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BPEA | Spring 2006

Editors’ Summary of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity – 2006 No 1

Spring 2006


THE BROOKINGS PANEL ON Economic Activity held its eighty-first conference
in Washington, D.C., on March 30 and 31, 2006. This issue of the
Brookings Papers includes the papers and discussions presented at the
conference. The first paper takes a new approach to assessing the boom in
home prices, using a model that parallels the one commonly used to value
assets such as stocks. The second analyzes labor force participation and its
determinants and projects future labor force growth. The third examines
changes in wealth by age group and relates them to changes in law and the
economy and to demographic characteristics. The fourth examines the
present defined-benefits pension system and considers how to reform its
regulation and insurance by the federal government.