Labor Market Slack: Assessing and Addressing in Real Time

Charles Evans, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, delivered the keynote speech at an all-day conference on unemployment.

Agenda

Panel 1: Can we reconcile slow wage growth and demographic labor supply decline?
Unedited rush transcript [pdf]

Chair: Erica Groshen, US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Panelists:
David Blanchflower, Dartmouth College and Peterson Institute for International Economics
   presentation [pdf]
Julie Hotchkiss, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
   presentation [pdf]
Michael Kiley, Federal Reserve Board
   presentation [pdf]
Betsey Stevenson, Council of Economic Advisers
   presentation [pdf]
Justin Wolfers, Michigan University and Peterson Institute for International Economics
   presentation [pdf]

Panel 2: Constructing estimates of slack – dimensions of the difficulties
Unedited rush transcript [pdf]

Chair: David Stockton, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Panelists:
Wendy Edelberg, Congressional Budget Office
   presentation [pdf]
Michael Horrigan, US Bureau of Labor Statistics
   presentation [pdf]
Andrew Levin, International Monetary Fund and Dartmouth College
   presentation [pdf]
William Wascher, Federal Reserve Board
   presentation [pdf]

Keynote Speech: Patience Is a Virtue When Normalizing Monetary Policy
Unedited rush transcript [pdf]

Charles Evans, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
prepared remarks
Chair: Adam Posen, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Panel 3: How should monetary policy react to uncertain or persistent labor market slack?
Unedited rush transcript [pdf]

Chair: Angel Ubide, Peterson Institute for International Economics and D.E. Shaw

Panelists:
Laurence Ball, Johns Hopkins University
William Dickens, Northeastern University
presentation [pdf]
Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs & Company
presentation [pdf]
Steve Oliner, American Enterprise Institute and UCLA
Adam Posen, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Panel 4: What structural reform does the US labor market need?
Unedited rush transcript [pdf]

Chair: Karen Dynan, US Department of the Treasury

Panelists:
Jared Bernstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
   presentation [pdf]
Jennifer Hunt, Rutgers University and US Department of the Treasury
   presentation [pdf]
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, Peterson Institute for International Economics
   presentation [pdf]
Michael Strain, American Enterprise Institute