American Economic Association Nashville, Tennessee 0022-0515 Journal of Economic Literature 38 3 September 2000 483568 Assessing Affirmative Action HarryHolzerDavidNeumark Economic research provides extensive evidence regarding discrimination against women and minorities, and some evidence on the redistributive effects of affirmative action. However, it provides much less evidence on affirmative action's impact on efficiency or performance, perhaps the key economic issue in the debate over affirmative action. This review covers all of these issues, but focuses on the efficiency/performance question, drawing on economics and other disciplines. The evidence suggests to us that affirmative action can be implemented with relatively little efficiency loss. Most importantly, the empirical case against affirmative action on the grounds of efficiency is weak at best. http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/contents/September2000.html American Economic Association Nashville, Tennessee 0022-0515 Journal of Economic Literature 38 3 September 2000 569594 Understanding Productivity: Lessons from Longitudinal Microdata Eric J.BartelsmanMarkDoms This paper reviews research that uses longitudinal microdata to document productivity movements and to examine factors behind productivity growth. The research explores the dispersion of productivity across firms and establishments, the persistence of productivity differentials, the consequences of entry and exit, and the contribution of resource reallocation across firms to aggregate productivity growth. The research also reveals important factors correlated with productivity growth, such as managerial ability, technology use, human capital, and regulation. The more advanced literature in the field has begun to address the more difficult questions of the causality between these factors and productivity growth. http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/contents/September2000.html American Economic Association Nashville, Tennessee 0022-0515 Journal of Economic Literature 38 3 September 2000 595613 The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead Oliver E.Williamson This paper examines the progressive development of the new institutional economics over the past quarter century. It begins by distinguishing four levels of social analysis, with special emphasis on the institutional environment and the institutions of governance. It then turns to some of the good ideas out of which the NIE works: the description of human actors, feasibility, firms as governance structures, and operationalization. Applications, including privatization, are briefly discussed. Its empirical successes, public policy applications, and other accomplishments notwithstanding, there is a vast amount of unfinished business. http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/contents/September2000.html American Economic Association Nashville, Tennessee 0022-0515 Journal of Economic Literature 38 3 September 2000 614626 The Emigration of German-Speaking Economists after 1933 F. M.Scherer Economists were among the many scholars uprooted following Hitler's rise to power in 1933. This article reviews a series of books edited by Harald Hagemann and others which provide extensive biographical information on 314 German-speaking economists whose professional opportunities were shattered by Nazi policies. It evaluates the impact of the massive emigration on economic research and teaching in Germany and Austria and in the nations to which most of the economists emigrated. An analysis of 1966-70 data reveals that the emigres' cited publication counts were equivalent to the citations of three leading U.S. economics departments. http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/contents/September2000.html American Economic Association Nashville, Tennessee 0022-0515 Journal of Economic Literature 38 3 September 2000 627633 A Review of Markets for Clean Air: The U.S. Acid Rain Program by A. Denny Ellerman, Paul L. Joskow, Richard Schmalensee, Juan-Pablo Montero, and Elizabeth M. Bailey PeterCramton Markets for Clean Air is the definitive text on the U.S. acid rain program. This innovative program uses a cap-and-trade approach, rather than the traditional command-and-control approach, to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. The authors conclude that the program was successful in cutting the costs of SO2 emission reductions by about half, saving tens of billions of dollars. Both scholars and policy makers will have a better sense of the virtues and pitfalls of market-based regulation after reading this. http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/contents/September2000.html