In macroeconomic models with flexible wages and prices, whether a tax is levied on producers or consumers does not affect its ultimate incidence. This equivalence breaks down in the presence of short-run nominal rigidities. Using both British and American data, we provide evidence against complete wage and price flexibility.

This paper presents evidence on the characteristic speculative dynamics of returns on stocks, bond, foreign exchange, real estate, collectibles, and precious metals. It highlights four stylized facts. First, returns tend to be positively serially correlated at high frequency. Second, they are weakly negatively serially correlated over long horizons. Third, deviations of asset values from proxies for fundamental value have predictive power for returns. Fourth, short term interest rates are negatively correlated with excess returns on other assets. The similarity of the results across markets suggests that they may be due to inherent features of the speculative process.

Tht" note desc:,.-tb.. 8 ~n "I!:ort~h,.for t hl!-lIolut lon of ratlom.}""p"c;tHtlonJ' =de.1a with "addle.poiutIItabilLL y properties.The algorithm i:ll b .. :SIed 00 the ",e thod of "",!tlpl" "hootin!:, which il< wfd e ly u",,<1 to "olve 11Il'1tl",maticHlly s i mi14r problemG i n the physical sciences.Potentiol opplicatlon~ to e~onom1cs lndude mod .. l" "f c~ptL"l ~ccum"ht!rm>lnd v"lll" tI"n ."'."""y ""d gro~th ... "..:1"I."gerate determination .and m4cr occooomic octivity.In generol, whene~r on as~et pri'''' lncoTPor>l t ... " lnfo,.",,,Uon"hou t the future p>lth of It .. y v"ri"bl" ... ,001 .. e10n olgorlthmG of the t ype we consider 4Ie applic4ble.

We illustrate how equilibrium screening models can be used to evaluate the economic consequences of insurance market regulation. We calibrate and solve a model of the United Kingdom's compulsory annuity market and examine the impact of gender-based pricing restrictions. We find that the endogenous adjustment of annuity contract menus in response to such restrictions can undo up to half of the redistribution from men to women that would occur with exogenous Social Security-like annuity contracts. Our findings indicate the importance of endogenous contract responses and illustrate the feasibility of employing theoretical insurance market equilibrium models for quantitative policy analysis.

What Does Performance in Graduate School Predict? Graduate Economics Education and Student Outcomes by Susan Athey, Lawrence F. Katz, Alan B. Krueger, Steven Levitt and James Poterba. Published in volume 97, issue 2, pages 512-520 of American Economic Review, May 2007

New Evidence on the Money's Worth of Individual Annuities by Olivia S. Mitchell, James M. Poterba, Mark J. Warshawsky and Jeffrey R. Brown. Published in volume 89, issue 5, pages 1299-1318 of American Economic Review, December 1999

Report: Ad Hoc Search Committee for the Editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy by David Cutler, Amy Finkelstein, Adriana Lleras-Muney, James Poterba, David Romer and Robert Shimer. Published in volume 103, issue 3, pages 774 of American Economic Review, May 2013