On July 27, the International Monetary Fund released a study on the relationship between democracy and economic reform. It found that while democracy encourages economic reform, there is no evidence that economic reform encourages democracy.
On July 26, Morgan Stanley published an analysis of unemployment insurance with details on how the program works and its economic effects.
On July 20, the House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing on the science of economics for the real world. Among those testifying was Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Solow, author of the standard economic model of long run economic growth.
Also on July 20, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published a review of various structural reforms and their impact on economic growth in the short run and long run.
In a July 16 blog post, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta economist Dave Altig speculated that the increase in long-term unemployment is converting much cyclical unemployment into structural unemployment. That is, the longer a worker has been unemployed the less likely he or she will find a job even when the economy returns to full employment.
Also on July 14, the IMF released a working paper on the cause of the US credit crisis. It focuses on uncertainty about the riskiness of new financial products. Building on economist Irving Fisher’s debt-deflation model, the authors’ model predicted a financial collapse beginning in 2007.
On July 14, the London School of Economics published an e-book on the future of finance in light of recent developments. Although written for a UK audience, many of the issues discussed relate to the US as well. Economist Simon Johnson reviewed the book’s findings in a July 15 post.
In a July 9 commentary, University of Chicago economist Ragusa Rajan argued that governmental efforts to encourage home ownership among those with low incomes was an effort to redress rising income inequality.
On July 7, the National Federation of Independent Business released a survey of small business owners. By a wide margin they identified poor sales as their single biggest problem.
In a July 2 commentary, Jim Heskett of the Harvard Business School questioned an excessive focus on profit by businesses. He argues that high profitability is often a by-product of a focus on other things such as customer service and cultivating an effective labor force. Heskett notes that those companies regularly rated as the best places to work tend to be more profitable than direct competitors.
In a July 1 working paper, the OECD attempted to estimate the impact on growth of higher oil prices and capital costs.
In a July study, Kauffman Foundation economist Tim Kane looked at job creation and destruction by firm age. He finds that new startups create the vast majority of new jobs; the longer a firm has been in business the less likely that its job creation exceeds its job destruction.
In a June 22 working paper, Chapman University economists Steven Gjerstad and Vernon L. Smith argue that virtually all postwar business cycles were essentially housing cycles, with housing leading both downturns and recoveries.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Read his most recent column here. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).