This paper analyzes several issues regarding the measurement of saving and concludes that the observed declines in national, private, and personal saving rates in the United States cannot be attributed to measurement problems. It then examines several factors that seem to have been behind the...

The U.S. national savings rate has declined in the 1980s, with both public and private components falling. This paper discusses that decline and whether a policy response is needed. The drop in the private savings rate appears to reflect factors not easily reversible by policy and increases in...

In the 1980s, U.S. real investment in high technology equipment has grown rapidly while other components of business fixed investment have been weak. The surge in real high technology investment has been accompanied by a very sharp decline in its relative price, leading to difficult index number...

This paper examines the relative efficacy of cuts in government spending on goods and services and increases in taxation as tools for augmenting national saving an issue related to Ricardian equivalence. The theoretical analysis shows little presumption in favor of spending cuts for this purpose...

This paper reviews the provisions and possible effects of the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986. The literature on the potential effects of tax reform on labor supply, household consumption and saving, and business fixed investment is surveyed, and a model of business fixed investment in the United...

This paper examines the behavior of business fixed investment in the United States in the 1980s. A background discussion of the long-term behavior of the components of business fixed investment is provided, setting the context for the empirical analysis. A standard neoclassical model of business...

This paper examines the recent difficulties experienced in U.S. agriculture, and discusses the role played by government policies, in particular reviewing recent developments in those policies. Studies of the extent and costs of agricultural protection in the United States and other major...