Internal Migration in the United States

By Raven Molloy, Christopher L. Smith, and Abigail Wozniak

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

This paper examines the history of internal migration in the United States since the 1980s. By most measures, internal migration in the United States is at a 30-year low. The widespread decline in migration rates across a large number of subpopulations su...

Esther Duflo: 2010 John Bates Clark Medalist

By Christopher Udry

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

Esther Duflo, winner of the 2010 John Bates Clark Medal, has made extraordinary contributions to development economics. She exemplifies and has played a vital role in the renaissance of development economics over the past decade. She has erected and inspi...

Retrospectives: Hume on Money, Commerce, and the Science of Economics

By Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

David Hume (1711-1776) is arguably the most esteemed philosopher to have written in the English language. During his lifetime, however, Hume was as well if not better known for his contributions to political economy, particularly for the essays published ...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

Correspondence: David H. Autor and Bruno S. Frey

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2011

Reflections on the Natural Rate Hypothesis

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By Joseph Stiglitz

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

Does the deviation of unemployment from some natural rate provide a robust and useful way to predict changes in the inflation rate? Can economists explain why the NAIRU changes over time? Is the NAIRU a useful way to frame policy discussions despite the u...

The Time-Varying NAIRU and Its Implications for Economic Policy

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By Robert J. Gordon

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

The NAIRU, the unemployment rate consistent with a constant rate of inflation, is estimated, in this paper, as a parameter allowed to vary over time. Value is determined in an econometric model where the inflation rate depends on its past values, demand a...

The NAIRU, Unemployment and Monetary Policy

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By Douglas Staiger, James H. Stock, and Mark W. Watson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

This paper examines the precision of conventional estimates of the NAIRU and the role of the NAIRU and unemployment in forecasting inflation. The authors find that, although there is a clear empirical Phillips relation, the NAIRU is imprecisely estimated,...

What We Know and Do Not Know about the Natural Rate of Unemployment

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By Olivier Blanchard and Lawrence F. Katz

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

Over the past three decades, much research has attempted to identify the determinants of the natural rate of unemployment. The authors reach two main conclusions about this body of work. First, there has been considerable theoretical progress over the pas...

Theory Ahead of Language in the Economics of Unemployment

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By Richard Rogerson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

This paper discusses, from the perspective of modern theories of unemployment, several unemployment concepts that have been used over the years. It argues that many of these concepts are of limited value and are dominated by a few simple concepts that are...

Time to Ditch the NAIRU

[Symposium: The Natural Rate of Unemployment]

By James K. Galbraith

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

The concept of a natural rate of unemployment, or nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), remains controversial after twenty-five years. This essay presents a brief for no-confidence, in four parts. First, the theoretical case for the natu...

Explaining Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-Serving Biases

By Linda Babcock and George Loewenstein

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

The authors review studies conducted by themselves and coauthors that document a 'self-serving' bias in judgments of fairness and demonstrate that the bias is an important cause of impasse in negotiations. They discuss experimental evidence showing that (...

An Introduction to Applicable Game Theory

By Robert Gibbons

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

This paper offers an introduction to game theory for applied economists. The author gives simple definitions and intuitive examples of four kinds of games and their corresponding solution concepts: Nash equilibrium in static games of complete information;...

Capacity Utilization

By Carol Corrado and Joe Mattey

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

This article reviews how the Federal Reserve measures capacity utilization and explains why capacity utilization has been, and likely will remain, a useful indicator of inflationary pressures and business cycle fluctuations. The authors also explain why e...

Policy Watch: The 1996 Welfare Reform

By Rebecca M. Blank

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

Welfare reform legislation was passed in the summer of 1996. Four key research questions that the new law presents to social scientists are as follows: (1) Can states design and operate better programs than AFDC? This includes questions about the ability ...

Retrospectives: Classical Family Values: Ending the Poor Laws as They Knew Them

By Joseph Persky

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

Poor law reform in the early 1830s provides a key example of the deep conflicts between classical liberal principles of self-reliance and the realities of dependency. Eminent economists, such as Nassau Senior and Thomas Malthus, argued that the dependency...

Anomalies: The Equity Premium Puzzle

By Jeremy J. Siegel and Richard H. Thaler

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

The equity premium is the difference in returns between equities and fixed income securities, such as Treasury bills. The puzzle refers to the fact that the premium has historically been very large--about 6 percent per year--too large to be easily explain...

Recommendations for Further Reading

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

Correspondence

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997