#2004-024A "Productivity and the Geographic Concentration of Industry: The Role of Plant Scale"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
September 2004

A large body of research has established a positive connection between an industry's productivity and the magnitude of its presence within locally defined geographic areas. This paper examines the extent to which this relationship can be explained by a micro-level underpinning commonly associated with productivity: establishment scale. More...

PUBLISHED: Regional Science and Urban Economics, May 2006, 36(3), pp. 313-30

#2004-023B "Industry Localization and Earnings Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
September 2004
Revised March 2005

While the productivity gains associated with the geographic concentration of industry (i.e. localization) are by now well-documented, little work has considered how those gains are distributed across individual workers. This paper offers evidence on the connection between total employment and the relative wage earnings of high- and low-skill workers (i.e. inequality) within two-digit manufacturing industries across the states and a collection of metropolitan areas in the U.S. between 1970 and 1990. More...

PUBLISHED: Papers in Regional Science, March 2007, 86(1), pp. 77-100

#2004-022A "The Value of Foreclosed Property"
by Anthony Pennington-Cross
September 2004

This paper examines the expected price appreciation of distressed property and compares it to the prevailing metropolitan area appreciation rate. The results show that the simple fact that the property is foreclosed indicates that it will be sold at a substantial discount (appreciate less than expected). More...

FORTHCOMING: The Journal of Real Estate Research

#2004-021A "Worker Turnover, Industry Localization, and Producer Size"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
September 2004

Empirically, large employers have been shown to devote greater resources to filling vacancies than small employers. Following this evidence, this paper offers a theory of producer size based on labor market search, whereby a key factor in the determination of producer's total employment is the ease with which workers can be found to fill jobs that are, periodically, vacated. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, May 2008, 66(2), pp. 322-334

#2004-020A "Cities, Skills, and Inequality"
by Christopher H. Wheeler
September 2004

The surge in U.S. wage inequality over the past several decades is now commonly attributed to an increase in the returns paid to skill. Although theories differ with respect to why, specifically, this increase has come about, many agree that it is strongly tied to the increase in the relative supply of skilled (i.e. highly educated) workers in the U.S. labor market. More...

PUBLISHED: Growth and Change, Summer 2005, 36(3), pp. 329-53

#2004-019A "Do Productivity Growth, Budget Deficits, And Monetary Policy Actions Affect Real Interest Rates? Evidence From Macroeconomic Announcement Data"
by Kevin L. Kliesen, and Frank A. Schmid
September 2004

Real-business-cycle models suggest that an increase in the rate of productivity growth increases the real rate of interest. But economic theory is ambiguous when it comes to the effect of government budget deficits on the real rate of interest. More...

PUBLISHED: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, March/April 2006, 88(2), pp. 133-43

#2004-018A "Monetary Policy Actions and the Incentive to Invest"
by William R. Emmons, and Frank A. Schmid
August 2004

The ability of monetary policy actions to affect the private sector's incentive to invest in fixed capital is hotly debated. Whereas a downward shift in the yield curve increases the present value of expected cash flows and should spur investment, lower short term interest rates make delay more desirable. More...

PUBLISHED: Business Economics, April 2004, 39(2), pp. 24-29

#2004-017D "Monetary Policy, Taxes, and the Business Cycle"
by William T. Gavin, Finn E. Kydland, and Michael R. Pakko
August 2004
Revised May 2006

This paper analyzes the interaction of inflation with the tax code and its contribution to aggregate fluctuations. We find significant effects operating through the tax on realized nominal capital gains. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Monetary Economics, September 2007, 54(6), pp. 1587-1611

#2004-016A "Learning and Structural Change in Macroeconomic Data"
by James Bullard, and John Duffy
August 2004

We include learning in a standard equilibrium business cycle model with explicit growth. We use the model to study how the economy's agents could learn in real time about the important trend-changing events of the postwar era in the U.S., such as the productivity slowdown, increased labor force participation by women, and the "new economy" of the 1990s. More...

#2004-015B "When Did the FOMC Begin Targeting the Federal Funds Rate? What the Verbatim Transcripts Tell Us"
by Daniel L. Thornton
August 2004
Revised May 2005

In October 1982 the FOMC deemphasized M1 and moved to what is commonly referred to as a borrowed reserves operating procedure. Sometime thereafter the FOMC switched to a funds rate targeting procedure but never formally announced the change. More...

PUBLISHED: Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, December 2006, 38(8), pp. 2039-71