We develop a simple model to study how relative wage rigidity affects equilibrium taxation. It is argued that relative wage rigidity, by compressing incomes within the middle class, leads to a lower degree of redistributive conflict within the politically important core of society, even though...

This paper comments on an editorial on the American crisis published in the New York Times by Professor Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago. According to Mulligan, the crisis is nothing more than a financial fluctuation: the banks should not be bailed out, other financial actors can take care...

The present paper offers a fundamental critique of fiscal policy as it is understood in theory and exercised in practice. Two specific demand-side stabilization methods are examined here: conventional pump priming and the new designation of fiscal policy effectiveness found in the New Consensus...

Sixteen countries across the world ¡ª including the United States and many European nations ¡ª have fallen into economic crises since the late 1990s. In <em>The Limits of Fiscal, Monetary, and Trade Policies: International Comparisons and Solutions</em>, Jonathan E Leightner convincingly argues that...

We quantitatively analyze the way inflation alters the inequality of the income distribution in the U.S. economy. The main mechanism emphasized in this paper is the bracket creep effect according to which inflation pushes income into higher tax brackets. Governments adjust the nominal income tax...

Since the economic reforms began in 1978, China has achieved remarkable economic results. Real GDP per capita grew at an average annual rate of 8.1% in the period of 1978-2001. Maintaining such a high growth rate over such a long period of time with a population of more than one billion truly is...

This paper analyses the NAIRU making use of a cointegrated VAR and of Italian labour market data. We show that a cointegrated VAR represents a statistically adequate (using Aris Spanos's terminology) approach to the estimation of the NAIRU. This is an effective way to overcome several problems...

The effects of the current crisis on the level of output, and consequently on unemployment and poverty, are likely to be deep and long lasting; they should not be underestimated, especially now that some timid signs of recovery are appearing. The crisis was triggered by the US financial sector,...