Monthly Archives: August 2013

Fiscal Stimulus & the Open Economy Relative Multiplier

Posted on August 29, 2013 by ozidar

From a recent draft fiscal stimulus in a monetary union by Emi Nakamura and Jon Steinsson: We exploit regional variation in military spending in the US to estimate the effect of government spending on output in a monetary union. We use … Continue reading →

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A Model of the Safe Asset Mechanism (SAM): Safety Traps and Economic Policy

Posted on August 28, 2013 by ozidar

From Caballero and Fahri: The global economy has a chronic shortage of safe assets which lies behind many recent macroeconomic imbalances. This paper provides a simple model of the Safe Asset Mechanism (SAM), its recessionary safety traps, and its policy … Continue reading →

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The Decline, Rebound, and Further Rise in SNAP Enrollment: Disentangling Business Cycle Fluctuations and Policy Changes

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ozidar

From Peter Ganong and Jeff Liebman: Approximately 1-in-7 people and 1-in-4 children received benefits from the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in July 2011, both all-time highs. We analyze changes in SNAP take-up over the past two decades. From 1994 … Continue reading →

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Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ozidar

Originally posted on owenzidar:
Dylan Matthews has a nice post on the inequality & skill biased technical change debate between David Autor, who is one of my favorite labor economists, and some folks at EPI. I wanted to highlight this…

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Who Benefits from Technological Change?

Posted on August 25, 2013 by ozidar

Given recent concern about technological change and how it is wrecking the middle class, I thought I’d share a simple illustration of what classical economic models* imply about the relationship between productivity growth and the returns to workers and capital owners. … Continue reading →

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Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labor Markets

Posted on August 24, 2013 by ozidar

From David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson: We juxtapose the effects of trade and technology on employment in U.S. local labor markets between 1990 and 2007. Labor markets whose initial industry composition exposes them to rising Chinese import competition … Continue reading →

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Is Forgiving Student Loans the Worst Idea Ever?

Posted on August 22, 2013 by ozidar

The third pillar of President Obama’s new college affordability plan is “ensuring that student debt remains affordable.” Here’s a bit more detail: The President has proposed allowing all student borrowers to cap their federal student loan payments at 10 percent of … Continue reading →

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The Growth of Low Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market

Posted on August 21, 2013 by ozidar

From David Autor and David Dorn: We offer an integrated explanation and empirical analysis of the polarization of U.S. employment and wages between 1980 and 2005, and the concurrent growth of low skill service occupations. We attribute polarization to the … Continue reading →

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When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South

Posted on August 20, 2013 by ozidar

From Richard Hornbeck and Suresh Naidu: In the American South, post-bellum economic development may have been restricted in part by white landowners’ access to low-wage black labor. This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on black … Continue reading →

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Physician Beliefs and Patient Preferences: A New Look at Regional Variation in Health Care Spending

Posted on August 19, 2013 by ozidar

From David Cutler, Jonathan Skinner, Ariel Dora Stern, and David Wennberg: There is considerable controversy about the causes of regional variations in healthcare expenditures. We use vignettes from patient and physician surveys, linked to Medicare expenditures at the level of … Continue reading →

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