National Bureau of Economic Research

After 25 years of promoting research on economic events over the course of the lifecycle, inter-generational household linkages, and how individuals in different birth cohorts have been affected by the variation over time in economic, institutional, and demographic factors, the NBER Working Group on Cohort Studies has closed. Research Associate Dora Costa, the Kenneth L. Sokoloff Professor of Economic History at UCLA, founded the group and served as its sole director. For many years, the Working Group was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging. Active research on the core issues that animated the group's meetings continues in several NBER programs, particularly Economics of Aging, Children and Families, and Development of the American Economy.

In the past decade, venture capital activity in the European Union (EU) has lagged that in the United States, with annual venture capital investments averaging 0.2 percent of GDP compared to 0.7 percent in the US. Since 2013, US-based venture capital funds have out-raised their EU partners by about $800 billion. European entrepreneurship relies on cross-border investment inflows from US investors to close the gap.

In How Does Privacy Regulation Affect Transatlantic Venture Investment? Evidence from GDPR (NBER Working Paper 33909), Jian Jia, Ginger Zhe Jin, Mario Leccese, and Liad Wagman examine how the...

Homeowners are especially vulnerable to climate change. Their homes are commonly the largest investment in their portfolio, but houses are immovable assets. With the US housing market worth approximately $48 trillion, the choices homeowners, home builders, insurers, and mortgage lenders make around climate risk also affect the macroeconomy. In this article, I summarize the work that my coauthors and I have conducted on the topic of housing and climate risk.

How environmental risks associated with climate change are reflected in the market value of properties is known as “capitalization.” House prices shifting due to climate risk signal where and how quickly adaptation must occur. When property values fail to promptly or accurately capture these risks, it creates a gap between perceived value and long-term…

The US Surgeon General has called the child mental health crisis “the defining public health crisis of our time.” In 2020, 13 percent of US children aged 3 to 17 had a diagnosed mental or behavioral condition. In 2021, mental health services for children cost $31 billion—47 percent of pediatric medical spending. Childhood mental health issues are linked to lower educational attainment, reduced employment, and increased use of welfare programs. Also, youth suicide rates are especially high in the US; males aged 15 to 19 have a rate four times higher than in France. In Investing in Children to Address the Child Mental Health Crisis (NBER Working Paper 33632), Janet Currie explores three common misconceptions about this youth mental health...

The surge in remote work in recent years has transformed labor markets, with potentially important implications for the interaction between workplace flexibility and entrepreneurship. In Hustling from Home? Work from Home Flexibility and Entrepreneurial Entry (NBER Working Paper 33237), John M. Barrios, Yael Hochberg, and Hanyi (Livia) Yi explore whether the increased flexibility provided by work-from-home (WFH) arrangements has affected entrepreneurial decisions. They focus on the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment and analyze how the sudden shift to remote work affected new business creation. Guided…