Knowledge that Transforms

This article studies how equity ownership and corporate control were separated in the United States. Initially, railroads and industrial firms were tightly controlled by a few shareholders; this situation was altered in the 1890s by massive mergers and reorganizations, which allowed private banks to control railroads and industrial firms. Between 1912 and 1939, bank control faded away as a result of a political reaction against financial institutions. Using stock-market data from 1914, the author shows that the eviction of banks from corporate boards depressed firm values by about 7 percent and that part of this value came from cartelization.

Nobel Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 9, 1997. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Many states are implementing school-finance reforms which will have complex effects on income distribution, intergenerational income mobility, and welfare. This paper analyzes the static and dynamic effects of such reforms by constructing a dynamic general equilibrium model of public-education provision and calibrating it using U.S. data. The authors examine the consequences of a reform of a locally financed system to a state-financed system which equalizes expenditures per student across districts. They find that this policy increases both average income and the share of income spent on education. Steady-state welfare increases by 3.2 percent of steady-state income.

The author considers trade between a flexible-wage America and a rigid-wage Europe. In a benchmark case, a move from autarky to free trade doubles European unemployment. American wages rise to the European level. Entry of the unskilled 'South' to world markets raises European unemployment. Europe's commitment to the high wage wholly insulates America from the shock. Immigration to America raises American income, but lowers European income dollar for dollar, while European unemployment rises. Absent South-North migration of the unskilled from 1970-90, Europe could have maintained the same wage with from one-eighth to one-fourth less unemployment.