Dear NBER Researchers -
I am writing with a brief update on several NBER activities.
First, this fall the NBER is launching a Development Economics program.
The program will analyze the behavior of households, firms, and
institutions in developing nations to better understand economic growth
as well as inequality and poverty alleviation. I am very grateful to
Duncan Thomas (Duke and NBER), who has agreed to serve as the inaugural
program director.
Second, Liran Einav (Stanford and NBER) has joined Ken Froot (Harvard
Business School and NBER) as a co-director of the Insurance Working
Group. Ken and Liran hope to expand the group's traditional focus on
property-casualty insurance to more broadly embrace issues of health and
disability insurance, annuities, and the interplay between government
programs and private insurance.
Finally, the next NBER Summer Institute will be held between July 8 and
July 26, 2013. I am very pleased that the fifth annual Martin Feldstein
Lecture will be delivered by Lawrence Summers (Harvard and NBER) on
Wednesday afternoon, July 24. Our Econometric Methods Lectures, on July
15-16, will focus on "Empirical Methods for Large Data Sets." Matthew
Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro (Chicago Booth and NBER) are coordinating
these lectures, which will also include presentations by Victor
Chernozhukov of MIT and Christian Hansen and Matt Taddy of Chicago Booth.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the NBER's many activities. As
always, I hope that you will let me know if you have suggestions for
enhancing the NBER's role in advancing economic research. All best
wishes for a productive fall semester.
Jim Poterba
Received on Thu Sep 27 2012 - 08:39:48 EDT
