Dear NBER Family Members and Staff:
I am writing with several news items that I hope you will find of interest.
First, this morning we launched a new NBER website. It highlights NBER
research findings, features a short summary of a new working paper each
day, and is hopefully easier to navigate than its predecessor. I am very
grateful to Michael Cuthbert, Daniel Feenberg, and Debby Nicholson for
leading the redesign process. If, after visiting the new site at
www.nber.org, you have reactions or feedback, I hope that you will provide
them to our IT team at webmaster_at_nber.org.
Second, James Stock of Harvard and Mark Watson of Princeton have joined
the Business Cycle Dating Committee. The other committee members are
Robert Hall of Stanford (chair), Martin Feldstein and Jeffrey Frankel of
Harvard, Robert Gordon of Northwestern, David Romer of Berkeley (who is on
leave from the committee while his wife Christina chairs the Council of
Economic Advisers), and me.
Third, after several very successful years, the International Trade and
Organizations group (led by Pol Antras of Harvard) has folded into the
International Trade and Investment program. Antoinette Schoar of
MIT-Sloan has replaced Scott Stern of Northwestern-Kellogg as a co-leader
of the Entrepreneurship group. Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School
continues as a co-leader of the Entrepreneurship group; he and Scott Stern
also co-direct the Innovation Policy group.
Finally, in the long-term planning department, the 2010 Summer Institute
will run from July 12 through August 6 -- almost a week later in the
summer than in recent years. The shift is the result of scheduling to
avoid conflict with the July 4 holiday weekend. By flagging this early, I
hope that you can try to avoid potential conflicts with family vacations
and other summer activities.
I hope that you are enjoying a pleasant and productive fall semester.
Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have suggestions for new NBER
research initiatives or for other ways to improve the NBER's contribution
and service to our research community. All best wishes.
Jim Poterba
Received on Mon Oct 26 2009 - 10:15:45 EDT
