The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity contains the articles, reports, and highlights of the discussion from conferences of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity. The expertise of the panel is concentrated on the "live" issues of economic performance that confront the maker of public policy and the executive in the private sector. Particular attention is devoted to recent and current economic developments that are directly relevant to the contemporary scene or especially challenging because they stretch our understanding of economic theory or previous empirical findings. Such issues are typically quantitative, and the research findings are often statistical. Nevertheless, in all the articles and reports, the reasoning and the conclusions are developed in a form intelligible to the interested, informed nonspecialist as well as useful to the expert in macroeconomics. In short, the papers aim at several objectives: meticulous and incisive professional analysis, timeliness and relevance to current issues, and lucid presentation.