Garry K. Ottosen

Unemployment costs the United States at least $400 billion per year in lost output. This number does not begin to add up the total costs of unemployment that include many serious social problems like increased divorce and crime rates. If unemployment costs so much, why don't we simply pump up demand and push the unemployment rate down? The answer lies in the relationship between inflation and unemployment: we simply cannot push unemployment below the rate that is compatable with stable inflation.Must we, then, just live with unemployment? No. But to understand how we can reduce unemployment, we must understand the nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU). What determines the level of the NAIRU? Has that level increased? Can we reduce the current NAIRU? These are important questions addressed in Reducing Unemployment Ottosen and Thompson argue that the NAIRU has increased significantly over the past 30 years. Many blame structural unemployment for that increase. Others have argued that increases in social welfare programs and payments are to blame. But hardly anyone has examined the effects of increasing government regulations on the NAIRU. Reducing Unemployment remedies this oversight, and also looks at the effects of unionization and productivity on the NAIRU. The authors conclude that the United States does not have to tolerate a high unemployment rate, for the NAIRU can be reduced through appropriate government deregulation.

Making American Government Work argues that divided responsibility and fragmented power in American government have made it unworkable. The author claims the only solution to this problem is to reinvigorate federalism in the United States. Contents: Why American Government Doesn't Work; The Problem of Shared Responsibility; The Argument for Reinvigorating Federalism; The Tools of Centralization; A Program to Reinvigorate American Federalism; Answers to the Critics; The Promise of Competition; The Outlook; Appendix A: National Control Over State Programs and the Level of Competition Among States; Appendix B: Two Examples of State Innovation in Welfare; Index.

Making American Government Work argues that divided responsibility and fragmented power in American government have made it unworkable. The author claims the only solution to this problem is to reinvigorate federalism in the United States. Contents: Why American Government Doesn't Work; The Problem of Shared Responsibility; The Argument for Reinvigorating Federalism; The Tools of Centralization; A Program to Reinvigorate American Federalism; Answers to the Critics; The Promise of Competition; The Outlook; Appendix A: National Control Over State Programs and the Level of Competition Among States; Appendix B: Two Examples of State Innovation in Welfare; Index.