The rate of national saving declined sharply in the 1980s. Some of the explanations for this puzzling performance have considered the influence of capital gains, a reduction in the need for precautionary saving, a decline in the need for retirement saving, the effect of slower income growth, and...

Spending on capital projects in Massachusetts has not contributed in any significant fashion to the state’s budget crisis. During the 1980s the state probably spent too little, rather than too much, on public infrastructure. The states nationwide are caught between the increased requirements...

This article summarizes the Bank’s economic conference held in June 1990. The conference aimed to determine the extent to which the United States may be underinvesting in public infrastructure, explain the potential economic consequences, and suggest mechanisms to help alleviate any adverse...

Taxation of income from capital is difficult in today’s global economy, where financial markets are international, investments flow freely over national borders, and multinational corporations abound. Yet fairness and equity require that capital income be taxed. ; This article reviews the...

The decline in United States productivity has been widely identified as one of the major economic problems facing the nation. This concern is understandable; productivity growth is the major determinant of the future standard of living. Economists have gone to great lengths to try to identify the...

Economists spent most of the 1980s trying to explain the decline in personal and national saving. They have supplied a host of possibilities, including the impact of capital gains, a decline in the need for retirement saving, and the impact of slower income growth, among others. None of these...

Municipal bond prices are tumbling and rates rising just as public borrowers face pressure to refinance deals cut during the financial crisis. At the same time, the funded status of public pension plans has declined, and states and localities will have to come up with more money to meet future...

States and localities account for pensions in their financial statements according to standards laid out by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Under these standards, state and local plans generally follow an actuarial model and discount their liabilities by the long-term yield...