EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Another Look at Whether a Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

James Hines, Hilary Hoynes and Alan Krueger

No 8412, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Periods of rapid U.S. economic growth during the 1960s and 1970s coincided with improved living standards for many segments of the population, including the disadvantaged as well as the affluent, suggesting to some that a rising economic tide lifts all demographic boats. This paper investigates the impact of U.S. business cycle conditions on population well-being since the 1970s. Aggregate employment and hours worked in this period are strongly procyclical, particularly for low-skilled workers, while aggregate real wages are only mildly procyclical. Similar patterns appear in a balanced panel of PSID respondents that removes the effects of changing workforce composition, though the magnitude of the responsiveness of real wages to unemployment appears to have declined in the last 20 years. Economic upturns increase the likelihood that workers acquire jobs in sectors with positively sloped career ladders. Spending by state and local governments in all categories rises during economic expansions, including welfare spending, for which needs vary countercyclically. Since the disadvantaged are likely to benefit disproportionately from such government spending, it follows that the public finances also contribute to conveying the benefits of a strong economy to diverse population groups.

JEL-codes: E24 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pke
Note: LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

Published as Krueger, Alan and Robert Solow (eds.) The Roaring Nineties: Can Full Employment Be Sustained? New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8412.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Another Look at Whether a Rising Tide Lifts All Boats (2001) Downloads
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:nbr:nberwo:8412

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8412

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8412