A collection of articles covering the economic history of the US over the last 50 years. It is selective in its coverage of important issues not often treated historically, such as the economics of medical care and the educational system.
Chapter I The Economy at Midcentury; The War’s Consequences, Harold G. Vatter; The Inheritance of the Preceding Decades, Harold G. Vatter; Chapter II Highlights of Change in the Postwar Era; Some Deeper Currents in the Recent Past, Stuart Bruchey; A Brief Overview of Post-World War II Expansions, Stephen K. McNees; Science and Technology; Overview of U.S. Science and Technology; Technology and Natural Resource Use, John F. Walker, Harold G. Vatter; In the Shadow of the Bomb, Dick Russell; Chapter III Changes in the Structure of the Economy; Changes in Industry Shares of National Output, Charles J. Haulk; Taking In Each Other’s Laundry—The Service Economy, Lynne E. Browne; Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Populations; City and Suburban Populations; State Population Trends; Geographical Mobility; Allocation of the National Output among Functions; Regional Perspectives, Howard L. Friedenberg, Rudolph E. DePass; U.S. Agriculture: Hard Realities and New Opportunities, Marvin R. Duncan; Changes in U.S. Industrial Structure: The Role of Global Forces, Secular Trends, and Transitory Cycles, Robert Z. Lawrence; Historical Data on Public Transit; The Road More Traveled, Mark O. Hatfield; Is There a Shortfall in Public Capital Investment?, George E. Peterson; Anatomy of the Voluntary Nonprofit Sector, Burton A. Weisbrod; A Monetary Perspective on Underground Economic Activity in the United States, Richard D. Porter, Amanda S. Bayer; Managerial Decline: The Military Industrial Influence, John E. Ullmann; Health Care: Dynamic Technology and Changing Demographics; Chapter IV The Evolution of the Business Sector; The Company in the Postwar World, Mansel G. Blackford, K. Austin Kerr; Recent Developments in Corporate Finance, Leland E. Crabbe, Margaret H. Pickering, Stephen D. Prouse; The State of Small Business: A Report of the President; Chapter V The Labor Force and Labor Organization; Issues in Labor Supply, Janice Shack-Marquez; The 1980s: A Decade of Job Growth and Industry Shifts, Lois M. Plunkert; The Changing Labor Force: Some Provocative Findings, William E. Cullison; The Labor Movement, Mary C. King; Chapter VI Changing Material Conditions and the Quality of Life; Social and Economic Change since the Great Depression: Studies of Census Data, 1940–80; The Changing Fortunes of American Families in the 1980s, Katharine L. Bradbury; Wage Inequality Takes a Great U-Turn, Bennett Harrison, Chris Tilly, Barry Bluestone; Trends in the Distribution of Wealth among American Families; How Family Spending Has Changed in the United States, Eva Jacobs, Stephanie Shipp; American Living Standards; Participation in Government Benefits Programs; Health Status of the American Population; The Crisis in Health Insurance; We the Americans … Our Homes; Family-Related Benefits in the Workplace, William J. Wiatrowski; Children in Two-Worker Families and Real Family Income, Howard V. Hayghe; Economic Status of the Elderly; The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population; In Black America, Life Grows Shorter, Carlyle C. Douglas; We the American… Hispanics; The Minimum Wage: Its Relation to Incomes and Poverty, Ralph E. Smith, Bruce Vavrichek; The Changing Family in International Perspective; The Economic Effects of Immigration; Chapter VII Government Growth and Government as Manager; The Inevitability of Government Growth, Harold G. Vatter, John F. Walker; Real Public-Sector Employment Growth, Wagner’s Law, and Economic Growth in the United States, Harold G. Vatter, John F. Walker; The Midwest Response to the New Federalism, Peter K. Eisinger, William T. Gormley; A Microeconomic Analysis of the Tax Reform Act of 1986; Do Taxes Change Behavior?; Do Higher Tax Rates Increase Tax Revenues?; Activist Government: Key to Growth, Walter W. Heller; Should Growth Be a Priority of National Policy?, Herbert Stein; Stagnation and Government Purchases, Harold G. Vatter, John F. Walker; Rethinking Regulation; Taking the Measure of Environmental Regulation, Paul R. Portney; The Road We’ve Traveled, Phyllis Myers; Consumer Protection: Problems and Prospects, Laurence P. Feldman, ed.; An Overview of Agricultural Policy … Past, Present, and Future, Raymond E. Owens; Investment in Natural Resources; Two Decades of Energy Policy, Hans H. Landsberg; Welfare Dependency: Fact or Myth?, Richard D. Coe; The Case for a National Welfare Standard, Paul E. Peterson, Mark C. Rom; Social Security Programs in the United States; Military Expansion Economic Decline, Robert W. DeGrasse; The End of the Cold War; A Decent Home; A New Housing Policy for America, David C. Schwartz, Richard C. Ferlauto, Daniel N. Hoffman; A Study of Public Works Investment; How Federal Spending for Infrastructure and Other Public Investments Affects the Economy; A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform; A Limited War on Crime That We Can Win, John DiIulio; Crime and Drugs, Harold G. Vatter, John F. Walker; Chapter VIII The Financial Superstructure, Prices, and Monetary Policy; Financial Markets: Innovation and Stability; Report of Special Study of Securities Markets; Why Deposit Insurance Was Established and How It Is Supposed to Work; Eroding Market Imperfection: Implications for Financial Intermediaries, the Payments System, and Regulatory Reform, Robert A. Eisenbeis; Solvency Problems in the Insurance Industry; Dow Jones Industrial Average Is a Nonsense Number, John F. Walker; A Review of Predictability of Stock Market Prices, G. H. Lawson; A Half-Year Pause in Inflation: Its Antecedents and Structure, John F. Early, Walter Lane, Philip Sturm; The Federal Reserve Response, Sherman J. Maisel; Volcker’s Revolution at the Fed, Andrew H. Bartels; How Monetarism Failed, Nicholas Kaldor; Eurodollars; Central Banking and Systemic Risks in Capital Markets, Andrew Brimmer; Chapter IX The Foreign Balance and Foreign Economic Policy; World Trade and Economic Growth; Multilateral Initiatives: The Uruguay Round; Changing U.S. Trade Patterns, Jack L. Hervey; The North American Free Trade Agreement; Multinational Corporations and the Trade-Investment Linkage; The Changing Role of the International Monetary Fund; The Marshall Plan and Early Bilateral Aid; The Foreign Aid Programs and the United States Economy; Overview of Foreign Assistance; U.S. Exchange Rate Policy: Bretton Woods to Present, B. Dianne Pauls; The Evolution of the Export-Import Bank; Immigration Policy: Political or Economic?, Vernon M. Briggs; Chapter X The Long Stagnation; Why Has the United States Operated Below Potential Since World War II?, John F. Walker, Harold G. Vatter;
