Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, April 28, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, May 12, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, May 19, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, May 26, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, June 2, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, June 9, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, June 16, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, June 23, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, June 30, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Capital, Wages, and Growth: Theory and Evidence

Returns to scale to capital and the strength of capital externalities play a key role for the empirical predictions and policy implications of different growth theories. We show that both can be identified with individual wage data and implement our approach at the city-level using US Census data on individuals in 173 cities for 1970, 1980, and 1990. Estimation takes into account fixed effects, endogeneity of capital accumulation, and measurement error. We find no evidence for human or physical capital externalities and decreasing aggregate returns to capital. Returns to scale to physical and human capital are around 80 percent. We also find strong complementarities between human capital and labor and substantial total employment externalities.

Measurement with Some Theory: a New Approach to Evaluate Business Cycle Models

We propose a method to evaluate cyclical models which does not require knowledge of the DGP and the exact empirical specification of the aggregate decision rules. We derive robust restrictions in a class of models; use some to identify structural shocks and others to evaluate the model or contrast sub-models. The approach has good size and excellent power properties, even in small samples. We show how to examine the validity of a class of models, sort out the relevance of certain frictions, evaluate the importance of an added feature, and indirectly estimate structural parameters.

Social Security in Theory and Practice (II): Efficiency Theories, Narrative Theories, and Implications for Reform

166 countries have some kind of public old age pension. What economic forces create and sustain old age Social Security as a public program? Mulligan and Sala-i-Martin (1999b) document several of the internationally and historically common features of social security programs, and explore "political" theories of Social Security. This paper discusses the "efficiency theories", which view creation of the SS program as a full of partial solution to some market failure. Efficiency explanations of social security include the "SS as welfare for the elderly" the "retirement increases productivity to optimally manage human capital externalities", "optimal retirement insurance", the "prodigal father problem", the "misguided Keynesian", the "optimal longevity insurance", the "government economizing transaction costs", and the "return on human capital investment". We also analyze four "narrative" theories of social security: the "chain letter theory", the "lump of labor theory", the "monopoly capitalism theory", and the "Sub-but-Nearly-Optimal policy response to private pensions theory". The political and efficiency explanations are compared with the international and historical facts and used to derive implications for replacing the typical pay-as-you-go system with a forced savings plan. Most of the explanations suggest that forced savings does not increase welfare, and may decrease it.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, July 14, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, July 28, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fatalities for the Week Ending, July 21, 2006

Record of the Fatalities for Motor Vehicle Accidents in Iowa per week.