Kenneth Snowden
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226073842
- eISBN:
- 9780226093284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226093284.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
As the U.S. grew rapidly and urbanized between 1870 and 1930, nonfarm residential construction and home mortgage debt became increasingly important to the nation’s capital formation, financial ...
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As the U.S. grew rapidly and urbanized between 1870 and 1930, nonfarm residential construction and home mortgage debt became increasingly important to the nation’s capital formation, financial structure, and short-run aggregate performance. However, during this period, both activities remained highly localized, institutionally diverse, and unevenly regulated activities. This all changed during the Great Depression when the Federal Government responded to the worst housing and mortgage crisis in the nation’s history with a five-year burst of regulatory initiatives. The NBER played a central role in the academic discussion of residential construction and mortgage finance that blossomed over the next quarter century. Between 1935 and 1960, the Bureau sponsored six distinct research programs that produced thirteen major monographs examining the performance and transformation of the housing and mortgage markets. When viewed collectively, these works provide a broad and deep analysis of residential construction and financing before World War I, through the boom and bust of the interwar years, and during a remarkable post-World War II expansion.Less
As the U.S. grew rapidly and urbanized between 1870 and 1930, nonfarm residential construction and home mortgage debt became increasingly important to the nation’s capital formation, financial structure, and short-run aggregate performance. However, during this period, both activities remained highly localized, institutionally diverse, and unevenly regulated activities. This all changed during the Great Depression when the Federal Government responded to the worst housing and mortgage crisis in the nation’s history with a five-year burst of regulatory initiatives. The NBER played a central role in the academic discussion of residential construction and mortgage finance that blossomed over the next quarter century. Between 1935 and 1960, the Bureau sponsored six distinct research programs that produced thirteen major monographs examining the performance and transformation of the housing and mortgage markets. When viewed collectively, these works provide a broad and deep analysis of residential construction and financing before World War I, through the boom and bust of the interwar years, and during a remarkable post-World War II expansion.
Robert William Fogel, Enid M. Fogel, Mark Guglielmo, and Nathaniel Grotte
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226256610
- eISBN:
- 9780226020723
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226020723.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that ...
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We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn't the case—economists simply did not have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy. This book tells the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking—Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover's interest in business cycles as President Harding's commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression—and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making.Less
We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn't the case—economists simply did not have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy. This book tells the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking—Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover's interest in business cycles as President Harding's commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression—and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making.
Robert William Fogel, Enid M. Fogel, Mark Guglielmo, and Nathaniel Grotte
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226256610
- eISBN:
- 9780226020723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226020723.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter discusses the history of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It covers the prewar origins of the NBER; the role (and limitations) of economists during World War I; and the ...
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This chapter discusses the history of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It covers the prewar origins of the NBER; the role (and limitations) of economists during World War I; and the founding of the NBER in 1920.Less
This chapter discusses the history of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It covers the prewar origins of the NBER; the role (and limitations) of economists during World War I; and the founding of the NBER in 1920.
Joseph R. Blasi, Richard B. Freeman, Christopher Mackin, and Douglas L. Kruse
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226056951
- eISBN:
- 9780226056968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226056968.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter analyzes the relationship of various forms of shared capitalist compensation to six workplace outcomes—turnover, absenteeism, perceived effort of co-workers, loyalty to the firm, ...
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This chapter analyzes the relationship of various forms of shared capitalist compensation to six workplace outcomes—turnover, absenteeism, perceived effort of co-workers, loyalty to the firm, willingness to work hard, and frequency of worker suggestions to improve productivity from the perspective of shared capitalism. It also examines employee responses to questions about their response to shared capitalist incentives and analysis using the General Social Survey (GSS) and NBER data sets. It states that shared capitalism affects workplace performance and substantiated by the fact that the results from the NBER sample are broadly similar to the results from the nationally-representative GSS. Shared capitalism is linked to lower turnover and greater loyalty and willingness to work hard, particularly when combined with high-performance policies, low levels of supervision, and fixed pay at or above market levels. Workplaces where workers average more shared capitalist compensation report greater employee effort along several dimensions.Less
This chapter analyzes the relationship of various forms of shared capitalist compensation to six workplace outcomes—turnover, absenteeism, perceived effort of co-workers, loyalty to the firm, willingness to work hard, and frequency of worker suggestions to improve productivity from the perspective of shared capitalism. It also examines employee responses to questions about their response to shared capitalist incentives and analysis using the General Social Survey (GSS) and NBER data sets. It states that shared capitalism affects workplace performance and substantiated by the fact that the results from the NBER sample are broadly similar to the results from the nationally-representative GSS. Shared capitalism is linked to lower turnover and greater loyalty and willingness to work hard, particularly when combined with high-performance policies, low levels of supervision, and fixed pay at or above market levels. Workplaces where workers average more shared capitalist compensation report greater employee effort along several dimensions.
Jeffrey Liebman and David A. Wise
Jeffrey R. Brown (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226076485
- eISBN:
- 9780226076508
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226076508.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This book compiles selected studies conducted through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Center for Retirement Research. This center was created in 2003 with funding from the U.S. Social ...
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This book compiles selected studies conducted through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Center for Retirement Research. This center was created in 2003 with funding from the U.S. Social Security Administration and is structured to provide analysis that can inform Social Security policy. While some of the center's research focuses directly on Social Security reform, other research aims to inform Social Security policy by analyzing the changing economic environment in which future Social Security beneficiaries will live. An empirical evidence on how the default provisions of retirement saving plans impact savings behavior along multiple dimensions has been obtained. The financial footing of the Social Security system depends importantly on the longevity of program participants. In the past few decades, longevity in the United States has increased substantially, adding to the financial burden on the Social Security program.Less
This book compiles selected studies conducted through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Center for Retirement Research. This center was created in 2003 with funding from the U.S. Social Security Administration and is structured to provide analysis that can inform Social Security policy. While some of the center's research focuses directly on Social Security reform, other research aims to inform Social Security policy by analyzing the changing economic environment in which future Social Security beneficiaries will live. An empirical evidence on how the default provisions of retirement saving plans impact savings behavior along multiple dimensions has been obtained. The financial footing of the Social Security system depends importantly on the longevity of program participants. In the past few decades, longevity in the United States has increased substantially, adding to the financial burden on the Social Security program.
John Y. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226092119
- eISBN:
- 9780226092126
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226092126.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics
This volume is a collection of papers presented at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conference at the Wequassett Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts, on May 5–6, 2006. The papers explore the ...
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This volume is a collection of papers presented at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conference at the Wequassett Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts, on May 5–6, 2006. The papers explore the relationship between asset prices and monetary policy from the point of view of macroeconomic stability. Several papers ask what monetary authorities can learn. Asset prices are treated not as ultimate goals of monetary policy, nor as variables that can be directly controlled, but as indicators of macroeconomic conditions to which monetary authorities can respond. An overview of these contributions is presented.Less
This volume is a collection of papers presented at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conference at the Wequassett Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts, on May 5–6, 2006. The papers explore the relationship between asset prices and monetary policy from the point of view of macroeconomic stability. Several papers ask what monetary authorities can learn. Asset prices are treated not as ultimate goals of monetary policy, nor as variables that can be directly controlled, but as indicators of macroeconomic conditions to which monetary authorities can respond. An overview of these contributions is presented.
Alessandro Brunetti and Emanuele Felice
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199944590
- eISBN:
- 9780190218850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199944590.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
The point was made by Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the U.S. president, in his famous speech of March 1968: the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country measures everything except what makes life ...
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The point was made by Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the U.S. president, in his famous speech of March 1968: the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country measures everything except what makes life worthwhile. Even if scholars agree that the wellbeing of a nation cannot be fully described by its GDP, there is a lot to be learned from this indicator. We present new estimates of Italy’s GDP covering the whole 150-year history of unified Italy, and show how and when Italy succeeded in reaching the standards of the other advanced economies. New regional GDP estimates show a spectacular rise of territorial imbalances: in the entire history of Italy, economic convergence has been the exception rather than the rule. The last twenty-five years have seen per-capita GDP stop growing, while economic inequalities and poverty indicators have started to rise. How serious is the prospect of Italy’s economic decline?Less
The point was made by Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the U.S. president, in his famous speech of March 1968: the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country measures everything except what makes life worthwhile. Even if scholars agree that the wellbeing of a nation cannot be fully described by its GDP, there is a lot to be learned from this indicator. We present new estimates of Italy’s GDP covering the whole 150-year history of unified Italy, and show how and when Italy succeeded in reaching the standards of the other advanced economies. New regional GDP estimates show a spectacular rise of territorial imbalances: in the entire history of Italy, economic convergence has been the exception rather than the rule. The last twenty-five years have seen per-capita GDP stop growing, while economic inequalities and poverty indicators have started to rise. How serious is the prospect of Italy’s economic decline?
