Economic Policy, Financial Markets, And Economic Growth

Benjamin Zycher is vice president for research at the Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation and the editor of the Institute newsletter, Jobs & Capital. He is also a visiting professor of economics at the University of California at Los Angeles and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. His area of expertise is the analysis of economic regulation and government behavior. He has published many articles and monographs in a wide range of subject areas, from defense economics and the analysis of Soviet economic conditions to the effects of government regulation on energy and environmental policy. Among his recent papers are The Efficient Rise of Public and Private Debt, Price Controls, Direct Democracy, and Taxation by Regulation, Environmental Degradation under Eastern European Socialism, and Military Dimensions of Communist Systems. He received his B.A. in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1972, his M.P.P. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1979. Lewis C. Solmon is president of the Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation in Los Angeles. Prior to assuming this position in July 1991, he served as dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education for six years. He has served on the faculties of UCLA, CUNY, and Purdue, and currently is a professor emeritus at UCLA. He has published two dozen books and monographs and more than 60 articles in scholarly and 302professional journals. His books include From the Campus: Perspectives on the School Reform Movement (1989), The Costs of Evaluation (1983), Under-employed Ph.D.'s (1981), and three editions of Economics , a basic text. He has written on teacher testing programs, foreign students, demographics of higher education, education and economic growth, the effects of educational quality, and the links between education and work. He is currently an associate editor of the Economics of Education Review. He has served as an adviser to the World Bank, UNESCO, various government agencies, and many universities. He received his A.M. in 1967 and his Ph.D. in economics in 1968, both from the University of Chicago.

• Foreword -- The Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation: An Introduction -- Capital Markets, Capital Formation, Savings, and Economic Growth -- Introduction -- Economic Growth, Convergence, and Government Policies -- Deposit Insurance, Savings, and Economic Growth -- Comment -- Comment -- Financial Markets and Economic Regulation -- Introduction -- Financial Repression and the Capital Crunch Recession: Political and Regulatory Barriers to Growth Economics -- Bank Capitalization Standards, the Credit Crunch, and Resource Allocation under Regulation -- Comment -- Comment -- Monetary and Fiscal Policy -- Introduction -- Monetary Policy: Some Theory and Evidence -- Monetary Aggregates and Monetary Policy -- Comment -- Comment -- Government Spending and Taxation -- Introduction -- Fiscal Effects on U.S. Economic Growth -- Capital Formation, Economic Growth, and Jobs: A Heretical Tax Strategy for Economic Growth -- Comment -- Comment -- Concluding Thoughts -- Economic Literacy and Economic Growth -- Conference Participants