The past two decades have seen a decline in labor's share of national income in several industrial countries. This paper analyzes the role of three factors in explaining movements in labor's share - factor-biased technological progress, openness to trade, and changes in employment protection -...

This article explores the issue of observable instability in financial markets interpreted as a long-term process of adaptation to demand for money, which, in turn, is based on the expected depreciation of fixed assets. Exploration is based on verifying empirically the hypothesis that the...

This article attempts to study the function of monetary systems as networks of communication, which facilitate the channelling of social effort in the presence of exogenous conditions. A model of monetary system is being proposed, where monetary balances are algorithms of response, built up in...

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for the United States suggests that semiconductor prices have barely been falling in recent years, a dramatic contrast to the rapid declines reported from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. This slowdown in the rate of decline is puzzling in light of evidence that...

Growth theory can go a long way toward accounting for phenomena linked with U.S. economic development. Some examples are: (i) the secular decline in fertility between 1800 and 1980, (ii) the decline in agricultural employment and the rise in skill since 1800, (iii) the demise of child labor...

This paper develops a unified growth model that captures the historical evolution of population, technology, and output. It encompasses the endogenous transition between three regimes that have characterized economic development. The economy evolves from a Malthusian regime, where technological...

Between 1800 and 1940 the U.S. went through a dramatic demographic transition. In 1800 the average woman had 7 children, and 94 percent of the population lived in rural areas. By 1940 the average woman birthed just 2 kids, and only 43 percent of populace lived in the country. The question is:...

How important was international immigration for the U.S. and its demography during the nineteenth century? This paper investigates, quantitatively, its effect on the westward movement of population and the regional and secular changes in fertility. Beside immigration, two alternative forces are...