The first part of the exchange is a short article by Joe Francis. The article provides new long-term estimates and an assessment of the buy-to-build indicator for the United States and Britain, going back to the beginning of the 20th century. The second part offers commentary by Shimshon Bichler...

The article provides new long-term estimates and an assessment of the buy-to-build indicator for the United States and Britain, going back to the end of the 19th century.

Comments on Francis’ new estimates of the buy-to-build indicator for the United States and Britain. These estimates offer a welcome correction, modifications and additions to the U.S. numbers that we first presented in 1999 and later updated.

The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data is expanding to cover "middle income" countries that supplement the large, existing sample of countries which are "high income" in the LIS Database. Developing countries tend to have social protection systems that are less formalized, and financial...