Present Law and Analysis Relating to Individual Retirement Arrangements

[Excerpt] The House Committee on Ways and Means, Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee, has scheduled a public hearing to take place on June 26, 2008, on the role of individual retirement arrangements (“IRAs”) in our retirement system. The hearing is scheduled to focus on the recently issued report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled “Individual Retirement Accounts, Government Actions Could Encourage More Employers to Offer IRAs to Employees,” June 2008; the role of IRAs in our retirement system; and legislative proposals for automatic IRA enrollment. This document,1 prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, includes a description of present law and analysis relating to IRAs

Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims: Empirical Macroeconomics

One of the main tasks for macroeconomists is to explain how macroeconomic aggregates -such as GDP, investment, unemployment, and inflation- behave over time. How are these variables affected by economic policy and by changes in the economic environment? A primary aspect in this analysis is the role of the central bank and its ability to influence the economy. How effective can monetary policy be in stabilizing unwanted fluctuations in macroeconomic aggregates? How effective has it been historically? Similar questions can be raised about fiscal policy. Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims have developed empirical methods that can answer these kinds of questions. This year's prize recognizes these methods and their successful application to the interplay between monetary and fi scal policy and economic activity.Causation; macroeconomics

Foundations of Behavioral and Experimental Economics: Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith

Advanced information on the Prize in Economic Sciences 2002. Until recently, economics was widely regarded as a non-experimental science that had to rely on observation of real-world economies rather than controlled laboratory experiments. Many commentators also found restrictive the common assumption of a homo oeconomicus motivated by self-interest and capable of making rational decisions. But research in economics has taken off in new directions. A large and growing body of scientific work is now devoted to the empirical testing and modification of traditional postulates in economics, in particular those of unbounded rationality, pure self-interest, and complete self-control. Moreover, today's research increasingly relies on new data from laboratory experiments rather than on more traditional field data, that is, data obtained from observations of real economies. This recent research has its roots in two distinct, but converging, traditions: theoretical and empirical studies of human decision-making in cognitive psychology, and tests of predictions from economic theory by way of laboratory experiments. Today, behavioral economics and experimental economics are among the most active fields in economics, as measured by publications in major journals, new doctoral dissertations, seminars, workshops and conferences. This year's laureates are pioneers of these two fields of research.behavioral economics; experimental economics

Boston University Libraries 2016 Graduate Survey Instrument

In the spring of 2016, the Boston University libraries surveyed BU faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to determine their use of and satisfaction with library services and resources. This document shows the survey instrument emailed to BU graduate students. A report describing the protocol and analyzing the data gathered in this survey may be found at this location, http://hdl.handle.net/2144/20325

Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides: Markets with Search Frictions

Scientific Background on the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009 compiled by the Economic Sciences Prize Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesSearch frictions;

Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A Sims: The art of distinguishing between cause and effect in the macroeconomy

How are GDP and inflation affected by a temporary increase in the interest rate or a tax cut? What happens if a central bank makes a permanent change in its inflation target or a government modifies its objective for budgetary balance? This year’s Laureates in economic sciences, Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims, have developed methods for answering these and many other questions regarding the causal relationship between economic policy and different macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, employment and investments.Causation; macroeconomics