This issue brief compares projected savings from drilling in presently restricted offshore zones, savings under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and the projected savings from the fuel efficiency schedule proposed by Senator Obama. The issue brief projects savings through 2027,...

The rate of new drug development has stagnated, in spite of large increases in both private and public sector spending on biomedical research. The flip side of slower progress is higher drug costs. The cost of developing new drugs has been rising at an average real rate of more than 7 percent...

This report traces the increase in U.S. inequality over the last quarter-century. It outlines the myriad drivers of this trend, including deliberate policy decisions on trade, immigration, interest rates, and health care costs.

This report describes the key economic indicators that indicate the state of the housing market. It gives up-to-date analysis of the available data sources, such as home sales, mortgage applications, vacancy rates and construction.

Projected costs for Medicare Part D have been revised downward, causing some analysts to claim that the program has proven itself a success. This report explores the factors behind the lower cost projections and reaches far different conclusions. It finds two main reasons: 1) a slowdown in the...

This report makes a series of adjustments to the most common measure of U.S. productivity growth (i.e., non-farm business sector) as well as to measures of wage growth, to determine the extent to which lagging wages can be blamed on weak productivity growth vs. income redistribution. Weak wage...

Most older workers are ill-prepared for retirement, with few financial assets to rely upon other than Social Security. Less than 20 percent of the private sector workforce is currently covered by a defined benefit (DB) plan, and this number is declining rapidly. Defined-contribution (DC) plans,...

This report builds upon previous CEPR projections to more accurately describe the current wealth prospects for the baby boom cohorts aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64. The severity of the housing market meltdown, coupled with the recent collapse of the stock market, has had a severe negative impact on...

This report examines one major source of bias in the yearly Current Population Survey -- nonresponse rates. It shows evidence of systematic undercounting due to the disproportionately high nonresponse rate from individuals who are less likely to be employed than the general population.

This report uses the past three recessions of the early 1980s, early 1990s and early 2000s to project the effects of a recession in 2008. The report finds that such a recession would result in a significant rise in unemployment and the poverty rate along with a significant decrease in the...