During the twentieth century, the United States was a world leader in raising the educational attainment of its population. This important achievement contributed to national productivity growth and extended economic opportunity to formerly disadvantaged groups in society. Now, at the beginning...

Surveys have shown that many employers offer severance packages to their laid-off workers and that severance pay provides substantial income for many people displaced from long-time jobs. Yet little, if anything , is known about the effects of severance pay. Does it lead people to alter the...

In the context of today's tight labor markets, as well as projections of continued demand for workers with high skills, various states are considering how to retain and attract college graduates. Such efforts involve identifying an area's relative strengths and weaknesses and taking actions as...

As governments consider ways to provide public services more efficiently, privatization can seem like an attractive option. Yet the subject engenders sharp controversies. In New England, local governments generally have not engaged in as much privatization as those in other parts of the country....

Unlike the American Revolution, which started with cries of "no taxation without representation," the overthrow of political and economic systems in Central and Eastern Europe did not have taxes at its forefront. Under socialism, taxes had been invisible to much of the population. They were part...

The privatization movement appears to have lost some momentum in the United States over the 1990s. Although local governments continue to look for ways to deliver services more efficiently by using private contractors, the pace at which they are issuing contracts has slowed. In part, the trends...

New England lagged behind the national recovery in the mid 1970s but did better than average coming out of the 1982 recession. The region’s strong recovery after 1982 was the result of increased defense contracts, a high-tech export orientation, and the waning of the 1970s energy price shock....

Labor markets have undergone considerable change in recent years. Manufacturing positions are shrinking, especially in blue-collar occupations, and real wages for workers with little education are declining. A rising share of unemployment is accounted for by workers who have been permanently...

Any enumeration of New England's competitive strengths is likely to include the high education levels of its work force. The growing availability of highly educated workers in the region has permitted the development of industries that make use of advanced skills and raised the average standard...