Recent Books

This volume of Monetary and Fiscal Policy examines incentives created by or within political institutions which affect the process of policymaking. The book covers four areas: elections and policy cycles; public debt and political instability; fiscal redistribution; and structural reform. It features "Incumbent Performance and Electoral Control" by John Ferejohn; "'Why a Stubborn Conservative Would Run a Deficit: Policy with Time-Inconsistent Preferences" by Torsten Persson and Lars E. O. Svensson; '% Rational Theory of the Size of Government" by Allan H. Meltzer and Scott F. Richard; and "Resistance to Reform: Status Quo Bias in the Presence of Individual- Specific Uncertainty" by Raquel Fernandez and Dani Rodrik.

New Trade Theories: A Look at the Empirical Evidence. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute, 1994. 64 pp. $14.95 ISBN 1-898128-10-3.

New Trade Theories resulted from a conference sponsored by CEPR and the Centro Studi sui Processi di Internazionalizzazione (CESPRI), held in May 1993 at Bocconi University in Milan. The volume deals mainly with recent empirical analyses of new trade theories and the policy implications that have resulted from the research. The book begins with a review essay by David Dodwell and a survey paper by Paul Krugman. The remainder of the report consists of non-technical summaries of the papers presented at the conference.

Social Protection Versus Economic Flexibility. Rebecca M. Blank, ed. Chi- cago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. 376 pp. $50.00 ISBN 0-226-05678-3.

The papers in this volume examine and compare the effects social protection programs--such as social security, income transfers, and job protection laws--have on the labor markets of the U.S., Japan and nations of Western Europe. Topics discussed include the effect of employee pro- vided health insurance on job mobility; housing market regulations and housing market performance; public pension plans and older worker's labor market responsiveness; and the effects ofdaycare and maternity leave policies on working mothers. Contributors include Rebecca M. Blank, Richard B. Freeman, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman, Edward B. Mont- gomery and Douglas Holtz-Eakin. The papers were first presented at a conference held at the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

Speculative Bubbles, Speculative Attacks, and Policy Switching. Robert P. Flood and Peter M. Garber. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994. 493 pp. $50.00 ISBN 0-262-06169-4.

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Recent Books

For this book, Robert P. Flood and Peter M. Garber have compiled their research from over the past decade on speculative bubbles, currency reforms and speculative attacks. They pay particular attention to the subject of policy switching as it relates to their work with bubbles, and they examine the effect of past and prospective policy changes on individual economic behavior. Robert P. Flood is Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund, and Peter M. Garber is Professor of Economics at Brown University.

Studies on Causes and Consequences of the 1989-92 Credit Slowdown. New York: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1994. 474 pp. NPA.

This collection of papers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyzes the 1989-92 credit slowdown and attempts to explain reasons for problems in today's credit markets. The papers cover credit demand versus credit supply factors; the role of the Banking System in the credit slowdown; foreign credit expansion in the U.S., and the effects of the credit slowdown on monetary policy. Contributors include M.A. Aldltar, Patricia C. Mosser, Charles Steindel, Cara Lown, John Wenninger, Ronald Johnson, Chun K. Lee, Ethan S. Harris, Michael Boldin and Mark D. Flahert T.

Tax Policy and the Economy. James M. Poterba, ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994. 195 pp. $27.95 ISBN 0-262-66091-1.

The 1994 edition of Tax Policy and the Economy is the result of the eighth annual Tax Policy and the Economy Conference held in Washington, D.C. The focus of the conference was recent research on issues relevant to tax policy. The book features an introduction by James M. Poterba, followed by a paper by Janet Currie evaluating the success of cash transfers to parents and of in-kind transfers to children in improving the well-being of children; a work by Gilbert E. Metcalf on tax incidence analysis; an analysis of tax incentives and the location of R&D by multinational corporations by James 1R. Hines, Jr; a paper on energy taxes and the environment by Lawrence H. Goulder; and finally, a study by Julio J. Rotemberg and Michael Woodford on energy taxes and aggregate economic activity.

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