Middle-Class Redistribution: Tax and Transfer Policy for Most Americans
In this chapter, authors Adam Looney, Professor of Finance at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, Jeff Larrimore, Chief of Consumer and Community Development Research at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and David Splinter, an economist for the Joint Committee on Taxation, provide an in-depth analysis of after tax […]
Walking the Tightrope: Variable Income and Limited Liquidity Among the US Middle Class
The Great Recession, and now the economic upheaval surrounding COVID-19, have intensified focus on this financial tightrope that many American families walk. In this chapter, author Dan Silverman, Professor and Rondthaler Chair at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, describes a body of evidence showing that large fluctuations in household income […]
Is the Decline of the Middle Class Greatly Exaggerated?
In his chapter, Professor Bruce Sacerdote of Dartmouth College argues that increased inequality and declines in the number of manufacturing and middle-skill jobs is a distinct issue from declines in middle-class living standards and even the disappearance of the middle class. Sacerdote also asserts that claims about a vanishing middle class are not well-founded. Instead, […]
Securing Our Economic Future: Introduction
The United States is currently gripped by deep uncertainty and economic anxiety. At the time of this writing, the United States is six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 190,000 Americans have died from COVID (CDC 2020); more than 13 million Americans remain unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020); and tens of thousands of […]
Securing Our Economic Future: Foreword
The American economy is in the midst of a wrenching crisis, one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, intensified by the worst social unrest in a generation, and aggravated further by a series of climate-driven natural disasters. The effects of the economic contraction are enormous. Over a ten-week period this spring, some 40 million Americans lost […]
Climate Convexity: The Inequality of a Warming World
In this chapter, author Trevor Houser of the Rhodium Group summarizes current forecasts of climate damages in the years ahead and their implications for the global economy, inequality, and health. Houser asserts that if carbon emissions and associated damages are left unaddressed, the climate crisis will not only become more costly to global health and […]
Climate Policy Enters Four Dimensions
In this chapter, authors David Keith, the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and John Deutch, emeritus Institute Professor in the Department of Chemistry at MIT, describe what needs to be done to craft a politically stable and economically sound climate policy that includes balanced reliance on […]