Removing Obstacles to Economic Growth

Michael L. Wachter, Susan M. Wachter, Michael L. Wachter, Susan M. Wachter

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Anniversary Collection
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780812279238
  9780812279238
• eBook ISBN:
  9781512808209
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Conditions
• Index: Economics

The unsatisfactory performance of the United States economy during the 1970s generated considerable debate over potential new directions for economic policy. This volume, the result of the second Wharton/Reliance Symposium held in May 1983, presents and analyzes a range of economic policy options. The focus of the volume is on potential policy remedies for the economic problems of slow real output and productivity growth.Given the range of issues covered and the alternative viewpoints presented, this collection does not search for an overall policy consensus. To focus on consensus would have required narrowing both the subject matter and the distinctive viewpoints that are presented here. The result is an open discussion of a set of existing and innovative policy options.Contributors include Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of State; Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein, Lester C. Thurow, Professor of Economics and Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Senator Alan Cranson; Alfred E. Kahn, Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability under President Carter; William W. Winpisinger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Justine Farr Rodriguez, Senior Economist with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, among many others.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Participants
• Preface
• THE SETTING FOR A PRO-GROWTH STRATEGY: AN INTRODUCTION
• PART ONE. VIEWPOINTS ON STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH
• 1. RESPONSES TO THE SLOWDOWN IN GROWTH
• 2. REMOVING STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO GROWTH
• 3. THE ECONOMIC POLICY FAILURE OF THE PAST AND A POLICY AGENDA FOR THE FUTURE
• 4. THE GOVERNMENT DEBTIMPOSED CEILING ON ECONOMIC GROWTH
• 5. WHY LABOR UNIONS DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
• 6. THE NEED FOR A LONGTERM PERSPECTIVE IN GOVERNMENT-BUSINESS RELATIONS
• PART TWO. POLICY AREAS
• LABOR PRODUCTIVITY AND DEMOGRAPHICS
• 7. THE TRAINING COMPONENT OF GROWTH POLICIES
• 8. TAX POLICY AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE EFFECTS ON LABOR POLICY
• DISCUSSANTS
• SUMMARY REPORT
• Motivation and New Technologies
• 9. THE NEED FOR NEW PRIVATE AND PUBLIC POLICIES
• 10. THE WORK ETHIC AND ECONOMIC VITALITY
• DISCUSSANTS
• SUMMARY REPORT
• Savings and Investment
• 11. SAVING IN THE U.S. ECONOMY
• 12. INVESTMENT, TAXATION, AND GROWTH
• DISCUSSANTS
• SUMMARY REPORT
• Managing the Government Deficit and Business Cycle
• 13. MANAGING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DEFICIT IN THE 1980s
• 14. USING MONETARY CONTROL TO DAMPEN THE BUSINESS CYCLE: A NEW SET OF FIRST PRINCIPLES
• DISCUSSANTS
• SUMMARY REPORT
• Economic and Financial Stability
• 15. INTERNATIONAL BANKING: VULNERABILITY AND CRISIS
• 16. IN SEARCH OF AN OPTIMISTIC SCENARIO FOR THE 1980s
• DISCUSSANTS
• SUMMARY REPORT
• PART THREE. THE POLITICAL AND INTERNATIONAL SETTING: A SUMMING-UP
• 17. THE ROLE OF INCREASED INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LONG-TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH
• 18. FOREIGN POLICY AND ECONOMICS
• 19. DO WE NEED AN INDUSTRIAL POLICY?
• ROUNDTABLE