Dear Board Members, Researchers, and Staff Colleagues -
This morning, the NBER released working paper number 20,000 -- a study
of investor behavior by John Campbell, Tarun Ramadorai, and Benjamin
Ranish -- along with 23 other new papers. In the four decades since Bob
Michael suggested the working paper series to NBER President John Meyer
as a way to provide systematic access to NBER research, the NBER series
has become one of the most widely used resources in economics.
Working paper number 1, "Education, Information, and Efficiency" by
Finis Welch, was distributed in June 1973. Forty-one papers were
distributed during the series' first year. Each of these "yellow
covers," as the series quickly became known, had a print run of 150
copies. Today, the NBER distributes more than 1100 papers each year,
and more than 25,000 subscribers receive the "New This Week" email on
Monday mornings. Indicators such as Google Scholar Metrics suggest
that papers in the NBER series are very widely cited. As the number of
NBER researchers has grown, the working paper milestones have also
passed more quickly. It took more than thirty years to reach working
paper number 10,000, in October 2003, but only a little over ten years
to distribute the second 10,000 papers.
If you happen to be in Cambridge this Wednesday afternoon, please stop
by the NBER at 4pm, when we will celebrate this accomplishment and thank
the staff members who contribute to working paper production and
distribution. Looking further ahead, this year's Summer Institute will
feature a panel discussion on the role and impact of the NBER working
paper series and on the dissemination of economic research more generally.
The success of the NBER working paper series is a collective
achievement, and I am very grateful to all of the researchers and staff
members who have made it possible. Thank you and all best wishes.
Jim Poterba
PS Several weeks ago Bruce Bartlett wrote a piece for the New York
Times Economix blog about this working paper milestone. You may find it
interesting:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/an-economic-milestone/
Received on Mon Mar 24 2014 - 08:40:52 EDT
