DISCUSSION.

The article presents discussions by economists on some papers, related to economics, published in the May 1, 1953 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." The author states that in seeking to analyze wage levels under full employment, there is need to sharpen issues, to develop hypotheses and to test them by experience. According to the author, economist Albert Rees in his paper related to wage levels under full employment, fails to put sufficient stress on certain institutional factors affecting employment and his assumptions with respect to the processes by which wage increases occur in the U.S. under full employment appear to be open to question. Part of Rees's analysis runs in terms of labor demand and supply and whether they are evenly balanced at existing wage rates. He even refers to economist Abba Lerner's proposal to achieve some such balancing, though dismissing it as rather impractical. Not only is it impractical, the proposal itself reveals a remarkable unawareness of the nature of hiring and employment practices in modern industry, such as hiring at the bottom of the occupational ladder, promotion from within the plant, seniority in lay-off and opportunity for promotion and benefits according to length of continuous service with the firm.