The Economists' Voice: Top Economists Take On Today's Problems

Three dozen eminent economists, most of them American, here examine contemporary policy issues in terms largely accessible to laypeople. The topics range widely, including climate change, offshoring, the economics of the war in Iraq, social security, tax reform, welfare reform, the death penalty, the housing boom, and others. Contrasting views are presented on some issues and not on others. The treatment of the issues has an overwhelmingly American orientation, with minimal reference to relevant experience abroad or likely responses to U.S. policy in the rest of the world. Still, the brief discussions of each issue serve as a useful and often stimulating introduction to the thinking of professional economists on the salient policy issues of recent times.