Southwest Economy, Fourth Quarter 2021
Pandemic, remote learning undo STAAR test gains; Texas student scores slide
Hispanic and Black students’ scores on the 2021 exam fell more than those of white students and reversed previous years' gains.
December 17, 2021
Southwest Economy, Fourth Quarter 2021
Largest Texas metros lure big-city, coastal migrants during pandemic
High-frequency data show that migration to Texas has accelerated during the pandemic. The emergence of working from home has lessened both workers’ and some companies’ reliance on physical offices, clearing the way for the new wave of mobility.
December 15, 2021
Southwest Economy, Fourth Quarter 2021
Texas joblessness persists above U.S. rate, weighing on black, Hispanic workers
While the gender unemployment gap has largely dissipated in Texas, the gaps between white workers and both Black and Hispanic workers have persisted above pre-COVID-19 levels.
December 15, 2021
Southwest Economy, Fourth Quarter 2021
Semiconductors key to global growth; geographic supply risks loom
Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs in Austin, shares his insights on current issues in the semiconductor industry and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
December 15, 2021
Limited Impact of Rising Energy Prices on U.S. Inflation, Inflation Expectations in 2020–23
Predictions of $100 per barrel oil during the coming winter have raised fears of persistently high inflation and rising inflation expectations for years to come. However, quantitative analysis suggests that these concerns have been overstated.
November 23, 2021
Delta surge disrupts Texas firms less than earlier COVID-19 waves, Dallas Fed surveys say
The overall impact on business of the summer and fall wave of the COVID-19 virus infection was more muted than initial surges because firms were better prepared and demand didn’t plunge as it did before, according to respondents to the Dallas Fed’s Texas Business Outlook Surveys.
November 16, 2021
Texas Economy Grows Rapidly Despite Labor, Supply-Chain Constraints
Regional economic activity accelerated sharply in September and October following a summer and early-fall peak of a COVID-19 wave tied to the Delta variant.
November 09, 2021
‘Great ratios’ in economics don’t all add up
"Great ratios" are widely adopted in theoretical models in economics as conditions for balanced growth, arbitrage or solvency. However, the empirical literature has tended to find little evidence for them.
October 19, 2021
What might inflation look like next year?
In our baseline scenario, core inflation is 2.6 percent in 2022. If this occurs, core inflation will have averaged 2.4 percent over the last five years, moderately above the Fed’s 2.0 percent inflation target.
October 14, 2021
U.S. labor market slack created by COVID-19 pandemic has been absorbed
The weaker-than-expected August labor market report should not obscure the labor market’s ongoing and significant progress while recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 07, 2021