- I am an economist and attorney who has written widely on topics related to banking/financial institutions and markets, regulation, antitrust, and general economic policyedit
Page 1. The Economic Payoff from the internet Revolution Page 2. Page 3. The Economic Payoff from the Internet Revolution Th± s One ANGP-C9X-SUEZ Page 4. Page 5. BROOKINGS TASK FORCE ON THE INTERNET The ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT
Research Interests:
... By focusing on its potential effect on productivity growth across a wide range of existing "old economy" sectors, Robert Litan and Alice Rivlin predict that the impact of the Internet revolution is likely to be positive,... more
... By focusing on its potential effect on productivity growth across a wide range of existing "old economy" sectors, Robert Litan and Alice Rivlin predict that the impact of the Internet revolution is likely to be positive, significant and sustained. ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The global trading system was fifty years old in 1998, a baby boomer birthday that like many others occasioned mixed emotions. The World Trade Organization (WTO) celebrated the anniversary of the coming into force of the General Agreement... more
The global trading system was fifty years old in 1998, a baby boomer birthday that like many others occasioned mixed emotions. The World Trade Organization (WTO) celebrated the anniversary of the coming into force of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with a ministerial meeting in Geneva. In his speech to the celebrants, the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, called both for the continued absence of restrictions on the burgeoning domain of electronic commerce and for greater public openness in the WTO. The plea for more economic liberalization and new political accountability reflects the double nature of the trading system. The fact that world trade grew much faster than output during GAIT's five decades is often assumed to be the underpinning of global prosperity as well as the most visible dimension of globalization. The costs, however, are often felt by indi-
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Business and Accounting
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Although it has vanished from the front pages, the "liability crisis" still continues to occupy the attention of policymakers, the business community, and consumers. Indeed, many states have responded to the crisis by enacting... more
Although it has vanished from the front pages, the "liability crisis" still continues to occupy the attention of policymakers, the business community, and consumers. Indeed, many states have responded to the crisis by enacting "tort reforms" to make it more difficult for accident victims to sue and, if they win, to recover large awards. Manufacturers and insurers have supported these efforts because they believe that the tort system has become so expensive and uncertain that is "overdeterring," discouraging the production of valuable products and the innovation of many more. Plaintiffs' lawyers and consumers groups vigorously disagree, arguing that current liability law provides important incentives for private actors to make safer products and to conduct their activities in a less risky fashion. Given the significant impacts of the tort system (by one recent estimate, gross liability expenditures in the United States amounted to $117 billion in 1987, see Tillinghast, 1989), it is somewhat surprising that there is so little empirical research to settle this debate. In fact, there even is a lack of consensus on liability trends. Although there are no comprehensive nationwide data on the numbers of nonautomobile tort suits, verdicts, and settlements, by all available measures, total liability costs (primarily insurance premiums, but also estimates of self-insurance payouts) have been rising during the last 30 years, and especially rapidly in the 1980's (U.S. Department of Justice, 1986; Mark Peterson; 1987). In 1989, the Brookings Institution launched a major study designed to determine the "safety" and "innovation" impacts of this expansion in the tort system on five sectors of the U.S. economy; the private aircraft, automobile, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and the medical profession. As project directors, Peter Huber and I commissioned experts to address each side of the debate for each of these sectors, deliberately seeking individuals who were not economists. As discussed below, it is extremely difficult (some would say impossible) to establish through standard econometric techniques the linkages, if any, between liability law and safety and/or innovation. Accordingly, we believed the project could shed more light on the subject by engaging individuals with scientific or practical backgrounds in the specific sectors they were asked to study; in a few cases, economists met these criteria and they participated. This article summarizes some of the key findings from this effort (1991).
Research Interests:
When journalists from other countries would ask me in the 1980s how the United States could suffer such embarrassingly large losses in its savings and loan, and later its banking, industry, I would be somewhat embarrassed myself, as an... more
When journalists from other countries would ask me in the 1980s how the United States could suffer such embarrassingly large losses in its savings and loan, and later its banking, industry, I would be somewhat embarrassed myself, as an American citizen, trying to explain how things could go so wrong in such a developed country. A decade later, the tables seemed to have turned. Many countries have since experienced serious banking problems, and when measured against the size of the economy, the losses suffered by the United States (about 3 percent of the nation’s GDP) actually turn out to have been quite low.1
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Mr. Litan and Mr. Nordhaus argue for 'full divestiture' of Microsoft. They assert that splitting the rights to Microsoft's operating systems among three separate companies would be the best way to promote innovation.
Research Interests:
... Uncle Sam in the housing market: the Section 8 rental subsidy disaster. ... Before he announced his resignation from the Senate last spring, Majority Leader Robert Dole announced his support for a policy to "end public housing as... more
... Uncle Sam in the housing market: the Section 8 rental subsidy disaster. ... Before he announced his resignation from the Senate last spring, Majority Leader Robert Dole announced his support for a policy to "end public housing as we know it" by giving all public housing residents ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The term “digital age” is on the verge of being overused and means a variety of things to different people. I will use it here, in the context of discussing financial services and their regulation, as a catch-all phrase to refer broadly... more
The term “digital age” is on the verge of being overused and means a variety of things to different people. I will use it here, in the context of discussing financial services and their regulation, as a catch-all phrase to refer broadly to several interrelated phenomena that each have been facilitated by the increasing power of computers and speed of communication: the increasing sophistication and complexity of financial instruments (especially derivatives); the increasingly complex nature of financial strategies (trading and hedging in particular); the increasingly rapid transmission of information (financial and otherwise) between financial institutions, financial institutions and their customers, among users of financial markets and the markets themselves, and among all of these actors across national borders.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Robert Litan points out that much has been done already to prevent future financial crises, and tells us what remains.