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Readers who find this blog a useful stimulus for reflection might also be interested in checking the “Research Highlights” webpage run by the American Economic Association. I’m the Managing Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, which is one of the seven journals currently published by the AEA (with an eighth journal scheduled to startContinue reading “Opening Some Windows Into Recent Economic Research”

Thanksgiving is a day for a traditional menu, and I take a holiday by reprinting this annual column on the origins of the day: The first presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday was issued by George Washington on October 3, 1789. But it was a one-time event. Individual states (especially those in NewContinue reading “Thanksgiving History: George Washington, Sarah Josepha Hale, Abraham Lincoln”

As I prepare for a season of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread (made with cornmeal and pecans), pumpkin soup (especially nice wish a decent champagne) and perhaps a pumpkin ice cream pie (graham cracker crust, of course),  I have been mulling over why the area around Peoria, Illinois, so dominates the production of processed pumpkin. [InContinue reading “The Dominance of Peoria in the Processed Pumpkin Market”

As Thanksgiving preparations arrive, I naturally find my thoughts veering to the evolution of demand for turkey, technological change in turkey production, market concentration in the turkey industry, and price indexes for a classic Thanksgiving dinner. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. [Note: This is an updated and amended version of a post thatContinue reading “An Economist Chews over Thanksgiving”

I sometimes run across articles that offer additional follow-up on topics about which I’ve previously posted, or stories in the news that remind me of earlier posts. Here, I’ll just offer short follow-ups on an eclectic set of four topics: The Scandinavian style of capitalism,  Economic gains from in equal opportunity The news about BrexitContinue reading “Four Follow-Ups: Scandinavia, Equal Opportunity, Brexit, Leveraged Lending”

Most bonds are a way for corporations and government to borrow money. A catastrophe bond is different. It’s effectively a way for an insurance firm to re-insure some of the extreme risks it faces.Andy Polacek offers a nice overview in “Catastrophe Bonds: A Primer and Retrospective,” a recent  Chicago Fed Letter (2018, No. 405). PolacekContinue reading “Catastrophe Bonds: A Primer”

Mushrooms are a relatively small US agricultural crop, with total production of about $1.2 billion in the 2017-2018 growing year. But they do illustrate some economic lessons, including how a local area that develops a specialization in a certain product can be hard to dislodge, and how the rise of China is reshaping global productionContinue reading “Economics of Mushroom Production: Kennett Square and the Rise of China”

Fifty years ago in 1968, Milton Friedman’s Presidential Address to the American Economic Association set the stage for battles in macroeconomics that have continued ever since. The legacy of the talk has been important enough that in the Winter 2018 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, where I work as Managing Editor, we published aContinue reading “Solow on Friedman’s 1968 Presidential Address and the Medium Run”

Imagine two people who have seemingly equal skills and background. They go to work for two different companies. However, one “superstar” company grows much faster, so that wages and opportunities in that company also grow much faster. Or they go to work in two different cities. One “superstar” urban economy grows much faster, so thatContinue reading “Superstar Firms and Cities”