Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum: The New Normal for the U.S. Economy

The 11th Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum, "The New Normal for the U.S. Economy," will be held on Friday, December 4, 2015, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

The Policy Forum, organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Research Department, brings together a group of highly respected academics, policymakers, and market economists for a discussion of important macroeconomic and monetary policy issues that the Federal Reserve will need to grapple with in the coming years.

The Policy Forum is not intended to be a traditional academic conference on monetary policy, nor a discussion of issues relevant to the next FOMC meeting. Rather, the Policy Forum takes a longer-term perspective and attempts to engage the right people in a discussion of current macroeconomic research and its implications for monetary policy.

Agenda - Download

Opening Remarks
Patrick T. Harker, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Session 1: The New Normal and Secular Stagnation
Moderator: Satyajit Chatterjee, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

• “The Sources of Slowing Growth in Productivity Growth and Potential Output”
  Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University
  
  
  • Background paper: “Secular Stagnation on the Supply Side: U.S. Productivity Growth in the Short and Long Run”
    
    
• “Is Technological Progress a Thing of the Past?”
  Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University
  
  
  • Background paper: “Secular Stagnation? Not in Your Life”
    
    
• “Prospects for Growth in the Second Machine Age”
  Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School of Management
  
  
  • Background paper: “New World Order: Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy” with Andrew McAfee, Michael Spence
  • Background paper: “Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?” with Andrew McAfee

Session 2: Inequality, Education, Immigration, and Their Relationship to Growth
Moderator: Roc Armenter, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

• “Technology and the Labor Market”
  Daron Acemoglu, MIT
  
  
  • Background paper: “The Race Between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares and Employment” with Pascual Restrepo
  • Background paper: “Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings” with David Autor
    
    
• “Immigration Reform”
  Darrell M. West, Vice President and Director, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
  
  
• “The Knowledge Capital of Nations: A Global View of the American School"
  Eric A. Hanushek, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
  
  
  • Background paper: “Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand to Gain” with Ludger Woessmann
  • Background paper: “Education and Economic Growth: It’s Not Just Going to School but Learning That Matters” with Dean T. Jamison, Elliot A. Jamison, and Ludger Woessmann

Session 3: The New Normal and Monetary Policy
Moderator: Michael Dotsey, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

• “Neo-Fisherianism”
  James Bullard, President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
  
  
• “Monetary Policy Renormalization”
  Narayana Kocherlakota, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis