"Major subsidies and regulations intended to help the poor and unemployed were changed in more than a dozen ways after 2007. Economist Casey B. Mulligan argues that many of these changes were reasonable reactions to economic events, with the intention of helping people endure the recession, but they also reduced incentives for people to work and businesses to hire. He measures the startling changes in implicit tax rates that resulted from a labyrinth of new and expanded 'social safety net' programs, and quantifies the effects of these changes on the labor market and the economy. He also reveals how borrowers can expect their earnings to affect the amount that lenders will forgive in debt renegotiation, and how this has acted as a massive implicit tax on earning. He explains how redistribution in the forms of subsidies, taxes and minimum-wage laws profoundly altered the path of the economy and made the recent recession one of the deepest and longest in decades. The Redistribution Recession is a controversial, clear-cut, and thoroughly researched analysis of the effects of various government policies on the labor market. It offers ground-breaking interpretations and precise explanations of the interplay between unemployment and financial markets."--Jacket.

Redistribution, or subsidies and regulations intended to help the poor, unemployed, and financially distressed, have changed in many ways since the onset of the recent financial crisis. The unemployed, for instance, can collect benefits longer and can receive bonuses, health subsidies, and tax deductions, and millions more people have became eligible for food stamps. Economist Casey B. Mulligan argues that while many of these changes were intended to help people endure economic events and boost the economy, they had the unintended consequence of deepening-if not causing-the recession. By dulling incentives for people to maintain their own living standards, redistribution created employment losses according to age, skill, and family composition. Mulligan explains how elevated tax rates and binding minimum-wage laws reduced labor usage, consumption, and investment, and how they increased labor productivity. He points to entire industries that slashed payrolls while experiencing little or no decline in production or revenue, documenting the disconnect between employment and production that occurred during the recession. The book provides an authoritative, comprehensive economic analysis of the marginal tax rates implicit in public and private sector subsidy programs, and uses quantitative measures of incentives to work and their changes over time since 2007 to illustrate production and employment patterns. It reveals the startling amount of work incentives eroded by the labyrinth of new and existing social safety net program rules, and, using prior results from labor economics and public finance, estimates that the labor market contracted two to three times more than it would have if redistribution policies had remained constant. In The Redistribution Recession, Casey B. Mulligan offers hard evidence to contradict the notion that work incentives suddenly stop mattering during a recession or when interest rates approach zero, and offers groundbreaking interpretations and precise explanations of the interplay between unemployment and financial markets.

Presents results of an enquiry into the redistributive efficiency of European welfare states. It is primarily concerned with the income redistribution that arises from social benefits and the taxes or contributions which finance them.

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Competition for industrial investment at the regional and local levels is weakening not only national borders, but also traditional assumptions and methods for analyzing the spatial distribution of industry and trade. Researchers and practitioners in urban and regional planning, geography, and economics--mostly from Europe but also the US and Japan--describe new approaches, based on such factors as the behavior of individual firms, the behavior of multinational and multiplant firms, and the influence of the local economic environment. They do not try to synthesize the various approaches, but point out the strengths and weaknesses of each in particular situations and for particular purposes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Economic analysis of various existing and proposed income distribution schemes for the alleviation of poverty in the USA, with emphasis on the economic implications thereof - evaluates the existing system of explicit and implicit public grants and taxes (incl. Social security, education grants, farm subsidies, health services, etc.), and considers social policy alternatives for a universal income redistribution. References and statistical tables.

Monograph examining issues relating to international economic relations trends and economic recession in OECD countries - examines causes and significance of the crisis, increasing interdependence, changing international division of labour and relations with newly industrializing countries, and discusses the prerequisites for and role of OECD countries in a new international economic order. Graphs, illustrations, references and statistical tables.

Epic Recession explains the origins and future direction of the current economic crisis, and the relationships between the banking system's breakdown and the economy in general. Jack Rasmus describes how Epic Recession is highly resistant to traditional fiscal and monetary policy solutions and requires major structural changes in the economy in order to check and contain. The book analyzes in depth the origins and causes of Epic Recession—revealing its roots in corporate and government policies and fundamental structural changes in U.S. capitalist economy since the early 1980s. Epic Recession explains how the current economic crisis is similar to, and simultaneously different from, both the Great Depression of 1929-1934 and post-1945 recessions in the U.S. It categorizes Epic Recessions in two dominant forms: ‘Type I’ and ‘Type II’: The former similar to events of 1907-1914; the latter to events of 1929-1931. Rasmus argues today’s current crisis is evolving into a ‘Type I’, but has the potential for transforming into a ‘Type II’ and that 2011-2013 will be a critical period for determining which type will prevail. Epic Recession further provides a detailed critique of both George W. Bush and Obama administration recovery programs, in both their monetary and fiscal dimensions, and assesses why they have fared poorly thus far in resolving the crisis. The book concludes by presenting a full, thorough alternative program necessary for recovery.