Historical Macroeconomics and American Macroeconomic History

What can macroeconomic history offer macroeconomic theorists and macroeconometricians? Macroeconomic history offers more than longer time series or special `controlled experiments.' It suggests an historical definition of the economy, which has implications for macroeconometric methods. The defining characteristic of the historical view is its emphasis on `path dependence': ways in which the cumulative past, including the history of shocks and their effects, change the structure of the economy. This essay reviews American macroeconomic history to illustrate its potential uses and draw out methodological implications. `Keynesian' models can account for the most obvious cycle patterns in all historical periods, while `new classical' models cannot. Nominal wage rigidity was important historically and some models of wage rigidity receive more support from history than others.A shortcoming of both Keynesian and new-classical approaches is the assumption that low-frequency change is exogenous to demand. The history of the Kuznets cycle shows how aggregate-demand shocks can produce endogenous changes in aggregate supply. Economies of scale, learning effects, and convergences of expectations-many within the spatial contexts of city building and frontier settlement-seem to have been very important in making the aggregate supply `path-dependent.' Institutional innovation (especially government regulation) has been another source of endogenous change in aggregate supply. The historical view's emphasis on endogenous structural change points in the analysis over short sample periods to identify the sources and consequences of macroeconomic shocks.

Consistent Output Series for the Antebellum and Postbellum Periods: Issues and Preliminary Results

Existing output series that cover both the antebellum and postbellum periods are inconsistent and unsuitable for comparing cyclical patterns across the nineteenth century. More consistent data show that output in cyclically sensitive sectors was no less, and probably more, volatile before the War Between the States than after it

Harvests and Business Cycles in Nineteenth-Century America

Most major American industrial business cycles from around 1880 to the First World War were caused by fluctuations in the size of the cotton harvest due to economically exogenous factors such as weather. Wheat and corn harvests did not affect industrial production; nor did the cotton harvest before the late 1870s. The unique effect of the cotton harvest in this period can be explained as an essentially monetary phenomenon, the result of interactions between harvests, international gold flows and high-powered money demand under America's gold-standard regime of 1879-1914.

Total Health and Wellness: A Team Approach to Primary Care

The Ohio State Total Health and Wellness (THW) is a nurse practitioner (NP)-led primary care clinic that focuses on the provision of evidence-based medicine via an interprofessional team approach. Our NPs also provide primary care in the home of people who are not able to travel to the clinic for their health care appointments. The visiting NPs are also supported by the interprofessional team, which consists of: a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP), a clinical pharmacist (PharmD), a registered dietatian (RD), a mental health counselor (LPCC), a social worker (LISW), an RN care coordinator (RNCC) and medical assistant (MA) support staff. Recently, a nurse midwife was added to our team to provide prenatal and expanded women's health services. Our team meets weekly to review complex patients and provide primary care oversight from the multiple disciplines. Daily, our team provides: primary care to individual of all ages per our adult and family practice NPs; mental health care through our PMHNP and LPCC; preventative care through our dietitian and certified diabetes educators; comprehensive chronic disease state education and management through our clinical pharmacist; care management and close follow-up through our RNCC; and assistance with social determinants of health per our LISW. Engagement: The THW team impacts the community on the near east side of Columbus and surrounding communities by improving access to primary care. As a newly recognized Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Look-Alike, our clinic has increased funding to care for the underserved. The THW team impacts students from multiple health sciences by teaching team-based interprofessional care and providing clinical experience in the clinic. The THW team makes a local impact by providing education and services within the community to vulnerable populations. The THW at Home team supports people who choose to age or live at home with a mobile primary care service. This service enables people with disabling conditions or frailty to receive mobile diagnostic and laboratory services along with excellent primary care. In the five-minute "Ignite Session," the THW team will quickly enlighten the audience with an overview of our scope and services to participants who are interested in the delivery of this primary care delivery model.AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Candy Rinehart, Nurse Practitioner/Director, The Ohio State University College of Nursing, [email protected] (Corresponding Author); Christopher Westrick, PharmD, The Ohio State University College of Nursing; Deborah Hanes, Nurse Practitioner, The Ohio State University College of Nursing.Ohio State Total Health and Wellness offers a team approach to primary care. The presenters will provide insight into the members and roles of the interprofessional team. They will also present the benefits of the team approach to patients and the community

The Globular Cluster Systems in the Coma Ellipticals. II: Metallicity Distribution and Radial Structure in NGC 4874, and Implications for Galaxy Formation

Deep HST/WFPC2 (V,I) photometry is used to investigate the globular cluster system (GCS) in NGC 4874, the central cD galaxy of the Coma cluster. The luminosity function of the clusters displays its normal Gaussian-like shape and turnover level. Other features of the system are surprising: the GCS is (a) spatially extended, with core radius r_c = 22 kpc, (b) entirely metal-poor (a narrow, unimodal metallicity distribution with mean [Fe/H] = -1.5), and (c) modestly populated, with specific frequency S_N = 3.7 +- 0.5. We suggest on the basis of some simple models that as much as half of this galaxy might have accreted from low-mass satellites, but no single one of the three classic modes of galaxy formation (accretion, disk mergers, in situ formation) can supply a fully satisfactory formation picture. Even when they are used in combination, strong challenges to these models remain. The principal anomaly in this GCS is essentially the complete lack of metal-rich clusters. If these were present in normal (M87-like) numbers in addition to the metal-poor ones that are already there, then the GCS in total would more closely resemble what we see in many other giant E galaxies.Comment: 27 pp. with 9 Figures. Astrophys.J. 533, in press (April 10, 2000

The WAGGS project - I. The WiFeS Atlas of Galactic Globular cluster Spectra

We present the WiFeS Atlas of Galactic Globular cluster Spectra, a library of integrated spectra of Milky Way and Local Group globular clusters. We used the WiFeS integral field spectrograph on the Australian National University 2.3 m telescope to observe the central regions of 64 Milky Way globular clusters and 22 globular clusters hosted by the Milky Way’s low-mass satellite galaxies. The spectra have wider wavelength coverage (3300–9050 Å) and higher spectral resolution (R = 6800) than existing spectral libraries of Milky Way globular clusters. By including Large and Small Magellanic Cloud star clusters, we extend the coverage of parameter space of existing libraries towards young and intermediate ages. While testing stellar population synthesis models and analysis techniques is the main aim of this library, the observations may also further our understanding of the stellar populations of Local Group globular clusters and make possible the direct comparison of extragalactic globular cluster integrated light observations with well-understood globular clusters in the Milky Way. The integrated spectra are publicly available via the project website

The Liquidity Trap and U.S. Interest Rates in the 1930s

Most current literature assumes that a central bank loses the ability to influence interest rates through variations in reserve supply as soon as overnight rates have been driven to zero. I argue that reserve supply can be directly related to longer-term rates when overnight rates are zero because banks' reserve demand is then defined by the role of cash as an asset free of interest-rate risk. I present evidence that reserve supply affected longer-term interest rates in the U.S. from 1934 through 1939, while overnight rates were at the zero floor, even when the changes in reserve supply reflected factors unlikely to have affected expectations of future overnight rates.