Plus the Spring 2020 edition of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA).
Editor's note: Effective Friday, March 13, the Brookings Institution is taking new steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus/COVID-19. While we will continue to publish work, our campus in Washington, D.C. will be closed to staff and guests through at least April 3 and all public events are canceled or postponed. For more information, read our full guidance here. |
| In a national emergency, presidential competence is crucial "We should expect our president to preside over a White House where people have extensive knowledge of all parts of the government and can provide to him, at a moment’s notice, the full range of options available to a president confronting a national emergency. Unfortunately this is not the president we have," writes Elaine Kamarck. Read more |
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity This week, we published the latest edition of the Brookings Papers on Economc Activity (BPEA). The Spring 2020 papers cover topics including automation, the declining power of workers, and more. Explore a few highlights below. Does the U.S. tax code favor automation? In their paper, Daron Acemoglu, Andrea Manera, and Pascual Restrepo find that the U.S. tax code systematically favors investments in robots and software over investments in people—a trend that results in too much automation that destroys jobs, while only marginally improving efficiency. Determining risks to growth. How well do financial indicators predict where the economy is headed? Mikkel Plagborg-Møller, Lucrezia Reichlin, Giovanni Ricco, and Thomas Hasenzagl argue they cannot be relied on to provide an early warning sign of a recession. The decreasing power of workers. Declining unionization, increased outsourcing, and other factors have reduced the power of America's workers. Anna Stansbury and Lawrence H. Summers discuss the profound consequences for the labor market, as well as the broader U.S. economy. |
The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. |
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