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Leonard Nakamura, Assistant Vice President and EconomistLeonard Nakamura

Assistant Vice President and Economist

Phone: (215) 574-3804
Fax: (215) 574-4303
E-mail: leonard.nakamura@phil.frb.org E-mail
Curriculum vitae PDF

Current Working Papers

  • "Intangible Assets and National Income Accounting," Working Paper 08-23, October 2008. PDF
  • "Mismeasured Personal Saving and the Permanent Income Hypothesis," Working Paper 07-8, March 2007. PDF
  • "National Income Accounts," Working Paper 06-11, June 2006. PDF
  • "The CPI for Rents: A Case of Understated Inflation," with Theodore M. Crone and Richard Voith, Working Paper 06-7, January 2006, supersedes Working Paper 04-17. PDF
  • "Advertising, Intangible Assets, and Unpriced Entertainment," Working Paper 05-11, May 2005. PDF
  • “Benchmark Revisions and the U.S. Personal Saving Rate,” with Tom Stark, Working Paper 05-6, April 2005. PDF
  • "Hedonic Estimates of the Cost of Housing Services: Rental- and Owner-Occupied Units,” with Theodore M. Crone and Richard Voith, Working Paper No. 04-22, October 2004. PDF
  • "Transactions Accounts and Loan Monitoring," with Loretta J. Mester and Micheline Renault, Working Paper No. 04-20, September 2004, superseded by Working Paper 05-14 PDF
  • “The CPI for Rents: A Case of Understated Inflation,” with Theodore M. Crone and Richard Voith, Working Paper 04-17, September 2004, superseded by Working Paper 06-07 PDF

Published Books

  • Saving Energy in Manufacturing: The Post-Embargo Record, with John G. Myers, Ballinger, Cambridge (Mass.), 1978.
  • Energy Consumption in Manufacturing, with John G. Myers and others, Ballinger, Cambridge (Mass.), 1974.

Publications in Refereed Journals and Books

  • "Transactions Accounts and Loan Monitoring" with Loretta J. Mester and Micheline Renault, Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming.
  • Review of Carl W. Biven’s Jimmy Carter’s Economy: Policy in an Age of Limits, Journal of Economic Literature 42, June 2004, 515-516.
  • "Banking and Finance in Argentina in the Period 1900-35," with Carlos E. J. M. Zarazaga, in Gerardo della Pa olera and Alan M. Taylor, eds. A New Economic History of Argentina. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  • “A Trillion Dollars a Year in Intangible Investment and the New Economy,” in John R.M. Hand and Baruch Lev, eds., Intangible Assets, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • “Education and Training in an Era of Creative Destruction,” in Stull, William J., and Nicholas Sanders, eds., The School-To-Work Movement: Origins and Destinations, NY: Praeger, 2003.
  • “Measuring Housing Services Inflation,” with Theodore M. Crone and Richard Voith, Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, 26 (3,4) 2000, 153-172.
  • "The Measurement of Retail Output and the Retail Revolution," Canadian Journal of Economics, 32 (2) (April 1999), 408-25.
  • "Economic Growth in Argentina in the Period 1900-1930: Some Evidence from Stock Market Returns," with Carlos E.J.M. Zarazaga, in John H. Coatsworth and Alan M. Taylor, Latin America and the World Economy Since 1800, Harvard University Press (1998), 247-70.
  • "Branch Banking and the Geography of Bank Pricing," with Paul Calem, Review of Economics and Statistics 80 (November 1998), 600-10.
  • "New Directions in Information and Screening in Real Estate Finance," with William W. Lang, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics (July 1996).
  • " 'Flight to Quality' in Bank Lending and Economic Activity," with William W. Lang, Journal of Monetary Economics (August 1995), pp. 145-64.
  • "Information and Screening in Real Estate Finance: An Introduction," with William W. Lang, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 9 (November 1994), pp. 171-76.
  • "Recent Research in Commercial Banking: Information and Lending," Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments 2 (December 1993), pp. 73-88
  • "A Model of Redlining," with William W. Lang, Journal of Urban Economics 33 (March 1993), pp. 223-34.
  • "Commercial Bank Information: Implications for the Structure of Banking," in Structural Change in Banking, Michael Klausner and Lawrence J. White, eds., Business One - Irwin, NY, 1993, pp. 131-160. Also reprinted as "Exploring the Checking Account Hypothesis," pp. 16-34, in Journal of Retail Banking (Winter 1992-3).
  • "Entry-Deterring Debt," with James J. McAndrews, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (February 1992).
  • "The Dynamics of Credit Markets in a Model With Learning," with William W. Lang, Journal of Monetary Economics (October 1990).
  • "Information Losses in a Dynamic Model of Credit," (with William W. Lang), Journal of Finance (July 1989).
  • "Energy and Pollution Effects on Productivity: A Putty-Clay Approach," with John G. Myers, in John Kendrick and Beatrice Vaccara, eds., New Developments in Productivity Measurement and Analysis, NBER Studies in Income and Wealth Vol. 44, University of Chicago, Chicago (1980).
  • "Data Adequacy for Productivity Analysis: A Case Study of the Primary Paper Industry," with John G. Myers, in Panel to Review Productivity Statistics, National Research Council, Measurement and Interpretation of Productivity, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (1979).

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Business Review Articles

  • “Gimme Shelter! Rents Have Risen, Not Fallen, Since World War II” Business Review, 2nd Quarter, 2007. PDF
  • “Underestimating Advertising: Innovation and Unpriced Entertainment,” Fourth Quarter 2005. PDF
  • "CEOs, Clerks, and Computers and the Rise of Competition in the Late 20th Century,” Third Quarter 2004. PDF
  • "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom! Decentralization and Innovation," First Quarter 2003. PDF
  • “Investing in Intangibles: Is a Trillion Dollars Missing from GDP?” Fourth Quarter 2001. PDF
  • "Economics and the New Economy: The Invisible Hand Meets Creative Destruction," July/August 2000. PDF
  • "Intangibles: What Put the New in the New Economy?" July/August 1999. PDF
  • "The Retail Revolution and Food-Price Mismeasurement," May/June 1998. PDF
  • "Is the U.S. Economy Really Growing Too Slowly? Maybe We’re Measuring Growth Wrong," March/April 1997. PDF
  • "Measuring Inflation In a High-Tech Age," November/December 1995.

Research Interests and Work in Progress

  • “Democratizing Research and Development,” with Robert Hunt
  • "Inflation and Output Mismeasurement in Housing Services," with Theodore M. Crone and Richard Voith.
  • “Bank Monitoring and Loan Credit Rating,” with Kasper Roszbach
  • "Argentine Financial History," with Carlos E.J.M. Zarazaga.