Books: Summer, 2003
Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States
University of Chicago Press,
Order Department,
11030 South Langley Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60628-2215; (800) 621 2736.
Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, edited by Robert A. Moffitt, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $95.00. In just the last ten years, we have seen means-tested transfer programs -- programs for which some test of resources is required for recipients -- such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). At the same time, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has grown from a minor program to one of the most important for low-income families, and Medicaid has greatly expanded its eligibility to new groups. This NBER Conference Report covers all nine major U.S. means-tested programs, discussing each program's institutional history, current rules and caseloads, expenditures, and recipient characteristics; it also summarizes recent research. The result is a "one-stop source" for information and analyses that have not been put together in a single accessible volume before.
Moffitt is an NBER Research Associate and a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.
Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States
University of Chicago Press,
Order Department,
11030 South Langley Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60628-2215; (800) 621 2736.
Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States, edited by Seiritsu Ogura, Toshiaki Tachibanaki, and David A. Wise, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $99.00. This is the fourth volume resulting from a collaboration between the NBER and the Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER); its thirteen papers feature analyses of important features of employment practices and fringe benefit systems in Japan and the United States. The book opens with a general assessment of the recent rise in the U.S. economy and the prospects for remaining at the "peak." Following an extensive exploration of labor markets in Japan, chapters six through eight deal with health and pension issues in the United States. The final four chapters examine benefit policies in Japan. As with all volumes in this series, the papers collected here are primarily investigations of discrete topics rather than comparisons between the two countries --studies undertaken in part to produce a critical mass of empirical data that will allow such comparisons in the future.
Ogura is associated with the Japan Center for Economic Research. Tachibanaki is a professor at the Institute of Economic Research of Kyoto University. Wise directs the NBER's Program on Aging and is a professor of economics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Together the three also coedited the most recent JCER-NBER collaboration, Aging Issues in the United States and Japan, published in 2001.
The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations
University of Chicago Press,
Order Department,
11030 South Langley Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60628-2215; (800) 621 2736.
The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations, edited by Edward L. Glaeser, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $55.00.
This NBER conference volume describes governance issues in several different types of not-for-profit institutions, including art museums, hospitals, and Renaissance chapels. It also discusses the theoretical underpinnings of governance issues and for-profit behavior. Taken together, these papers advance the empirical knowledge of the dynamics involved in operating not-for-profit firms and underline the key distinctions between for-profits and not-for-profits.
Glaeser is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a professor of economics at Harvard University.
