PDP Number 7
Measuring Labor’s Share of Income
by Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert
Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data show labor’s share of income at a historic low. This Policy Discussion Paper explores the BLS calculations with an eye to understanding the factors leading to the recent fall in labor’s share. While data limitations prohibit replication of the BLS series, alternative measures of labor’s share of income, based on either the nonfinancial corporate business sector or the macroeconomy more generally, are near their historic averages, quite unlike the BLS series.
PDF file 304k
PDP Number 6
Walking the Fence: A Sensitivity Analysis of Brazil's Public Debt
by Patrick C. Higgins and Owen F. Humpage
Brazil is walking on a fence between sustainable and unsustainable public-debt dynamics. How it treads could affect not only its own economic prosperity but that of its neighbors, emerging markets in general, and U.S. financial institutions in particular. Relatively small improvements in Brazilian economic conditions and a continuation of that country's recent fiscal improvements could push Brazil in the right direction, particularly if the dollar continues to depreciate.
PDF file 286k
2003 2004 2005
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