Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: Setting National Priorities: 1992

Edward Gramlich

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1992, vol. 6, issue 2, 3-12

Abstract: More than two decades ago the Brookings Institution first published a book with the title of this lecture. The idea behind the book was straightforward—rather than being led by events, or falling into the trap of incremental budgeting, budgetary planners should try to set priorities. They should figure out where the country and its government budget should be some years hence, and use this priority-setting exercise as a road map on how to get there. In this lecture, I revisit the topic of setting national priorities. The ultimate message is that both the peace dividend and the recession should be viewed as highly visible diversions from what should be the main economic priorities this year. This year, as in other years, economic policy should go beyond advocating simple shifts of resources and delve into deeper questions of structural reforms.

JEL-codes: E66 H50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.6.2.3
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.6.2.3 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:6:y:1992:i:2:p:3-12

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().