A model of banking and means of payment is constructed to analyze the effects of the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC). That CBDC is interest bearing is not an advantage, as replacement of physical currency with CBDC does not expand the attainable set of equilibrium allocations. CBDC can increase welfare by competing with private means of payment and shifting safe assets from the private banking sector to what is effectively a narrow banking facility. This uses the aggregate stock of safe collateral more efficiently, given incentive problems in private banking.

The late nineteenth century saw international mass migrations of capital and labor from the Old World to the New. Factors chased each other and the abundant resources at the frontier. Demographic structure also contributed to the massive capital flows from Britain to the New World. The dependency hypothesis is confirmed by estimation of savings functions in three New World economies (Argentina, Australia, and Canada) in which high dependency rates may have significantly depressed domestic savings rates and pulled in foreign investment: in effect an intergenerational transfer from old savers in the Old World to young savers in the New.

The last two decades have clearly shown that increased automobile ownership and highway construction can facilitate profound redistributions of population and economic activity within metropolitan areas. These changes are related in a fundamental way to many of the social and economic difficulties of our large, mature, central cities: loss of middle and upper income groups to the suburbs, declining retail sales in downtown areas, erosion of the tax base, shift of manufacturing and service establishments to suburban areas, decline of mass transit service and patronage, and increased traffic congestion. There is a great deal of support for the view that there has been too much highway construction and that the time has come to help public transportation. This paper explores some of the issues involved in a program of assistance to public transportation.

While the Dodd–Frank Act (DFA) mandates board risk committees for large banks, we argue that such committees do not benefit all banks. Banks forced by the DFA to adopt a board risk committee do not experience a reduction in risk following adoption. In contrast, banks that voluntarily established risk committees before the DFA exhibit lower risk, especially when these committees possess greater risk expertise. Using unique interview data, we find that board risk committees serve as active monitors rather than merely rubber-stamping management proposals. However, regulatory-mandated tasks limit their monitoring role.

A normative model of expected behavior was developed and used to evaluate the effects of measurement concepts on the investment policy decisions of trustees. Traditional concepts of trust income and trust corpus were compared with purchasing power concepts. It was found that traditional concepts affect investment policy decisions in three ways. (1) Defining income as cash dividends and interest could create constraints that would not allow the selection of a portfolio for the trust on the basis of risk-yield preference. (2) Constraints imposed by attempts to offset the effects of secular inflation could cause the selection of portfolios not considered optimal on the basis of risk-yield preference. (3) The differential tax features of securities can cause the selection of a sub-optimal port- folio in order to avoid appearing biased. Investment policy decisions under the purchasing power concepts do not appear to be affected by the first two constraints, but could be affected by constraints imposed by the differential tax treatment of securities; this would depend upon whether the distribution formulation considered tax effects. Many (if not most) state statutes would preclude this approach to the problem. Although this does not mean the statutes are preferable, the purchasing power concepts, though theoretically sound, are probably not capable of implementation under current conditions. It is possible, however, through direct specifications in the terms of the trust, to achieve many of the advantages that would be gained by utilizing purchasing power concepts. The primary advantage would be to free the trustee's investment decisions from constraints caused by the conflict of interests between life tenants and remaindermen.