What Trump and Clinton didn't say in their economic speeches

Yet neither candidate voiced anything like the high-reaching themes that were hallmarks of previous campaigns — from Bill Clinton's "Bridge to the 21stcentury," which urged Americans to face a more globalized economy, or George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind," which sought to overhaul public education to better serve more children.

When Trump spoke Monday and Clinton followed on Thursday, each pledged more spending for rebuilding roads, bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure, which many economists say is long overdue.

[...] work, beyond creating more construction jobs, could ultimately lower transportation costs, raise workers' productivity and accelerate economic growth.

Rising productivity is vital to raising living standards because it allows businesses to pay employees more without having to raise prices.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said immigration reform, if it provided a path to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally, would be economically beneficial — in part because it would bar employers from underpaying those workers and thereby give them more spending power.

Clinton also proposed helping more students attend college, increasing training for those who don't and spending more on "scientific research that can create entire new industries."

Openings for such high-skilled jobs as data scientist, software engineer, physician's assistant and nurse practitioner have grown fast since the Great Recession.

Acemoglu says this would require overhauling high school education to provide more skills-related training, rather than waiting for community college, in addition to providing training for current workers.