Economics, Events, Ideas, and Policies The 60s and After

Description

The 1960s represented a turning point in the application of economic analysis to U.S. policymaking. The decade was marked by widespread optimism that government policies could improve economic and social outcomes. Developments since then illustrate how policies can shift, along with changes in the environment, changes in theory and understanding, or changes in dominant values. The papers in this volume are taken from a November 1999 conference: Economic Events, Ideas and Policies: The 1960s and After. Sponsored by Yale University and the Brookings Institution, the conference was held in memory of economist Arthur Okun. Okun, along with George L. Perry, founded the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity and its journal, the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. A former professor of economics at Yale University and chairman of the President's Council on Economic Advisers, Okun authored many important articles and books, including Equality and Efficiency, a Brookings bestseller. Prices and Quantities, published after his death in 1980, is still considered a major professional contribution to macroeconomic analysis and the problems confronting stabilization policy. Contributors include William J. Baumol (Princeton University, New York University), Robert Haveman (University of Wisconsin), Barry Eichengreen (University of California), Richard Cooper (Harvard University), Alan Krueger (Princeton University), Paul Krugman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Robert Solow (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), William Brainard (Yale University), and George Perry (Brookings Institution).