Government spending and monetary policy have consequences not only for the pace of economic growth, but for who shares in prosperity. Recent research by Anmol Bhandari aims to refine the relationship between cause and effect. It’s a problem not only of mathematics, but of revising the way economists think about policy choices.

Since 1990, population growth in California and New York has stalled. Why? The relative price of moving to those states has soared – partly the result of land use regulations that make other locales more attractive, according to the latest research by economists Kyle Herkenhoff and co-authors.

V.V. Chari and Lawrence J. Christiano examine the conventional view of commodity markets and propose an alternative mutual insurance view.

A new working paper by Fatih Guvenen and co-authors investigates how shifting profits overseas is impacting U.S. productivity measures. "The current international accounting system allows a lot of flexibility — you might say too much flexibility — which allows companies to shift their profits to low-tax jurisdictions," said Fatih Guvenen of the research.