This brief examines the effects of industry performance and industry composition on overall changes in Massachusetts employment in the period 1996 to 2006. Through 2000, Massachusetts enjoyed strong economic expansion. Around the time of the nationwide recession of 2001, however, the...

Measures of unemployment tally people without a job who are looking for one. For measurement purposes, the critical question is what constitutes looking. This article summarizes how unemployment is measured in the United States and Europe, and describes recent research investigating the...

This policy brief summarizes a 2006 working paper by the Research Department at the Boston Fed and the Center: Measuring Disparities in Non-School Costs and Revenue Capacity among Massachusetts Cities and Towns. The paper develops new measures of environmental costs and local revenue capacity as...

State and local governments, with revenues reduced sharply by the recession, are responding by cutting services, increasing tax rates, and drawing down reserves; they are also receiving some relief in the form of stimulus funds provided by the federal government. The stimulus funds legislated in...

This public policy brief examines labor force participation rates in this recession and recovery and compares them with the cyclical patterns in earlier business cycles. Measured relative to the business cycle peak in March 2001, labor force participation rates almost four years later have not...

This Public Policy Brief presents estimates of the impact of price increases projected by the U.S. Department of Energy for the winter of 2004-5 on consumers in the nine Census divisions and selected metropolitan areas. It is based on materials presented in a briefing to the President of the...