Accounting for the Change in Income Disparities between US Central Cities and their Suburbs from 1980 to 1990

Develops a method that uses cluster analysis to group central cities in the United States. Selection of the candidate cluster solutions; Median characteristics of the clusters; Stressed central cities; Healthy central cities

Price indexes for personal computers (1976-88)

This paper estimates quality-adjusted price indexes for personal computers for the years 1976-88 using the method proposed by Berndt, Griliches, and Rappaport (1995). Indexes for the 1976-82 period may be combined with indexes provided by previous authors to obtain quality-adjusted price indexes for the entire history of the personal computer industry. In the early years, the number of observations is small, and quality and cost improvements, which are often embodied in new models, occur rapidly. It is suggested that in this type of environment, adjacent-year regressions may be more useful for obtaining constant-quality price indexes than alternative methods.

Factor productivity and income inequality: a general equilibrium analysis

Economic growth over the past two decades has failed to reduce income inequality. We contend that major reasons for this are the slowdown and bias in technological change (productivity growth). Given the complexity of the many interactions that take place, this phenomenon is best addressed in a general equilibrium context. For this purpose, we have developed a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with advanced features relating to income distribution. We perform a series of simulations based on recent overall productivity changes, but under various forms of technological change bias, factor mobility, and government budgetary balance. We find the labour-augmenting technological change cases to be most consistent with recent experience.