Editors’ Summary of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity – 1991 No 2

William C. Brainard and

WCB

William C. Brainard

George L. Perry

George L. Perry Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies

THIS ISSUE of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity contains papers
and discussions presented at the fifty-second conference of the Brookings
Panel on Economic Activity, which was held in Washington, D.C.,
on September 12 and 13, 1991. The first paper examines how poverty in
the United States worsened during the 1980s. The second paper explores
the apparent upward drift in the natural rate of unemployment.
The third attempts to disentangle the determinants of house prices. The
first report of this volume looks for evidence of a credit crunch in the
banking sector. The second report analyzes current state and local fiscal
problems. A special symposium of four short papers examines prospects
for the political and economic future of the republics of the former
Soviet Union.