In a study featured in the current edition of The NBER Digest, researchers found positive returns as much as 25 days before the announcement of expansionary monetary policy “shocks” by the Federal Open Market Committee. Drift around supposedly surprise announcements — both positive and negative — affected firms in almost all industries and extended to many equity markets outside the United States. Also featured in the September issue of the Digest: an examination of the effect of more affordable travel on scientific collaborations, an investigation of the relationship between car prices and financing terms, a measure of gains from a localized spurt in productivity, a look at union membership, wages, and income inequality, and an analysis of debt markets’ bias toward home country currencies.

Investment by U.S. firms has changed, with spending for intangible assets rising and expenditures on capital goods decreasing, and this has impacted newer firms’ views on the desirability of being listed. A research summary in the current issue of The NBER Reporter explains that this shift and a surge in mergers have contributed to a sharp decline in listings. Also in the quarterly Reporter: A report on the effects of gender imbalance on saving behaviors within families and in the broader economy, an analysis of firm behaviors in reaction to changes in the competitive environment, a summary of asset pricing research in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and an examination of large implicit taxes on work at older ages.

Growing emergency department (ED) wait times are increasingly a focus of public concern. Research summarized in the current edition of the NBER's Bulletin on Aging and Health studies the effects of a policy in England requiring that 95 percent of ED patients be discharged, admitted as an inpatient, or transferred to another hospital within four hours of arrival. The study finds a modest increase in ED costs due to the policy, and a reduction in the 30-day patient mortality rate of an estimated 14 percent.