Before the current recession, soaring stock prices and housing values made many Americans feel well off, and thus many were lax in saving for retirement. The current financial market downturn has erased much of the previous gains, leaving many workers unprepared for retirement.

Over the course of the next two decades, an average of 10,000 baby boomers per day will reach retirement age. Their retirement will cause a surge in federal spending. This month's Newsletter shows how the retirement of the baby boomers will affect government programs such as Social Security and...

Which public investment offers greater returns—a subsidy for a sports stadium or early childhood education? It might surprise some, but the answer is an investment in early childhood education. A research study from the Federal Reserve found a 16 percent return on such an investment, with 80...

While many believe that money does buy happiness, research shows that richer people aren't necessarily happier people, especially in the United States.

Before the current recession, soaring stock prices and housing values made many Americans feel well off, and thus many were lax in saving for retirement. The current financial market downturn has erased much of the previous gains, leaving many workers unprepared for retirement.

We assess the consequences of substantially increasing the marginal tax rate on U.S. top earners using a human capital model. We nd that (1) the peak of the model Laer curve occurs at a 52 percent top tax rate, (2) if human capital were exogenous, then the top of the Laer curve would occur at a...

For more than 30 years, the ratio of average black earnings to average white earnings has remained close to 0.6. Additionally, US cities have remained dramatically segregated by race. This paper provides a joint theory of pre-market skills and residential segregation for quantitatively studying...

We calibrate the model to match some of the salient patterns of structural transformation (sectoral TFP and allocation of labor), urban development (migration, urbanization) and income distribution observed in Brazil since 1960. We use the model to address a prevalent question in development:...