Bücher veröffentlicht von Brookings Institution Press

This policy-oriented book of essays by noted scholars and experts considers the key trends shaping Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, to climate change, economic disruptions, demographics and other domestic concerns, and shifts in the global order.

"American public policy has had a long history of technological optimism. The success of the United States in research and development contributes to this optimism and leads many to assume that there is a technological fix for significant national problems. Since World War II the federal government has been the major supporter of commercial research and development efforts in a wide variety of industries. But how successful are these projects? And equally important, how do economic and policy factors influence performance and are these influences predictable and controllable?Linda Cohen, Roger Noll, and three other economists address these questions while focusing on the importance of R&D to the national economy. They examine the codependency between technological progress and economic growth and explain such matters as why the private sector often fails to fund commercially applicable research adequately and why the government should focus support on some industries and not others. They also analyze political incentives facing officials who enact and implement programs and the subsequent forces affecting decisions to continue, terminate, or redirect them. The central part of this book presents detailed case histories of six programs: the supersonic transport, communications satellites, the space shuttle, the breeder reactor, photovoltaics, and synthetic fuels. The authors conclude with recommendations for program restructuring to minimize the conflict between economic objectives and political constraints."

"Whether the nation would be better served by an income tax or by a consumption tax has been debated by tax experts for decades. In practice, tax systems everywhere are mixed or ""hybrid"" systems. And while legislators have reasons for enacting such systems, the mix results in inequities, inefficiencies, and abuse.For Uneasy Compromise, Brookings brought together some of the nation's most knowledgeable tax experts and analysts to address the question: How should lawmakers grapple with the problems that arise from the side-by-side existence of principles of consumption taxation with principles of income taxation? Rather than propose rules for an ideal system that will never exist, this book addresses the problems created by a hybrid system. In so doing, it offers policymakers a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of our current tax system and the tools for evaluating proposed refinements."

Catherine Gwin examines the evolution of U.S. policy toward the World Bank and the impact of the United States on the institution's policies and operations. Beginning with the U.S. role in the start-up of the Bank, Gwin describes the ebb and flow of the U.S. support: the increasing activism of Congress in U.S.-World Bank policy starting in the 1970s, the breakdown in the bipartisan character of support for the Bank in the early 1980s, followed by renewed U.S. attention in response to the debt crisis, and the later entry of Russia and other transforming economies into the Bank. Gwin disputes both those who see the Bank as under the thumb of the United States and those who see it as unresponsive to U.S. concerns. She suggests that the U.S. policy toward the World Bank has always reflected an underlying ambivalence toward both development assistance and multilateral cooperation. As a result, U.S. policy in the Bank has been erratic-often reflecting the swings in U.S. politics and foreign policy rather than presenting a coherent view of the development financing role of the World Bank and a rigorous concern for the effectiveness of Bank operations.

In the last quarter century the Soviet Union and the United States have repeatedly come into conflict in various parts of the third world. During this period the most backward third world countries have sometimes proved susceptible to radical revolution, but the countries well on the way to industrialization have moved away from left-wing economic and political policies. In the longer perspective the West has been winning the struggle for the third world. The changes in those countries have been the subject of intense published debate in the Soviet Union-debate on Marxist concepts of the stages of history, on theories of economic development and revolutionary strategy, and on foreign policy. Jerry F. Hough explores the breakup of the orthodox Stalinist position on these issues and the evolution of free-swinging discussion about them. He suggests that, paradoxically, many of the old Stalinist ideas retain their strongest hold in the United States, which has not fully recognized its victory in the third world and the importance of the West's great economic power. The United States too often assumes that radical regimes will inevitably follow the Soviet path of development and that the nature of a regime determines the nature of its foreign policy. Because of these misperceptions, Hough argues the United States misses many opportunities in the third world. It emphasizes military power, even to the extent of undermining its crucial economic power, and it fails to offer the face-saving gestures that would permit Soviet retreats. Hough presents a prescription for an American policy better suited to the new realities in the third world and to the changing Soviet attitude toward them.

The sharp decline in U.S. productivity growth in the 1970s has brought about a renewed interest in economic policies to expand aggregate supply. Particular importance has been given to the role played by government intervention in the form of taxes, transfer payments, and regulation. This volume asks just what is known about the effect of government policy on the productive capacity of the nation. It also looks at the role played by capital formation, technological change, and the quality of the work force.

The growth rate of national income has fluctuated widely in the United States since 1929. In this volume, Edward F. Denison uses the growth accounting methodology he pioneered and refined in earlier studies to track changes in the trend of output and its determinants. At every step he systematically distinguishes changes in the economy's ability to produce-as measured by his series on potential national income-from changes in the ratio of actual output to potential output. Using data for earlier years as a backdrop, Denison focuses on the dramatic decline in the growth of potential national income that started in 1974 and was further accentuated beginning in 1980, and on the pronounced decline from business cycle to business cycle in the average ratio of actual to potential output, a slide under way since 1969. The decline in growth rates has been especially pronounced in national income per person employed and other productivity measures as growth of total output has slowed despite a sharp acceleration in growth of employment and total hours at work. Denison organizes his discussion around eight table that divide 1929-82 into three long periods (the last, 1973-82) and seven shorter periods (the most recent, 1973-79 and 1979-82). These tables provide estimates of the sources of growth for eight output measures in each period. Denison stresses that the 1973-82 period of slow growth in unfinished. He observes no improvement in the productivity trend, only a weak cyclical recovery from a 1982 low. Sources-of-growth tables isolate the contributions made to growth between "input" and "output per unit of input.? Even so, it is not possible to quantify separately the contribution of all determinants, and Denison evaluates qualitatively the effects of other developments on the productivity slowdown.

American Supporters of free trade are on the defensive. Record U.S. trade deficits are fueling demands from industry, Congress, and the public for tariffs, import quotas, and other protectionist measures that could reverse America's long-standing commitment to open markets and sacrifice much of the economic progress experienced in recent years. In Saving Free Trade: A Pragmatic Approach, Robert Z. Lawrence and Robert E. Litan analyze both the allure of protectionism and the problems associated with free trade, proposing reasonable, cost-effective ways of helping industries, workers, and communities battered by intense import competition. The book focuses on the escape clause of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, meant to provide domestic industries temporary shelter from severe import competition, and the trade adjustment assistance program, designed to provide direct aid to companies, workers, and communities injured by imports. The authors analyze the assumptions and implication of the many current congressional attempts to amend the provisions of the escape clause and the assistance program. They then set forth their own proposals, including new definitions of import injuries, modifications of provisions for providing relief for beleaguered companies, new standards for compensating and retaining displaced workers, and a plan for insuring communities against severe losses to their tax bases if local industries fail because they can no longer compete. Saving Free Trade provides a detailed but nontechnical introduction to the complex implications of amending trade policy and shrewd, innovative proposals for improving America's ability to adapt to rapid changes in world markets.

"When Virgil sang of arms and the man, words like ""smart"" and ""friendly"" characterized the warrior, not his weapons. Today, because of modern technology, these terms are more often used to describe the machine than the man. Dramatic advances have spawned a generation of weapon systems designed to tell friend from foe, to stalk the enemy with precision and stealth, and to destroy him with unprecedented efficiency. But can ordinary Americans operate and support these advanced systems, or have emerging technologies pushed military hardware beyond the capabilities of the people the armed forces can expect to attract and retain? How can the military better match weapons and skills?Martin Binkin looks at the complex issues from several angles, starting with skill levels and jobs in today's military. He profiles America's arsenal in the 1990s and examines the implications of electronic warfare for manpower needs. Links among hardware complexity, reliability, and maintenance are unraveled, and current demographic trends traced.The study assesses various policy options available to hedge against the possibility that the military could become squeezed between growing demands for technologically adept people and a declining supply of recruits. Among these are efforts to design simpler systems with more reliable engineering techniques. Binkin reviews ways to make weapons easier to maintain, stressing component accessibility, technical documentation, and automated diagnostics. He covers the use of advanced technology to prepare people to handle new systems. Finally, he discusses the principal manpower management alternatives-expanding the role of women, substituting civilians, retaining more personnel, and returning to conscription."

This collection of six papers on the role of quantitative risk assessment in the promulgation of recent regulatory standards represents the latest contribution to a series of volumes published by Lester Lave and the Brookings Institution on regulatory decisionmaking.

"The Judiciary and Congress not only do not communicate on their most basic concerns; they do not know how they may properly do so," writes Frank M. Coffin, a federal appeals court judge and former representative, in Judges and Legislators. "The condition is that of a chronic, debilitating fever." Though the Senate lavishes it's attention from time to time on particular judicial nominees, Congress remains largely oblivious of the wellbeing of the federal judiciary as an institution. And the judiciary seems often unaware of the critical nuances of the legislative process. This state of affairs has had an adverse effect not only on relations between the two branches, but also on public policy more generally. Some forty-five people-including a Supreme Court justice, federal and state court judges, legislators and legislative staffers, scholars, and members of the private bar-gathered for a series of discussion to identify fundamental issues affecting judicial-congressional relations. The articles published in this volume are an outgrowth of those discussions.

"For much of the past decade, all diplomatic initiatives designed to advance the Arab-Israeli peace process have had in common a concern for the future of the West Bank. This region, along with the Gaza Strip, has often been discussed, but rarely studied. Palestinians living under occupation were often seen as passive and leaderless. This view is no longer tenable.The uprising, or intifadah, that began in the West Bank and Gaza in late 1987 and continued into 1988 represents a new phase of the Palestinian resistance to occupation and search for self-determination. Palestinians in these areas, especially the youth, are politically mobilized and highly nationalistic. The uprising needs to be seen in perspective. It is the product of profound political, social, and economic changes that have taken place over the past twenty years.Emile Sayliyeh analyzes in detail and with great personal knowledge the internal politics of the West Bank Palestinians and their international implications. Traditionally, West Bank politics had been the domain of elite, prominent families used by the Ottomans, the British, and the Jordanians to control local politics. Recent social changes, such as the growing trend toward higher education, exposure to the mass media, and labor mobility, have coincided with recent political changes-the consolidation of the communist movement, the radicalization of the student population, and the resurgence of Islam-to challenge the political order and give more power to the mass-supported local politicians.In Search of Leadership offers the first comprehensive look at the social and political bases of the factions and groups in the West Bank and suggests how they will affect Palestinian politics in the years ahead."

This book explains what the internationalization of banking and finance means, and examines its extent and the reasons it has developed. The advantages and disadvantages of the new situation-and what is yet to come-are neatly sketched, along with the policy problems for national governments and international bodies.

Energy Security in the 1980s examines energy industries, power resources, and energy policy, and international economics.