The Importance of Highly Skilled Immigrants
for Innovation and Productivity in the U.S.
Over 50 percent of workers in the United States who have Ph.D.s and are employed in science, technology, engineering, and math-related jobs are foreign born, according to research by Gordon H. Hanson, professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego. These immigrants, he concludes, make Silicon Valley and the innovation hubs around Boston, Austin, and Washington, D.C., possible. His interview is part of a new page featuring NBER researchers' work on immigration, innovation, and productivity.
In a study of peer network transportation companies, Yanbo Ge, Christopher R. Knittel, Don MacKenzie, and Stephen Zoepf find a pattern of discrimination similar to what has previously been found among taxi drivers. Their data show longer waiting times for African American passengers in Seattle and more frequent cancellations of passengers with African American-sounding names in Boston.
Many Baby Boomers appear at risk of a major decline in their living standard in retirement unless they opt to work harder and longer, according to an analysis by Alan J. Auerbach, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Darryl R. Koehler, and Manni Yu. But the researchers find that a plethora of explicit and implicit federal and state taxes discourages work among Americans between the ages of 50 and 79.
In 2007, approximately one in five children in Zambia lived with an HIV positive adult. Adrienne M. Lucas, Margaret Chidothe, and Nicholas L. Wilson find that the availability of adult antiretroviral therapy increased the likelihood that children in households with HIV-positive heads started school on time and were the appropriate grade-for-age.
Project that Originated in the Early 2000s Yields
Four Volumes of Research on African Successes
The NBER Africa Project, a multi-year initiative supported by the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, explored key economic issues in African
development and created partnerships among leading American
economists, experts on Africa, and researchers in the field. Together
they have produced in-depth examinations of the state of
modernization, the challenges to human capital, the contributions of
government, and the prospects for sustainable growth.
Few government programs in the United States are as controversial as those designed to help the poor. From tax credits to medical assistance, the size and structure of the American safety net is an issue of constant debate.
These two NBER volumes just published by The University of Chicago Press, update the earlier Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States with a discussion of the many changes in means-tested government programs and the results of new research over the past decade. While some programs that experienced falling outlays in the years prior to the previous volume have remained at low levels of expenditure, many others have grown, including Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and subsidized housing programs. For each program, the contributors describe its origins and goals, summarize its history and current rules, and discuss recipients' characteristics and the types of benefits they receive.
This valuable reference for researchers and policy makers features detailed analyses of many of the most important transfer programs in the United States.
Some parents put a high altruistic premium on their adult children's love and harmony, but others are more focused on matches that can provide them with adequate support in their old age, according to a study of parental involvement in matchmaking in China summarized in the November edition of The NBER Digest. This month's Digest also features research evaluating Chicago's efforts to achieve exam school diversity without relying on race, comparing hospitalization rates of publicly and privately insured children, documenting the role of immigrants in STEM fields in the U.S., comparing Federal Reserve strategy in the Great Depression and Great Recession, and analyzing the reporting of private equity fund returns.
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Assumptions abound — and there is little consensus — regarding the impacts of the business cycle on health and health behaviors. In the latest issue of The NBER Reporter, Bentley University Professor Dhaval Dave reports on a variety of studies he and his colleagues have undertaken in an effort to clear the murky waters. Also featured in this edition are reports by NBER researchers on how trade arrangements currently under discussion could affect China and its trading partners, the impacts of globalization on foreign investment and business structures, the increasing use of cross-region variation by macroeconomists, and the dynamics of the U.S. market in higher education.
Read or download a pdf of the full edition
