<title>Abstract</title> This paper presents a classroom exercise for an introductory economics course that allows students to discover the economic and social impacts of working for minimum wages. Students are asked to estimate a budget necessary for both a desirable and sustainable standard of living for...

The development of countries in economic transition is often misunderstood. These countries are neither underdeveloped nor are they developed, they are somewhere in between. Therefore, macroeconomic models of transitional economies must include aspects of both underdeveloped and developed...

Since 2008, the U.S. economy has been mired in the second worst economic crisis in its history. Conceivably, massive government spending could bring the economy out of this slump as massive war spending ultimately ended the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, a far superior strategy exists:...

This paper analyzes four measures of the cost of job loss for 2001:1-2009:4. All measures reached a record or near-record high in 2009, with the rise being driven by record high unemployment duration and record low reemployment duration. In 2009:4, the real weekly cost of job loss was $352.57,...

Since 2008, the U.S. economy has been mired in the second worst economic crisis in its history. Conceivably, massive government spending could bring the economy out of this slump as massive war spending ultimately ended the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, a far superior strategy exists:...

The explosion in inequality since 1980 has quashed hopes that mature economic development would generate more equitable economic and social conditions. Although inequality is receiving increasing attention from academics and politicians, the focus has been mostly on income and wealth. This...

This paper argues that the low inflation during the Great Moderation had distributional biases and partly resulted from institutional shifts that depressed workers’ bargaining power and thus wage increases. The hypothesis is tested in multiple Phillips curve models using the cost of job loss...