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Copyright of European Mirror / Európai Tükör is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A stochastic framework for coordination of macroeconomic policies is introduced in this paper. It is suggested that: (i) measures of policy accountability should allow for the climate of uncertainty that surrounds policy decisions, and (ii) most models of aggregate economic activity impose arbitrary specifications of uncertainty that do not appear to be empirically justifiable. Ambiguities in interpreting the Humphrey-Hawkins reports of policy authorities are sketched in section II; a proposal for maximizing the ex ante prospects of policy objectives is illustrated in section III; finally, nonstationary allocations of uncertainty are discussed in sections IV and V. This paper provides a brief survey of ongoing work by members of the Federal Reserve Board staff on the role of uncertainty in policy forecasts. It suggests that policy discussion could be improved by more explicit consideration of the allocation of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers insights on the industrial symbiosis an the field of ecology in the U.S. It introduces regional studies to industrial symbiosis and the field of ecology to which it belongs, and then summarizes each of the papers contributing to the issue. It presents conclusions about the potential overlapping between industrial symbiosis and regional development which claims that industrial symbiosis (IS) does have potential to generate regional environmental economic benefits. Nevertheless, increasing imperatives for regional sustainable economic development may dictate that IS system-scale approach to resource efficiency receive serious exploration.

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.

In this paper we empirically study the relation between public debt and economic growth. We analyze how the public debt to GDP ratio at a certain point in time is cor- related with the GDP growth rate in the following period, where we consider a one-year time span, a three-year time interval and a five-years interval. Using panel data comprising seven developed countries from 1970-2012, we estimate a pooled regression model and a random effects model. We find some evidence for a significantly negative relation between debt and growth. Further, for most specifications this relationship does not seem to be characterized by non-linearities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign-trade zones (FTZs) are restricted-access sites where domestic and foreign goods are stored, manufactured, or assembled. Products foreign bound from an FTZ do not pay duties, tariffs, or ad valorem state taxes, yet are considered domestic goods. These zones are outside of US Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) jurisdiction and are considered foreign territory. FTZs are intended to promote economic development, provide a competitive advantage to US firms, and improve access to foreign markets for US manufacturing firms. However, while these zones can positively impact local economies, they may attract investment away from underserved regions, thereby exacerbating spatial inequality. This paper analyzes the spatial relationship between the number of FTZs, median household income, unemployment rates, income growth rates, and the number of manufacturing firms by county in the Southeastern United States. Results from this study find that counties with FTZs in the Southeast have significantly higher economic output than counties without access to FTZs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Census Bureau has now recognized micropolitan places, which are sometimes called emerging metropolitan areas or mini-metros. After the 1990 census, a total of 581 different non-metropolitan counties, forming 496 consolidated micropolitan areas, were assigned to this new settlement category. The first half of the paper analyzes the evolving geographic distribution and the shifting employment attributes (emphasizing job specialization) of these places during 1980–2000. Changes in the U.S. micropolitan landscape, reflecting the impressive growth of these places during the late 20th century, mirror other well-known national demographic and economic trends. The second half of the paper analyzes simultaneous population and employment change in micropolitan counties, using a series of partial adjustment models that control for various demographic, economic, and geographic factors. Evidently (initial and adjusted) population levels have induced both employment and population change in these places, but employment levels have failed to have the same impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comment on the paper "America's Historical Experience with Low Inflation." The author notes that while he agrees with much of the argument in the paper; however, he does not find it persuasive. He sets forth several instances that would cause the U.S. to be presented with rising inflation other than becoming involved in a war. One situation would be if the unemployment rate were to rise. The author suggests that the U.S. cannot become complacent and assume that a low-inflation environment will continue to thrive.

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we examine the convergence hypothesis using a long memory framework that allows for structural breaks and does not rely on a benchmark country using both univariate and multivariate estimates of the long memory parameter d. Using per capita GDP gaps, we confirm the findings of non‐stationarity and long memory behavior that have been found previously in the literature using univariate tests. However, the support for these findings is much weaker when using a multivariate framework, in which case we find more evidence of stationary behavior. Based on these results, we also investigate club formation, something that would suggest the presence of conditional convergence. We describe a club formation methodology using the sequential testing criteria that we have employed in our analysis as the basis for forming clusters or clubs of countries with similar convergence characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the influence of government ideology on economic policy-making in the United States. I review studies using data for the national, state and local levels and elaborate on checks and balances, especially divided government, measurement of government ideology and empirical strategies to identify causal effects. Many studies conclude that parties do matter in the United States. Democratic presidents generate, for example, higher rates of economic growth than Republican presidents, but these studies using data for the national level do not identify causal effects. Ideology-induced policies are prevalent at the state level: Democratic governors implement somewhat more expansionary and liberal policies than Republican governors. At the local level, government ideology hardly influences economic policy-making at all. How growing political polarization and demographic change will influence the effects of government ideology on economic policy-making will be an important issue for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers three results. First, in line with the previous literature, we confirm that fiscal adjustments based mostly on the spending side are less likely to be reversed. Second, spending-based fiscal adjustments have caused smaller recessions than tax-based fiscal adjustments. Finally, certain combinations of policies have made it possible for spending-based fiscal adjustments to be associated with growth in the economy even on impact rather than with a recession. Thus, expansionary fiscal adjustments are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out theory and measurement of how intangible investment might capture innovation and what data on intangibles look like for the EU, Japan, and the US. We also look at complementarities between information and communications technology (ICT) and intangibles, spillovers from intangibles to growth, and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Europe, knowledge transfer between industry and higher education underachieves when compared directly with the United States and Japan. Europe is usually considered among the best world performers in terms of research capacity, but this potential often fails to transform into innovative products and services and the potential contribution to economic growth is lost. Despite this shortfall in knowledge transfer, academia enjoys strong industrial links across Europe and can demonstrate high numbers of enduring industrial relationships. This paper draws on research and policy literature from the UK and French channel regions to present the respective regional innovation and economic policy in an attempt to frame why this shortfall in knowledge transfer exists. Regional development is considered within a European, national and regional context. Innovation and knowledge transfer are positioned as economic development factors, and are described through the approaches and activities of the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the policy responses to the global financial crisis, the international provision of US dollars via central bank swap lines stands out. This paper studies the build-up of stresses on banks' balance sheets that led to this coordinated policy response. We reconstruct the worldwide consolidated balance sheets of the major national banking systems to investigate the structure of their global operations across offices worldwide, shedding light on how their international asset positions were funded across currencies and counterparties. The analysis shows how the growth in European banks' US dollar assets produced structural US dollar funding needs, setting the stage for the global dollar shortage when interbank and swap markets became impaired. We demonstrate that such vulnerabilities are best measured along the contours of banks' consolidated balance sheets, rather than along national borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Barack Obama was elected US President, he was unusual in doing so with an urban image, an urban mandate and an explicit urban policy. This paper reviews his approaches to urban policy during the election and the first 100 days of his presidency, and asks what lessons the approach offers for UK urban policy. While a few of his early policy announcements, such as the establishment of the Office of Urban Affairs, have marked significant attempts to give greater voice to the cities, these policies have been secondary to his economic agenda. The economic stimulus will have mixed results for cities. While some targeted transport improvements are likely to benefit urban areas, the funding is largely administered by state government and so may not be targeted at urban problems. This emerging urban policy has two principal implications for UK policy makers: the need to consider the urban impact of national government policy and the suggestion that decentralisation is not enough to ensure successful governance of urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The author reflects on the implication of the essay, "The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics," by economist Robert Solow in the U.S. The author underlined the aspects of non-renewable source and its implication for an environmental policy. The author offered a parallel concept to Solow's ideas in terms of economics of rival and excludable exhaustible resources like fossil fuels. The author also investigated the impact of private exhaustible resources on the aspect of effective management.

Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to initially identify the spatial footprint of cluster areas. Geographic proximity (co- location) is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for potential clustering activity. Therefore, an assessment of industry location and density patterns becomes the first phase in the identification of potential cluster regions to be included in a cluster driven development policy. This paper compares the use of location quotients and Getis–Ord G i * in the identification of potential cluster regions in the transportation equipment industry of four states in the Midwestern USA. Also, both location quotients and G i * are used to classify counties with respect to their concentration of transportation equipment manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the controversial issue of regional development incentives. Although extensive research has been conducted, a review of the literature gives an inconclusive answer to whether economic incentives are effective. Why do researchers arrive at different conclusions, even after analysing the same programmes? Among the problems that we find, for example, is the fact that for some researchers ‘effective’ means the significant location of new firms in targeted areas, while for others the creation of jobs regardless of whether new firms are arriving in a significant fashion. Furthermore, as we elaborate, the selection of an econometric model will have a significant impact on expected results. Different models, with different limitations, will lead researchers to evaluate the same incentive programme but arrive at different conclusions regarding its effectiveness. The contribution of the paper is to inform policymakers about the potential opportunities and pitfalls when designing incentive strategies. This is particularly relevant, given that both the US and Europe have been promoting incentives as a tool for regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to his Nobel Prize-winning work in economic development and human capital, T.W. Schultz focused his attention most centrally on the economics of U.S. agriculture. His research on this subject, published mostly between 1932 and 1951, laid the foundation for his later work. However, the lasting value of Schultz's earlier work may appear to have been called into question even by the author himself. In the three books of collected writings he published toward the end of his life (Schultz, 1990, 1993a, 1993b), very few early writings are reprinted or even cited. Nonetheless, among agricultural economists, Schultz's earlier work has been as influential as his later work became among economists generally. In the American Economic Association's (1969) compilation, Schultz was referenced in the index more than any other economist, and all twenty-two references to his works refer to studies of U.S. agriculture (and only two of them to his work on human capital). In this paper, I review Schultz's contributions under two headings: the economics of farming and agricultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the activities of the Committee on Economic Statistics (AEAStat), which promotes American Economic Association (AEA) member access to current, detailed, useful economic statistics provided by the Federal government and other sources. AEAStat met 11 times in 2018 to discuss recent developments and what activities it wished to undertake.

This paper investigates the transitional dynamics of a basic Schumpeterian growth model under constant relative risk aversion. In this model, there are three patterns governing the evolution of wage inequality, but only if the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption is sufficiently low: (a) skill-biased technological change, i.e., technological progress leads to a widening of wage inequality; (b) unskill-biased technological change, i.e., technological progress leads to a contraction of wage inequality; and (c) unbiased technological change, i.e., technological progress is independent of wage inequality. By conducting comparative dynamics of an unexpected permanent increase in research productivity in any sector, which we interpret as the arrival of new general purpose technologies, we show that the property of technological change shifts entirely from unskill-biased to skill-biased. The evolution of wage inequality in the model is then consistent with the shift in the trend in wage inequality beginning in the 1970s in the US economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research to date suggests that occupation clusters may be at least as important as industry clusters in driving regional competitive advantage. A nationwide mapping of occupation clusters, with data available for every U.S. county and the capability to aggregate counties to a regional level, serves as a powerful complement to an understanding of industry clusters, the major focus of a previous EDA-funded project conducted by partners in this research team. This paper explains the importance of occupation cluster analysis, how 15 different occupation clusters were developed as part of this study, the results and products from the analysis, and the applications and implications of using occupation cluster analysis at the local and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to advance understanding of regional industry or innovation clusters and the opportunities that the cluster framework provides policy makers for delivering economic impact, clarifying economic priorities, and coordinating disparate programmatic efforts, and to articulate some basic principles for formulating cluster strategies. Methodology/approach - As the cluster concept enters its third decade and the body of related literature reaches a new level of maturity a consensus has emerged among academics and policy thinkers on the economic benefits of clusters. In fact, clusters have emerged as major focus of economic and policy discussion just now - in what the authors dub a "cluster moment" -by dint of their demonstrated practical impact, their value in paradigm discussions, and their potential utility in policy reform. The chapter reviews the benefits of clusters and traces their ascendance -and re-emergence post-recession - among policy thinkers. Findings - New research confirms that strong clusters tend to deliver positive benefits to workers, firms, and regions. As a paradigm, they reflect the nature of the real economy and as a matter of policy making, clusters provide a framework for rethinking and refocusing economic policy. In pursuing cluster-based economic development strategies, policy leaders should not try to create clusters; use data to target interventions, drive design, and track performance; focus initiatives on addressing discrete gaps in performance or binding constraints on cluster growth; maximize impact by leveraging pre-existing cluster-relevant programs; align efforts vertically as well as horizontally; and let the private sector lead. All three tiers of the nation's federalist system have distinct and complementary roles to play in advancing the cluster paradigm. Research limitations/implications (if applicable) - The paper includes no new/original data. Practical implications (if applicable) - Given that clusters have emerged as a major focus of economics and policy, this chapter lays out a core set of general principles for pursuing cluster-based economic development strategies - and for avoiding common pitfalls - to which policy makers can adhere. Originality/value of paper - The chapter advances cluster thinking and cluster strategies as a paradigm with the potential to accelerate regional economic growth and assist with the nation's needed restructuring and rebalancing toward a more productive post-recession economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with several of the issues induced by the present day crisis, as seen from an EU academic perspective. It draws on the fact that the triggering point was easily located by most European sources in the USA and tries to depict objectively this exogenous/endogenous situation that was distorted in so many ways by partisan views. Further on, it browses through the potential ways out of the crisis, analyzing schemes that could be interpreted as either global, European or/and Romanian ones. The whole approach has objectively embedded micro/macroeconomics content, as well as of economic policies within this negative juncture, but beyond this the focus would be on how these themes should be taught to Romanian undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Governance is becoming increasingly important in development and poverty reduction policies. However, the forms and methods by which it is to be incorporated into donor programs are only emerging at present. In this paper, we contrast two very different approaches—the White House led Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and DFID’s Drivers of Change (DOC) Approach—to analyzing governance, and compare their theoretical underpinnings. A key factor explaining why these different approaches have been adopted is that for the United States, global poverty reduction is a footnote to its foreign policy and national security agenda, whereas in the United Kingdom, global poverty reduction engages both the national political leadership and the civil society. In conclusion, the paper suggests that enduring contradictions confronted by all donors complicate the treatment of governance in empirically nuanced terms (as DOC attempts to do) while privileging a more universalistic approach like the MCA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the root causes of rising imbalances in the US economy. There is the view that the dominance of the liberal economic philosophy among the American decision makers and business elite resulted in marginalization of the role of the economic government. As a result, the US economy is facing problems in many sectors and might be poorly prepared to face the challenge of globalization in the knowledge-based industries. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides review and critique of the contemporary literature of "declininists" proclaiming the end of the American Empire. Findings - In order to restore the strength of the US economy and utilize its potential, Americans must consider a new generation of politicians and legislators capable of reforming the tax system, stepping up the supervision of the financial sector, eliminating inequality in education and reforming the electoral system. Research limitations/implications - America is at a turning point. The problems of the American economy are home-made, but their implications are international. In the last two decades the USA pursued a dysfunctional dual dependence on imports of manufactured goods and capital. Allowing the dollar devaluation has been a short-sighted policy which will have dire consequences on import-dependent economy and the USA's position in the world economy. Liberal prescriptions of self-regulating markets cannot replace long-term government economic strategy which America badly needs today. Practical implications - Since the liberal wishful-thinking failed, economists, politicians and legislators should stop evoking conservative liberal mantras and start working on responsible economic policy solutions before the US economy plunges into a deep recession and years of damaging pessimism. Originality/value - Rather than repeating arguments of the authors proclaiming the end of American Empire, the paper looks for chances and opportunities for the US economy's rejuvenation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ensayos de Política Económica is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we use the local maximum likelihood (LML) method proposed by Kumbhakar et al. (J Econom, 2007) to estimate stochastic cost frontier models for a sample of 3,691 U.S. commercial banks. This method relaxes several deficiencies in the econometric estimation of frontier functions. In particular, we relax the assumption that all banks share the same production technology and provide bank-specific measures of returns to scale and cost inefficiency. The LML method is applied to estimate the cost frontiers in which a truncated normal distribution is used to model technical inefficiency. This formulation allows the cost frontier, inefficiency effects and heteroskedasticity in both noise and inefficiency components to be quite flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature in the US has extensively examined the policies of state and sub-state areas that are well known for their anti-sprawl measures. This has resulted in little knowledge of what is happening elsewhere. This paper provides a case study of one of the lesser-known states, Michigan, which is representative of the vast majority of non-growth management states. The study finds that Michigan has been influenced by trends from the better-known areas. This has led to a host of state, regional and local-level initiatives, sometimes wrapped in the language of economic development, aimed at curbing sprawl. However, there is little evidence that these initiatives are successful. This is primarily due to the absence of state level mandates for planning, a lack of funding and a strong home rule tradition. The findings are probably repeated in many states across the nation: a proliferation of initiatives, which, with only few exceptions, will not represent best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper employs a methodology that enables the elicitation of the price and quantity of environmental capital (KN) at an aggregate macroeconomic level. The stock of KN considered here is confined to the air-shed of an economy that gets utilized in the process of economic growth. A time series study of the prices and quantities of KN enables an appreciation of the changing value of nature in economic growth. Despite improvements in the rate of utilization of KN, there is insufficient evidence of decreasing scarcity of KN in the case of both Australia and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the recent history of State-level policies in the United States for knowledge-based economic development, and identifies an emerging model based on technology creation. This new model goes beyond traditional investments in technology transfer and prioritizes cutting-edge scientific research in economically relevant fields. As research-intensive universities are indispensable for technology creation, these policies have yielded substantial new investments in university science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1996, Chrysler announced plans to build a replacement plant within 50 miles of its existing Toledo Jeep facilities. In theory, this presented an opportunity for alternatives to expensive ‘all or nothing’ individual competition; in practice, Toledo and other governments in the northwest Ohio/southeast Michigan region entered into the usual cutthroat contest when transnational corporations solicit incentive offers from across the United States. Chrysler's desire to remain within the region provides a unique context for analysing the opportunities and challenges associated with regional co-operation as an alternative to individual competition. In investigating the extent to which localities can co-operate and reduce wasteful incentives, this paper also identifies how the opportunities for such co-operation are limited. The research highlights the need to better incorporate this kind of region – without internal political coherence despite locational proximity – into conceptualisations and empirical analyses of regional co-operation, particularly with respect to issues of scale and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1970s there has been a series of economic and political transitions in the governance of the older industrialized cities of the global north. Grouped together, and commonly referred to as an entrepreneurial 'turn', this series of discrete but interlocking shifts in how the state intervenes and frames urban governance reveals much about the emergent geographies of neo-liberalization. Nation states have codified the inter-urban competition endemic in contemporary capitalism, building upon and reinforcing, rather than ameliorating, uneven economic development. Cities have thus been placed squarely in the front line of delivering national competitiveness. This is in sharp contrast to earlier representations of cities as relics of industrial glories and as financial drains on the nation's resources. In light of this changing portrayal, and building on earlier debates in CITY, this paper draws upon research in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester to question how the meaning of 'urban redevelopment' has been re-constituted in recent years, and in doing so it draws attention to what this might mean for issues of rights to the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable ambiguity exists regarding the assessment of regional economic development. Alternative measures often produce conflicting conclusions. Even if economic development progress is defined as improvement in economic welfare, it is not directly measurable. Therefore, this paper develops a theoretical framework that explores the potential linkages between regional utility and commonly used economic measures. State trends in these measures are then examined for the 1990s and related to the theoretical framework. The exercise reveals that no single measure should be preferred in assessing economic development, although it is possible to separate strong performers from weak performers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a dynamic conceptual model to describe US multinational corporations' responses to radical political regime changes in contemporary Latin America. The model describes four stages in the MNC response process: (1) the nature of the radical revolution in the host nation; (2) the new economic paradigm created by the revolutionary government; (3) the adjustments and readjustments made by both parties (the state and MNC) within the newly defined rules; and (4) the end result or outcome of the re-positioning process. Moderating the impact of the creation of the new economic paradigm are the host nation's national history, the host nation's domestic actors, US hegemonic power, international actors and economic development models. Within this mix, both state and MNC power influence what each other wants and can get from the other. This leads to a “negotiated” outcome from whence the response from theMNCis made. The revolutionary regimes in Chile (1970-1973) and Nicaragua (1979-1990) are examined within the context of the proposed conceptual model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was designed to reveal the economic, social, and environmental trade-offs associated with conventional economic growth as traditionally measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although originally designed for use at the national scale, an interest has developed in the United States in a state-level uptake of the GPI to inform and guide policy. This study presents the first fifty-state estimate for U.S. GPI in order to address questions over its design, implementation, and ultimate potential as a tool to guide state-level economic policy. Following a review of the current state of analysis and critique of GPI, we provide an overview of methodology and database development. Results are then presented, including discussion of lessons learned through a fifty-state application. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research and next steps to consolidating a consistent methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of African Americans and underdevelopment in the Mississippi Delta. The primary focus is on race-specific factors and their associations with social and economic development in the Delta. Data were obtained from The Southern Growth Policy's Southern County-Level Data Files (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1985) and a content analysis of racial conflicts in Mississippi beginning with the 1950s through the 1980s. The results of the analysis show that racial conflicts and a high concentration of poor African Americans are associated with the lack of new technology industries in Mississippi's core Delta counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the competition over technology policies by various domestic and foreign interest groups or stakeholders. An expected utility model is used to simulate the competition over the nature and direction of the American supersonic transport (SST) program in the 60s and 70s. The simulation shows that this rational choice approach offers a powerful analytical tool for examing technology and other foreign economic policy processes. The expected utility simulation allows for a more rigorous inspection of the explanations presented in the political economy literature which should allow scholars to further explore expectations and conclusions about strategic trade and other foreign economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on a paper which evaluated the challenges of designing short- and medium-run monetary policy for controlling inflation in the U.S. Anticipatory monetary policy was not universally popular or understood. A number of people asked how the U.S. Federal Reserve could be confident that inflation would have accelerated in the absence of tightening. Moreover, this was not the first time policy actions had been taken in advance of economic developments. For instance, short-term rates were raised in 1984 while unemployment was still elevated, helping to prolong the expansion. More recently, the U.S. Federal Reserve eased policy in 1989 when economic activity softened even as inflation was relatively high and rising. This comment focused on the problems encountered by the study's author, Stephen Cecchetti, in which he predicted future inflation by adding one indicator to past inflation. These tests suffered from a lack of consideration of structural issues. Indicator exercises by their nature submerge the fundamental behavior relationships among economic and financial variables. In addition, even some of the indicator variables themselves seem not to have been specified with close regard for a sense of the underlying structure of the economy or theory that might link the indicator to inflation.

For most of the 1980s the New York City economy surged, carrying its expensive municipal government along with it. the fiscal crisis of the middle 1970s had become a nearly forgotten product of fiscal mismanagement and the death throes of the industrial economy. The city framed its budget according to accepted accounting principles and with its newly achieved satisfactory bond rating, it could once again market its general obligation bonds. New York's restructured economy, based in finance and advanced services, reaffirmed its enhanced status as global city. Then, just as rapidly as the boom began, it ended. The 1987 stock market crash constituted the first harbinger of decline, nevertheless New York's economy continued to grow for the next two years, albeit at a slower pace. By the end of 1989, however, almost all indicators had turned down and for the years 1990 and 19991 New York City showed declines in employment, a virtually total real-estate slump and a drastic shortfall in tax revenues as compared to anticipated receipts. The paper examines the causes and outcomes of the two post-1970 fiscal crises to indicate the links between New York's economic base, the financial condition of its government, its politics and the way in which these factors intertwine.

Realistic estimates of economic depreciation are required for analyses of tax policy, economic growth and production, and national income and wealth. The purpose of this paper is to examine the stability assumption underlying the econometric derivation of empirical estimates of economic depreciation for industrial machinery and equipment. The results suggest that a reasonable stability of economic depreciation rates of decline may exist over time. Thus, the assumption of a constant rate of economic depreciation may be a reasonable approximation for further empirical economic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new frame work to measure the impact of an increase in government expenditure and/or money supply on unemployment is provided. The model and procedures introduced are used to estimate a long-run aggregate demand function for the US economy.
Recently many investigators have attempted to test the impact of an increase in government expenditure and/or money supply on economic growth in different countries. Unfortunately, to date, they have used statistical models which impose arbitrary a priori assumptions about the functional form for this purpose (see Section II).
This paper proposes a new approach that explicitly tests the functional form of the long-run aggregate demand function for the US using annual time-series data, 1890-1980, and appropriate maximum likelihood procedures. It is hoped that the estimates will provide new and fresh evidence to the debate over the appropriate statistical framework which should be used to estimate such aggregate demand functions and help to resolve the Monetarist vs Keynesian controversy on the role of monetary and fiscal policies in aggregate demand management.
The outline of the paper is as follows. In Section II the model and data used are discussed. Section III presents and analyses the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on econometric growth model of the U.S. There has been increasing concern among academic economists and other interested parties during the past several years about the related problems of economic growth and what appears to be an undesirably high plateau of persistent unemployment in the economy. The rates of growth of capital formation and output in the U.S. have been compared unfavorably with those of both the Soviet Union and the resurgent economies of Western Europe. At the same time, the recent tendency of the unemployment level in the U.S. to remain above 5 per cent of the labor force even during comparative boom periods has been a matter of some consternation. Whether the first problem exists or can be simply attributed to the free market's reflection of a utility function which possesses a positive time preference for current output as opposed to the future production of goods and services, and whether the second problem can be blamed upon such disaggregated factors as technological changes, shifts in demand, and labor immobility are questions which it is hoped can be at least partially answered in this paper.

Industrial recruitment is often portrayed by economic development scholars as an inferior or ‘second-best’ strategy to those that promote ‘home-grown’ enterprise. But this characterization overlooks improvements to industry recruitment that state and local agencies have adopted in recent decades and the underlying factors that contribute to this effort. Drawing on two case studies of strategic industrial recruitment in the U.S. South, this paper makes the case for industrial recruitment as embedded practice—rooted in placespecific contexts, adaptive and open to change, and governed by a range of institutional actors. The result is both a more strategic approach to local industrial recruitment, and also one designed to complement—not undermine—other local economic development practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Committee on Government Relations, a subcommittee of the American Economic Association charged with representing the interests of the economics profession in Washington, DC and other locations around the U.S. The Committee, established in 2009, does not take positions on questions of economic policy or on any partisan matter.

ABSTRACT We reveal evidence that the US aggregate bank dividends exercise a causal impact on the US real GDP growth during the period from the introduction of the Prompt Corrective Action framework in 1992 until the outburst of the subprime mortgage market crisis in 2007. Over this period, the positive signalling effects of bank dividends outperform the negative effect of dividends on default risk. During the pre-Prompt Corrective Action and the recent post-2007 periods, bank dividends do not affect GDP growth. This regime-dependent relation is due to an asymmetric role of bank default risk. These findings are of interest to bank regulators in reassessing the role of bank dividends within Basel III and carry important policy implications as bank dividends constitute an important tool available to policy makers for strengthening real activity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Several studies in psychology and economics have demonstrated that the average cognitive ability (talent) of people living in a society affects the economic development of the society. There is, however, reason to expect that the economic development of societies depends not just on the average level of talent but also on the allocation of talent in society — societies that allocate people with different talents more efficiently should be more successful in economic terms. Efficient allocation of talent means that people with higher ability do jobs of higher complexity. The present paper constructed several measures of allocation of talent and analyzed their effect on the economic growth rate of countries and U.S. states. Overall, the analyses support the idea that the countries and states that have a better allocation of talent exhibit higher levels of economic growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]