BRIEF | Chris Christie and his proposal to raise the retirement age are officially part of the 2016 presidential campaign.

WORKING PAPER | This paper demonstrates that the Cobb-Douglas function is identically equal to the rules of aggregate accounting with any factor indices and an arbitrary 'human capital' variable thrown in.

WORKING PAPER | The paper develops a model of economic fluctuations in the medium run and their relation with the short-run macroeconomic equilibrium.

WORKING PAPER | This paper argues how a national public bank may be used to finance the national fiscal policy of a country within the euro zone.

WORKING PAPER | This paper discusses how the United States' system of voluntary, tax-favored retirement accounts has failed to produce adequate retirement savings.

WORKING PAPER | Authors use demand-driven models of economic growth and inequality to conclude US household wealth concentration is not likely to decline in response to fiscal interventions alone.

BRIEF | This week another GOP presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush, announced his support for raising the retirement age, a policy that would force older workers with inadequate retirement savings to depend on the labor market for needed income and savings.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Despite spending $100 billion a year in retirement tax breaks, the U.S. faces a retirement income security crisis.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | The number of 65-year-olds per year who are poor or near poor will increase by 146% between 2013 and 2022.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Despite billions in tax breaks to incentivize retirement savings, almost half of the American workforce does not have a retirement plan.

WORLDLY PHILOSOPHER | This week's Worldly Philosopher, Julia M. Puaschunder, describes how meritocracy enables intergenerational mobility to foster equitable societies.

WORKING PAPER | Using a multi-agent systems model, this paper shows that real economies, especially those subject to recurrent financial crises, can be neither horizontalist nor verticalist.

BRIEF | The April employment report issued by the Department of Labor today reports an increase in the unemployment rate for workers over the age of 55.

WORKING PAPER | In this paper, the author replies to recent literature on the distribution of financial assets between the top 1% and the the 99% of the population.

WORKING PAPER | This paper shows how regional distributions of income and consumption have evolved very differently over time.

WORKING PAPER | This paper investigates recent developments in the literature that estimates the NAIRU.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Proposals to raise the retirement age must anticipate a decrease in Hispanic-Americans longevity.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | This study finds that economic shocks and other factors continuously cause changes in 401(k) contributions.

WORLDLY PHILOSOPHER | This week's Worldly Philosopher, Ismael Cid-Martinez, reveals the challenges older workers face in the labor market.