May 17, 2012
- The Federal Reserve has further increased its transparency over the last couple of years. The inclusion of interest rate projections allows a rare opportunity to see whether a simple “guide post” might accurately describe participants’ views on appropriate policy. Monetary policy is frequently discussed in terms of guideposts, and often these are presented in the form of Taylor...
May 16, 2012
May 15, 2012
- A region’s economic performance is closely linked to the skills and knowledge of its workforce. Using college attainment as a measure of workforce skills, we examine overall trends in higher education to get a sense of where Ohio stands relative to other states. The data reveal that Ohio has made some progress, especially in improving educational attainment in its younger workers. At the...
May 9, 2012
- This paper uses an overlapping-generations dynamic general equilibrium model of residential sorting and intergenerational human capital accumulation to investigate effects of neighborhood externalities. In the model, households choose where to live and how much to invest toward the production of their child's human capital. The return on the parent's investment is determined in part by the child...
May 8, 2012
- The April 2012 employment report offered a mixed bag of results. The household survey reflected a mixed picture, as well. Over the course of the last four years, the size of the labor force has essentially remained constant, even as the civilian noninstitutional population (16 years and older) has grown by over 9 million individuals....
May 4, 2012
- Investment activity was unusual in the years leading up to the current cycle, accelerating in the 1990s and staying atypically high until the 2007 recession. We explore whether this unusual behavior has anything to do with the slowness of the current recovery....
May 3, 2012
- ETFs are one of the most successful financial innovations of the last few decades. As a new, rapidly growing, and increasingly complex financial instrument, ETFs might raise concerns about the risk they pose to financial stability. While they do not seem to pose a threat at this time, ETFs did expose a weakness in U.S. stock markets during the Flash Crash of 2010: the fragmented nature of...
May 2, 2012
- Statistics on the distribution of personal income by region can be helpful context for thinking about many important questions. Can lower labor costs help the Southern states to lure corporate operations? Do the higher salaries of the Northeast and West attract Midwestern college graduates? Does everyone in the Northeast benefit from its concentrations of finance and government employment? Has...
May 1, 2012
- It has been over two-and-a-half years since the National Bureau of Economic Research called an end to the recession that began in late 2007. Nonetheless, the recession’s negative effects on the U.S. housing market remain. One potential headwind facing the housing market is foreclosures....
- Over the last 20 years, the financial sector has become larger, more complex, and more interconnected. While this expansion has facilitated the development of new financial products and markets, it has also introduced new risks to the financial system and the economy in general. Going forward, capital regulation will likely play an important role in adding stability to the financial system....