Editors’ Summary of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity – 1979 No 1

George L. Perry and

George L. Perry Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies

Arthur M. Okun

AMO

Arthur M. Okun

THIS ISSUE OF BROOKINGS PAPERS contains the papers and discussions
presented at the twenty-seventh conference of The Brookings Panel on
Economic Activity in Washington, D .C., on April 26 and 27, 1979. Three
articles report new research that extends and, at times, amends our understanding
of areas that have been explored in previous Brookings papers.
The first analyzes labor market dynamics and unemployment, a topic
that has received attention in this journal several times, beginning with
Robert Hall’s article in 1970. The second examines business fixed investment,
bringing to bear the experience of the seventies on some questions
raised by Charles Bischoff’s article in 1971. The third, which considers
the appropriate response of monetary and fiscal policy to supply shocks,
follows up the analysis by Robert J. Gordon in 1975. Five shorter reports
in this issue address a range of current topics of theoretical and policy
importance.