1. Nominations
 
It's that time of year again to submit nominations for FRF and RA
appointments to the AP group. You should have gotten an email from the NBER.
If you didn't, or if your spam-killer nailed it as it did mine, this will do
instead.
 
Here is what all this means.
 
FRF stands for "faculty research fellow" and in practice means people
without tenure. We can appoint two each year. The FRF appointment lasts 3 or
5 years (I can't remember which) at which time they can be renewed, or if
they got tenure they can be "promoted" to RA. RA stands for "research
associate". There isn't a set limit, but in practice one or two per year is
about all we can do. There is no definite term.
 
Only people at US academic institutions can be members of the NBER. Sorry,
no Fed employees and no people from abroad. (It's not xenophobia, it's
airfare) FRF and RA are automatically invited to all AP events and get paid
for.
 
What are we looking for? Prominence and good quality research, of interest
to people in the group, of course. But we also want people who will come
regularly and contribute to the AP group. This is not just some honor to be
added to a vita. With only two slots per year, we need to spend them on
people who will contribute to the group. The NBER has a stated preference
for empirical and applied research over pure theory, but that's not much of
a problem in our group.
 
Please send nominations to Denis Healy [ dhealy@nber.org ] with a cc to me.
The name and institution and FRF vs. RA are enough. If you have a link to a
cv great, if not google will find it quickly. The deadline for nominations
is Jan 31.
 
In addition to formal nominations, it helps me a lot to have an idea of how
strong support is for various candidates. So I appreciate hearing from more
than one person, and you can also email me opinions. This isn't exactly a
vote, (and I don't want to give incentives for the kind of politicking that
putting it to a straight vote would generate) but I do pay attention to who
has broad support. Also, If your candidate doesn't get on this year or
didn't get on last year, keep trying! I'm rationed to two a year so
sometimes it takes a while.
 
If you or a colleague is FRF and got tenure and an RA promotion is in order,
I also need to know. I don't completely follow who got tenure where! Adding
a person who is already NBER to the AP list is pretty costless. But only
worth doing if they are interested. If you forgot who is or is not already
in the AP group, the list of members is at
http://www.nber.org/programs/ap/ap-mem.html
 
When people ask you "how do I get to be in the NBER?" the best answer is to
have them submit papers to the program meetings. There is nothing like
seeing good papers to get support from the group. Anyone who wants to can
be on the "call for papers" list for asset pricing. They can just email
confer@nber.org and ask to be put on the list.
 
2. Reviews
 
There is an annual review at which time Marty and I see what everyone has
done for the last few years. "Contributions" include submitting NBER working
papers; attending, contributing to discussion at, presenting, discussing,
and organizing program meetings, the same for other NBER conferences and
activities, and applying for and then running grants through the NBER.
Carrot: top performers sometimes get an honorarium from the NBER. Stick:
"Promotion" from FRF to RA is not automatic, it depends on successful
reviews. RAs who do nothing are eventually asked politely if they would
rather not free up a slot for someone else. If you have done nothing with
the NBER in the last few years and don't contemplate any NBER activity soon,
you'll save me some embarrassment and free up a slot by resigning
voluntarily.
 
3. Meeting reminder
 
I remind you that all the conferences are by invitation only; non-NBER
members have to get invitations from the organizers of the meetings. This is
to make sure things don't get too big. In particular, please don't tell your
grad students to just show up! In addition to size issues, I like to treat
grad students like real people and give them a name tag and a lunch, plus
encourage everyone who comes to stay for the whole day, contribute to the
discussion, and not cherry-pick. The invitation-only rule helps with those
efforts.
 
I look forward to seeing you at the spring URC and summer institute
 
John
 
*************************************************************************
John H. Cochrane
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 S. Woodlawn
Chicago IL 60637

773 702 3059
773 702 0458 GSB fax
773 834 2031 my secretary's fax
My office: HPC 459

Web page:
http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/john.cochrane/research/Papers/
 

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