NABE Sessions at the 2008 ASSA Meeting

January 4-6, 2008
New Orleans, Louisiana

Session 1

Accounting for Stock Options in the National Income Accounts

Friday, January 4, 2008
10:15 AM
Sheraton Hotel
500 Canal Street
Napoleon B3 Room

This session will focus on the appropriate measurement of executive compensation from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Do economists agree on an appropriate valuation of stock options and other forms of executive compensation? Have they become more prevalent or harder to measure in recent years? Has the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Treasury, or other agencies taken steps to provide guidance to firms in recent year, or have there been changes in the law that has affected the issuance of stock options? How do SEC financial reporting decisions affect the measurement of income for GDP purposes? Do the IRS and the BEA face different incentives in measuring executive compensation? For example, what are the trade-offs—if any—that the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis must make to provide accurate and timely measures for the wage and salary component of national income? Does the prevalence of wage and salary income generated from stock options, as some claim, cause divergences between gross domestic product and gross domestic income?

Rosemary D. Marcuss, Deputy Director, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, presiding

Speakers:
Cynthia A. Glassman, Undersecretary for Economic Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce
S.P. Kothari, Head of Department of Economics, Finance & Accounting, Gordon Y. Billard Professor of Management, Sloan School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Discussant:
R. Glenn Hubbard, Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia University School of Business, Columbia University

Session 2

Recent and Prospective Developments in Monetary Policy Transparency and Communications: A Global Perspective

Saturday, January 5, 2008
10:15 AM
Sheraton Hotel
500 Canal Street
Napoleon C2 Room

Over the past several years, many central banks have implemented—either by design or by mandate—various policies to communicate their goals and strategies to the public and to the financial markets. The purpose of this session is to discuss recent developments by key policymakers at the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Panelists will also comment on efforts to improve the effectiveness of these strategies, and whether additional policies are being contemplated that are intended to further reduce the uncertainty of formulating monetary policy, and thus the communication of the central bank’s goals and strategies to the markets.

Kevin L. Kliesen, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, presiding

Speakers:
Kazumasa Iwata, Deputy Governor, Bank of Japan
Donald L. Kohn, Vice Chair, Federal Reserve Board
Lucas D. Papademos, Vice President, European Central Bank

Discussant:
Michael Woodford, John Bates Clark Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University