industries. It notes that Wall Street had repeated market bubbles and collapses showed in by subprime meltdown in 2008. According to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, they are in a state of shocked disbelief, after the sudden economic collapse.

Like most capitalist crises, today's challenges economists, journalists, and politicians to explain and to overcome it. The post-1930s struggles between neoclassical and Keynesian economics are rejoined. We show that both proved inadequate to preventing crises and served rather to enable and justify (as “solutions” for crises) what were merely oscillations between two forms of capitalism differentiated according to greater or lesser state economic interventions. Our Marxian economic analysis here proceeds differently. We demonstrate how concrete aspects of U.S. economic history (especially real wage, productivity, and personal indebtedness trends) culminated in this deep and enduring crisis. We offer both a class-based critique of and an alternative to neoclassical and Keynesian analyses, including an alternative solution to capitalist crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies industry-level dynamics and demonstrates the ability of a modified neoclassical growth model to capture a range of empirical facts. The paper begins by using U.S. data to document skilled and unskilled labor trends within industry sector classifications as well as industry sector output trends. Using Current Population Survey data from 1968 to 2004, it is shown that the ratio of skilled workers to unskilled workers employed has risen in all industries. The absolute increase in this ratio was larger in the more skilled industries, while the growth rate was larger in the less skilled industries. Furthermore, using national income account data, it is shown that relatively high-skilled industries have accounted for an increasing share of output over time. A version of the neoclassical growth model is then constructed to match these observations. One important feature of this model is a structure that introduces new goods into the economy at each moment of time. The model is able to capture a rich set of labor market movements between sectors and between skill levels as well as changes in the relative output shares across industries, yet preserves many nice features of the neoclassical growth model.( JEL E13, J20, 030) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the views and actions of economist Jacob Viner as a proponent of the Chicago School of economics monetary tradition. A review of Viner's published and unpublished material is examined to provide evidence reflecting his position with regard to monetary issues during the 1930s. Some economic historians name Viner as the one of the fathers of the Chicago monetary tradition, while others associate him as a leader of the "early" Chicago economic school. Viner's view of the role the bank's played in the Great Depression, his proposals regarding compensatory monetary policy between 1931 and 1936, and the evolution of his monetary framework marking an increased preference for fiscal policy are analyzed.

In this paper, we argue that calls for widespread implementation of ethics measurement systems would be better informed by institutional economic analysis. Specifically, we assert that proponents of such systems must first recognize and understand the institutions that potentially impede such efforts. We identify two potential institutional impediments to measuring ethics and social responsibility. First, we suggest that neoclassical economics, supported by traditional business education and legal precedent, serves to reinforce the notion that shareholders are the primary corporate constituency group. Such an emphasis on the needs of shareholders severely hinders implementation of measurement systems that address the needs of multiple stakeholder groups. Second, we argue that the threat of litigation may constrain corporate managers from measuring and considering ethics and corporate social responsibility matters. In particular, managers may be reluctant to quantify various ethical concerns if the resulting measurements could be used as evidence against the corporation in a lawsuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious diversity—the suite of options available to believers in a given area—is an intriguing phenomenon that is under-researched by geographers, though not by other social scientists. This paper examines the geography of religious diversity in the southeastern U.S. It offers an alternative to the neoclassical economics and social ecology perspectives by employing an approach borrowed from island biogeography to explain the spatial structure of religious diversity. Regression analyses using data from the Glenmary Research Center reveal that the relationship between denomination counts and county population size is strong and consistent over a wide range of southern states. Several interpretations of the data are provided, including an evaluation of positive and negative residuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of German-speaking immigrant economists in the United States in the development of American neoclassical economics from 1933 to 1945. The economists were the first members of the original Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. They were part of the University in Exile, which was established by Alvin Johnson, director of the New School.

This paper presents methods to analyze convergence in cross-sectional data collected over time using distribution free statistics that are not sensitive to the magnitudes involved. Measures of concordance and discordance are employed in the empirical analysis of real personal income per capita for 48 U.S. States over the period 1929–2002. Although most States are converging with each other, some are converging faster than others. The methods used have the flexibility to focus on specific characteristics such as convergence in absolute differences or convergence in the ratio of rewards. The methods may also be used to consider convergence without switching and additionally be applied to other features such as the percentiles of the distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout much of the legal community, the term "economics" evokes memories of undergraduate micro- and macroeconomic courses. At most American colleges and universities, these courses focus almost exclusively on neoclassical economic theory,' which forms the foundation of what is thought of as mainstream economics in the United States. Therefore, it also should not be surprising that law professors and others who come from backgrounds that have been marginalized and oppressed by the policy instruments constructed using neoclassical economic theory, both generally and as it has infiltrated the law and legal thinking, would devote greater effort to interrogating mainstream economic theory, than those who benefit from the ideologically determined distributions of assets, resources, and opportunities that this system achieves.

This article emphasizes that business schools have the potential for making a major contribution to the evolution of antitrust policy in the U.S. Antitrust policy is unbalanced. Like a two-legged stool, it wobbles in a state of disequilibrium. The two legs are law and neoclassical economics. Law comes at the relationship between the state and the private sector through objective rules and remediation for violating authoritative communal norms. Economics comes at it through the decentralized but objective interaction of supply and demand in the market. Missing is the focus on the subjective world of both the firm and the managers who make decisions within the firm and the consumers who purchase from the firm. By providing this perspective, business schools have the potential for making a major contribution to the evolution of antitrust policy. The disciplines of marketing and strategic management can be the third leg that gives the antitrust stool stability. Business schools possess the ability to help antitrust move beyond neoclassical abstractions about economic man.

New Millennium economics evolved out of neoclassical economics over the last 100 years. The pace of change increased over time and in the first half of the 21st century, the economics profession changed as much, or more, than it did in the last half of the 20th century. The changes occurred both because of the internal tensions in the profession in the second part of the 20th century and because of technological changes that affected both the research methods of economics and the structure of higher education generally. In this paper I consider that evolution. I will organize my discussion in two sections: the first focusing on changes in the structure of economic education; the second focusing on changes in the content of what economists do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the advent of neoclassicism in the U.S. economy at the dawn of the 20th century. At the dawn of the 20th century, the concern of almost every major debate was not how to lift long-term growth or improve efficiency, but rather, what standards and what institutions should determine the distribution of the bounties of the new economy. American neoclassical economics in the last decade of the 19th century grew up in an intellectual legacy heavily shaped by "Progress and Poverty," a best-selling radical reform manifesto written in a curiously scholarly tone by the self-taught journalist, economist, Henry George. The new American version of neoclassicism had a relatively modest impact on the normal science of most economists. Neoclassicism in America cogently expressed progressives' frustration with the changing economy of 1900. Like other progressives, but in a much more structured manner, the neoclassicists built their norms as an extension and idealization of a mid-19th century American community.

Examines the Great Depression in the United States from 1929 to 1933 from the perspective of neoclassical growth theory. Background discussion on the neoclassical theory; International comparisons of economic declines; Analysis of three classes of real shocks considered important in typical business cycle fluctuations; Information on monetary shocks.