HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION AND NATIONAL PRODUCTION: AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE RECORD

1 By no means is the home based production of housewives the only or even the most important aspect of nonmarket production. The entire question of work vs. leisure, and the distinction between leisure and nonmarket oriented production, are currently under intensive scrutiny. See for instance the work of Nordhaus and Tobin [7, especially appendix section A.3], Gronau [2] and items cited in Gronau. The omission from the national income accounts of work performed at home by males, non-married females, and “working wives” is extremely important. This paper is concerned only with married females because (1) they are the subject of what must be one of the oldest jokes in the subject of social accounting, and (2) the relationship of production by housewives to total production has changed in the past ten years or so, and that deserves some attention even if it is not the most important thing which has been happening with respect to the GNP.
Specifically, we will present estimates of the value of home based nonmarket production by housewives. These estimates will then be used to supplement various national product aggregates in order to calculate more accurate growth rates for the U.S. economy. We find that the value of nonmarket production by married women during the 1960's has averaged approximately thirty percent of the GNP and close to 40 percent of the national income. The inclusion of the nonmarket work of housewives in GNP would reduce the measured rate of growth of real GNP per potential worker by about ten percent, the exact amount depending on how the value of nonmarket work is estimated. Our estimates indicate a reduction in the absolute rate of growth of almost 0.25 percent.     

COMPOUNDING RISK OVER TIME: A NOTE

The widely used risk-adjusted discount rate technique of investment evaluation has long been believed to be strictly appropriate only for projects whose risk increased with time. The "certainty equivalent proof" of that belief has recently been refuted. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the other proof of that belief, called the "compounding the risk premium" approach, is also flawed since it confuses the level of investment and the rate earned on investment.     

An Analysis of Home Equity Conversion in the RAM Program

Home equity conversion by elderly homeowners is described and analyzed. The transactions were completed under the California RAM Program. One hundred twenty-six of 345 applicants elected to enter into reverse mortgages or sale-leasebacks. Data from interviews conducted as part of the application/counseling process are analyzed to discern the most important variables in the equity conversion decision.     

A common specification of price,output, and unemployment rate responses to demand pressure and import prices in six industrial countries

Zusammenfassung Eine allgemeine Spezifizierung der Reaktionen von Preisen, Produktion und Arbeitslosenquoten auf Nachfragedruck und Importpreise in sechs Industriel?ndern. — Diese Arbeit berichtet über eine empirische Untersuchung der Wechselwirkungen von Gesamtnachfrage und Gesamtangebot in sechs L?ndern: Kanada, Frankreich, Deutschland, Italien, Vereinigtes K?nigreich, Vereinigte Staaten. Der Aufsatz befa\t sich mit der Bestimmung von Inflation, Produktion und Arbeitslosenquote als Folge von überm?\iger Gesamtnachfrage (Nachfragedruck). Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, da\ wir gro\e und generell signifikante kurzfristige Wirkungen von ?nderungen in Geldversorgung, ?ffentlichen Ausgaben und Exporten auf die Nachfrage ermittelt haben. Die Anpassung der Preise an den Nachfragedruck ist nach unserer Sch?tzung zwar positiv, aber im allgemeinen schwach. Dementsprechend haben ?nderungen der Gesamtnachfrage signifikante kurzfristige Auswirkungen auf Produktion und Arbeitslosenquote. Dieses Ergebnis ist sehr keynesianisch, obwohl das allgemeine Modell, das wir untersucht haben, eine Abwandlung des ?monetaristischen? Modells der ?Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis? darstellt.

---

Résumé Une spécification commune des réactions de taux de prix, de production et de ch?mage, à la pression de demande et aux prix d’importation dans six pays industrialisés. — Cet article reporte une investigation empirique de l’interaction de la demande agrégée et de l’offre dans six pays: le Canada, la France, l’Allemagne de l’Ouest, l’Italie, le Royaume Uni et les Etats Unis. Ce papier s’occupe de la détermination de l’inflation, de la production réelle, et du taux de ch?mage qui résulte comme conséquence de la demande agrégée d’excès (la pression de demande). Comme résumé, nous identifions des grands et généralement significatifs effets à court terme des changements en argent, en dépenses administratives et en exportations, sur le demande. Bien que nous estimions un ajustement positif des prix à la pression de demande, l’ajustement est généralement faible. C’est pourquoi nous estimons que les changements de la demande agrégée ont des effets significatifs à court terme sur la production et sur le taux de ch?mage. Ce résultat est très Keynesien malgré du fait que le modèle commun que nous avons analysé, représente une modification du modèle ?monétariste? de la ?Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis?.

---

Resumen Una especificaci?n común de respuestas de precio, producto, y tasas de desempleo frente a presiones de demanda y precios de importatión en seis países industriales. — En este artículo se da a conocer una investigatión empírica de la interactión de la demanda agregada y la oferta en seis países: Canadá, Francia, Alemania, Italia, el Reino Unido y los EEUU. El artículo se ocupa de la determinatión de la inflatión, el producto real, y la tasa de desempleo que résulta como consecuencia del exceso de demanda agregada (presi?n de demanda). Para resumir, identificamos efectos de corto plazo importantes y generalmente significatives de cambios monetarios, de gasto fiscal y de exportaciones sobre la demanda. A pesar de que estimamos un ajuste positivo de los precios frente a presiones de demanda, el ajuste es generalmente débil. De tal manera se estima que cambios en la demanda agregada tienen efectos de corto plazo significativos sobre el producto y la tasa de desempleo. Este resultado es muy keynesiano, a pesar del hecho que el modelo común que investigamos representa una modificatión del modelo ?monetarista? del ?Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis?.

     

International Adjustment With Habit-Forming Consumption: A Diagrammatic Exposition*

This paper presents a simple diagrammatic analysis of an open economy's external adjustment process under habit-forming individual preferences. the exposition focuses on the consumption side and alms to make transparent the linkage among wealth, past consumption experience, and current consumption. an extension of the standard representative-agent model to a growing economy of overlapping generations completes the paper. Under habit formation an agent's consumption exhibits a form of hysteresis, in that his current consumption depends on his past consumption experience as well as initial assets. In the overlapping-generations model aggregate hysteresis disappears in the long run.     

Time-consistent subsidies to unlucky firms

This paper examines government subsidies that prevent unlucky firms from going out of business. Subsidies can save jobs and prevent an increase in unemployment insurance expenditures, but they modify the incentives of the firms to exert adequate effort. If firms expect to obtain help, they may not undertake enough effort to decrease the probability of needing help. The cost-minimizing government must therefore trade off the savings in unemployment insurance expenditures against the increased bill in subsidies to the firms. The analysis shows that this trade-off is significantly affected by the level of commitment of the government; if the government cannot commit to a future subsidy policy, the level of subsidies will be unambiguously higher, the level of effort by the firms lower, and the number of firms making losses higher than if the government could so commit.     

Volatile and persistent real exchange rates with or without sticky prices

The flexible-price two-country monetary model is extended to include a consumption externality with habit persistence. Two methodologies are employed to explore this model's ability to generate volatile and persistent exchange rates. In the first, actual data is used for the exogenous driving processes. In the second, the model is simulated using estimated forcing processes. The theory, in both cases, is capable of explaining the high volatility and persistence of real and nominal exchange rates as well as the high correlation between real and nominal rates.