Did the 2008 rebate fail to stimulate consumer spending? In their influential AER articles, John Taylor and Martin Feldstein each claim that BEA aggregate time series data show that the 2008 rebate failed. Re-examining the BEA data, we find that the data instead show there is a high probability...

It is often assumed that if an income tax is converted to a consumption tax, the resulting change in the capital/labor ratio of the economy depends on the saving elasticity (the response of individual saving to the interest rate). In one standard life-cycle growth model, we show that, though...

Did the 2008 rebate fail to stimulate consumer spending? In their recent influential AER articles, John Taylor and Martin Feldstein each claim that BEA aggregate time series data show that the 2008 rebate failed. Re-examining the BEA data, we find that the data instead show there is a high...

Hoffman and Seidman offer a complete assessment of the EITC in which they analyze, evaluate, summarize, and critique the state of the program. The authors find that, overall, the EITC works well, and that it has earned its political popularity. Yet they also uncover several problem areas that...

The authors begin with a detailed assessment then perform empirical analyses to predict the outcomes of changes to the structure of the program.

This article contends that the "new" classical counter-revolution that began in the 1970s has been a false path for macroeconomics. Keynesian economics nicely explained the 1970s stagflation that followed the world oil price hike with a shift up of the supply curve in its AD/AS diagram. Lucas...

This paper simulates the use of transfers to households plus central-bank open-market purchases to generate a recovery of a low-interest-rate economy from a negative demand shock. Transfers to households are automatically triggered in recession; the prescribed anti-recession transfer ratio is...

This paper studies an application of income-related patient cost-sharing. Using data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, we find that varying patient costsharing rates with patient income in the Medicare prescription drug program can reduce the severity of two problems: high...