Policy Options For Improving Economic Opportunity and Mobility

America's economic recovery is finally taking hold and current deficits are down from the record highs during the recession. At the same time, far too many American families are being left out of the recovery, and our nation still faces an unsustainable long-term fiscal outlook. Lower unemployment and improvements in growth are fueling renewed optimism, yet the nature of the recovery is uneven and the longer term trends of income stagnation are of great concern. On everyone's minds is the questionable state of opportunity in America.In the interest of enriching the discussion on the state of economic opportunity in America today, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation asked two experts, representing different viewpoints, to recommend policy options to foster greater economic opportunity and mobility

The State of Working America 2006/2007

[Excerpt] Yet, despite this unequivocally beneficial development, many Americans report dissatisfaction with where the economy seems to be headed, and many worry about their own and their children’s well-being. These concerns have led some policy makers and economists to ask: why aren’t people happier about the economy? The question seems reasonable to those who follow the top-line numbers of the economy, such as the growth of the total economy (e.g. gross domestic product), the stock market, or corporate profits. The question is easily answered, however, for those who follow and report on the data that fill the chapters of this book

The State of Working America, 2004/2005

The State of Working America, prepared biennially since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, taxes, unemployment, wealth, and poverty--data that enable the authors to closely examine the effect of the economy on the living standards of the American people

Policymakers must take lessons from the measures that did not work to tackle the Great Recession, as well as those that did

At the end of 2008, the newly elected President Barack Obama was facing one of the deepest economic crises in living memory. Jared Bernstein, a former member of the President’s economic team, looks at the successful and not-so-successful policy measures taken by the Obama Administration to deal with effects of the Great Recession. He writes that while 2009’s Recovery Act did help to diminish job and real GDP losses, he also argues that the government undertook fiscal consolidation too early

Asset Based Policies for the Poor: A View From the Left

Asset Based Policies for the Poor: A View From the Lef

Measurement and Testing of Inequality from Time Series of Deciles with an Application to U.S. Wages

This article uses unobserved components time series models to capture the underlying trends in the quarterly deciles of US hourly wages. Tests of stability and divergence are suggested as a means of assessing changes in inequality. The decrease in the wage gender gap is examined and the impact of changes in the minimum wage is assessed.

Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends

Presents findings from a state-by-state analysis of trends in income inequality since the late 1980s, and examines the causes of widening inequality, including policy. Recommends state options such as higher minimum wages and more progressive tax systems

Demand Shifts and Low-Wage Workers

Conventional economic wisdom holds that labor demand in the U.S. labor market has shifted over the past few decades against low-skilled workers, contributing to the plight of the working poor. This result, however, is sensitive to how we define unskilled workers. If they are defined in terms of education levels, the negative demand shift is readily apparent. But if they are defined by the real wages they receive, then, at least for males, it appears that the demand for (or at least the utilization of) low-wage workers increased. The skill-based, as opposed to wage-based, demand shift argument led policy makers to consider education and training policies almost exclusively as the solution to the wage problems documented herein. While the importance of this supply-side approach should not be diminished, policy ideas intended to raise wages, such as monetary policy, unions, minimum wages, and trade policy are also important.Education; Low Skilled; Low Wage; Poor; Unskilled; Wage