READINGS FOR THIS WEEK

Here's a list of interesting readings for this week.

Gary Becker (link) and Richard Posner (link) briefly discuss the economic effects of fiscal stimulus and review the main literature on fiscal multiplier and the macroeconomic cost of the stimulus bill.

Congressional Budget Office published Budget Outlook 2010 (link) in which it analyzed the total effects of policy alternatives on federal budget deficit.

In NY Times, Paul Krugman discussed (link) the painfulness of financial crisis in Ireland and the U.S and suggesting what we should learn from banking regulation in Canada to prevent future crises of similar proportions.

In How to close the productivity gap between the US and Europe: A quantitative assessment using a semi-endogenous growth model, Werner Roeger, Janos Varga and Jan in 't Veld from the European Commission suggest (link) that to catch-up the US productivity level, the EU should strengthen market competition and eliminate administrative and financial barriers to market entry to start closing the gap in knowledge investment.

In Waging War on Black Teens, Richard W. Rahn and Izzy Santa wrote (link) about the high unemployment rate among young African Americans. Furthermore, they suggest that minimum wage mandate is the main cause of steep unemployment rise thereupon.

The Economist (link) summarized the estimated total cost of reconstruction after the earthquake in Chile at $20-30 billion (13-19 percent of the GDP). Chile's sovereign wealth fund has just over $11 billion saved during the pre-crisis period of high copper prices which, at that time, stood at record levels.