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A study to determine the impact of job displacements on earnings losses of workers in Connecticut from 1993 to 2004 is presented. The results show the difference from those found in study using data from Pennsylvania. The finding has settled the conflicting results of high-quality studies that used differing data sources to study earnings reductions after loss of employment.

The relationship between income and consumption inequality in the United States is examined. An imputation procedure based on food demand estimates is used to create a panel data on consumption. A disjuncture between income and consumption inequality is attributed to changes in income shocks persistence.

The daily labor supply of New York City taxi drivers and the effects of a reference daily income level are studied. This reference level changes on a day-to-day basis and is often not met before the shifts of taxi drivers end.

We study a dynamic version of Meltzer and Richard's median-voter model of the size of government. Taxes are proportional to total income, and they are redistributed as equal lump-sum transfers. Voting takes place periodically over time, and each consumer votes for the tax rate that maximizes his equilibrium utility. We calibrate the model to U.S. data. Key elements in the calibration are the income and wealth distribution and the parameters governing the leisure and consumption choices. The total size of transfers predicted by our political-economy model is quite close to the size of transfers in the data.

Uninsurable income risk and future borrowing constraints tend to decrease the financial assets of a household. Investors are found to diminish their risky assets in the face of uninsurable income risk. Data from the 1989 Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth show that Italian households' risky assets form only a fraction of their wealth due to highly erratic returns, transaction costs and control of security markets, among others.

Constant returns to accumulation in time and cross-sectional analysis eliminate decreasing returns as a prerequisite for income convergence. This convergence setting does not project actual capital flows from capital mobility. Incomes are expected to converge when nonaccumulated income exhibits a cross-sectionally heterogeneous character. Persistent but static dynamics are then observed for income and consumption as individuals maximize savings.

The practicality of switching from an income tax to a consumption tax is predicated upon potential efficiency gains. A simpler method for separating efficiency gains is presented. Research indicates that switching tax bases may not result in efficiency gains.