Clark Center Forum

 

 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel Statements:

A) By providing electronic benefit cards to choose and buy groceries at stores, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program currently does more for its recipients' well-being than it would if the program directly provided a smaller array of foods to its recipients, while commensurately reducing the amount they could spend on groceries of their own choosing.

B) By providing electronic benefit cards to choose and buy groceries at stores, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program currently does more to raise food security and reduce hunger than it would if the program directly provided a smaller array of foods to its recipients, while commensurately reducing the amount they could spend on groceries of their own choosing. 

The storm that rocked the world economy in 2008 involved many forces, hitting financial, housing and broader sectors of the economy all at once. As the world continues to reform and reflect on the lessons of that crisis, we note the broad consensus that has emerged among economists about what happened. In a recent survey […] 

This week's IGM European Experts Panel statement:

The US spends roughly 17% of GDP on healthcare, according to the OECD; most European countries spend less than 12% of GDP.

Higher quality-adjusted US healthcare prices contribute relatively more to the extra US spending than does the combination of higher quantity and quality of US care (interpreting quantity and quality to reflect both greater American healthcare needs due to underlying population health and the delivery of more or better healthcare services to Americans). 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

The biggest reason for the measured slowdown in US productivity growth since the mid-2000s is that productivity increases have gone mismeasured, including new and better products and services that have been insufficiently captured by real output data. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Because of the many special and unique roles that the dollar plays in global commerce, US citizens are substantially better off than they otherwise would be. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel Statement:

Over the past two years, all else equal, the appeal of the US as a destination for immigrants has changed in ways that will likely decrease innovation in the US economy. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Over the past two years, all else equal, the appeal of the US as a destination for immigrants has changed in ways that will likely decrease innovation in the US economy. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Without changes in policy, a rising share of people who are over age 65 will exert a substantial downward influence on per capita real GDP in western European countries.

B) In European countries where the share of those over 65 is rising, there are net social benefits to adjusting retirement ages for state-financed (including pay-as-you-go) pension systems upwards, so that revised retirement ages better reflect longer life expectancies.