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Economic Studies News

• Karen Dynan and Ted Gayer Named Co-Directors of Economic Studies at Brookings
• Martin Baily Named the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development
• Brookings Appoints Romer, Wolfers as New Editors for Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
• Joshua M. Epstein Receives 2008 NIH Director's Pioneer Award
• Alice M. Rivlin Selected as One of the 25 Greatest Public Servants Over the Past 25 years.
  

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Past Events

A Year in Turmoil: An Address By Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
September 15, 2009

The Budget, the Deficit, the Future
July 8, 2009

The Changing Fortunes of the U.S. Workforce: What's Driving Income Inequality
June 23, 2009

View all Events

In the News: October

Business and Finance

• Portfolio Investments for a Weakening Dollar
  October 7, 2009
  Business Week
  The rule of thumb is that a 10% decline in the exchange rate would lower the current account balance by between 1% and 1.5% of GDP, requiring one to three years for the full effect to be seen, according to Barry Bosworth, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

• Lawmakers would curb Federal Reserve's power, not expand it
  October 1, 2009
  Los Angeles Times
  Former Fed Gov. Alice M. Rivlin also said it would be a mistake to increase the Fed's regulatory powers because it would distract from the central bank's monetary policy role. "Do we want to augment the regulatory authority of the Fed? . . . My answer is no," said Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "My sense is many people would be nervous about that augmentation."

Tax and Fiscal Policy

• U.S. Corporate Tax Hikes Likely Delayed
  October 13, 2009
  Reuters
  "The inescapable truth is that deficits will grow unless taxes increase," wrote Brookings Institution economists Henry Aaron and Isabel Sawhill, in a Washington Post editorial on Tuesday. The two economists from the center-left leaning think tank suggest a VAT be enacted only after unemployment falls, or after a certain period of time. They propose that the funds raised be used to get a handle on healthcare spending, which has risen at double the rate of inflation in recent years.

• How to cut unemployment: tax credit for employers who hire?
  October 7, 2009
  Christian Science Monitor
  Ted Gayer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, favors a tax credit because he is skeptical about the government’s ability to push stimulus spending in the right places. “The employment tax credit just goes into the labor market,” he says, adding that it lowers company’s wage structure to make them more competitive. But if the tax break is given only to companies that hire new workers, it could create distortions in the competitive marketplace, he says. New firms might have an advantage over older companies, or companies may trade workers to get the tax credit. And as Congress begins to discuss the issue, some firms might hold off on hiring. “Timing matters,” says Mr. Gayer. “The more you dither, then people will wait on the sidelines and not hire now. You want it to be immediate and you want it to go a set length.” Gayer worries the program might get extended like the “Cash for Clunkers” scheme, quoting Milton Friedman: ‘There is nothing as permanent as a temporary government program.’ ”

• Home Buyer Tax Credit: Necessary or Evil?
  October 5, 2009
  CNBC.com
  On the other end of the spectrum, Ted Gayer, Co-director, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution, claims the "tax credit is very poorly targeted. Approximately 1.9 million buyers are expected to receive the credit, but more than 85 percent of these would have bought a home without the credit. This suggests a price tax of about $15 billion – which is twice what Congress intended – for approximately 350,000 additional home sales. At $43,000 per new home sale, this is a very expensive subsidy."

• We're broke ... time for a new tax
  October 1, 2009
  CNN Money
  Currently, the notion of a VAT is "a non-starter from a political perspective," said William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, at a Center for American Progress conference this week.

Health Care

• Health Reform Threatened by Doctors' Reimbursement Rates
  October 21, 2009
  Time
  "The Administration is prepared to promise to do what any administration would do anyway, but that doctors now have to spend time and energy to forestall, in return for support from physicians on the Administration's most important domestic policy initiative," says Henry Aaron, a senior fellow for health policy at the Brookings Institution. "This seems to me to be a good deal for both sides. The question now is whether Congress will go along."

• Health plan’s effect on costs may be slight
  October 12, 2009
  Boston Globe
  "The truthful answer is, we’re trying things out,’’ said Henry J. Aaron, a health economist at the Brookings Institution. “When exactly the [cost] curve gets bent and how far it bends eventually is something no responsible person can give a hard answer to today.’’

• How Much Will the H1N1 Flu Cost the U.S.?
  October 8, 2009
  PBS NewsHour
  The Brookings Institute looked at the cost of closing schools in a recent report, finding it could cost between $35 and $157 per student. If schools throughout the country closed for four consecutive weeks, the report predicts a loss of $10 to $47 billion in economic activity, or 0.1 to 0.3 percent of GDP. With children out of school, parents would have to find ways to work from home or take time off. Some of those parents would be health care workers, further straining the health care system.

• Vote on Key Health Bill Delayed for Cost Report
  October 6, 2009
  Washington Post
  Mark McClellan, like Thompson a prominent member of President George W. Bush's administration, also urged lawmakers on Monday to seize the moment. "The health-care problems facing this country are urgent and large, and we need to do something about them," said McClellan, a former Medicare and Medicaid administrator who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "I don't want to miss this opportunity."

Social Policy

• 1 in 6 Americans Live Below the Poverty Line
  October 20, 2009
  ABC News/World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson
  "We haven't seen rates this high, especially for certain groups, for 25, 30 years," said Ron Haskins, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a former White House and congressional advisor on welfare issues…"Next year it will be worse, no question," Haskins said. "One of the main causes is rising unemployment and the numbers we have now is only through 2008."

• Is The American Dream A Myth?
  October 17, 2009
  National Journal
  As Brookings Institution scholars Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill demonstrate in a compelling new book, America's record doesn't entirely justify this optimism. Haskins, a former Republican congressional aide, and Sawhill, a former Clinton administration budget official, are two of America's sharpest social-policy analysts. Their book, Creating an Opportunity Society, collects decades of pragmatic insights into the challenge of re-creating an economy that works for all…