AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 9, September 1997
The Digest
A free monthly publication featuring non-technical summaries of research on topics of broad public interest
Wealthy enrollees pay more into Medicare than poorer people do (in the form of general federal tax revenues and payroll taxes). However, they reap greater benefits over their lifetimes because they live longer and use more medical services.
Hear the phrase "Medicare beneficiary" and you might picture someone counting pennies in a modest house or apartment. Think again. According to a study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, those who...
Article
To a substantial extent, the computer revolution explains the increasing wage gap that started to develop in the 1980s between those with a college education and those with a high-school education or less.
The rapid spread of computer technology in the workplace may explain as much as 30 to 50 percent of the extra growth in the demand for more-skilled workers since 1970, according to a study by David Autor, Lawrence Katz, and Alan Krueger. To a substantial extent, the...
Article
... employment at affiliates in developing countries is very sensitive to wages in other developing countries, but employment at the parent responds very little when foreign affiliate wages fall.
Critics have alleged that U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) export U.S. jobs when they expand abroad. For instance, several groups campaigned against NAFTA on the grounds that it would encourage U.S. plants to locate south of the border and to substitute cheap Mexican...
Article
...changes in lending standards have the greatest impact during expansions when banks sow the seeds of future recessions by lending to borrowers who are likely to default.
The popular press has been full of assertions lately that the business cycle is dead. The growth of the less cyclical service and government sectors, better inventory management by manufacturers, and the revolutionary effects of new information technologies all have been offered as reasons why...