Dear NBER Researchers -
I am writing to report on several recent NBER developments and to
outline plans for the 2020 Summer Institute.
First, the first issue each year of the NBER Reporter lists awards
received by NBER affiliates in the previous year. If you received an
honor during the 2019 calendar year, and you would like us to announce
it, please send a description of no more than 25 words to my assistant,
Magdalen Blankenship (magdalen_at_nber.org) by Monday, February 17. Please
include "2019 Awards" in the subject line, and if you shared this award
with other researchers, as in the case of "best paper" prizes, please
indicate that. To keep the list manageable, I am afraid that we cannot
include honors such as named chairs that are bestowed by our
researchers' home institutions.
Second, next Wednesday, February 5, is the deadline for nominations
for new Faculty Research Fellows and Research Associates. You should
have received an email invitation from me on January 16 with the subject
line "NBER Nominations for 2020." Please follow the directions in that
email to submit nominations. I appreciate your assistance with this
important activity, and I hope that you will be particularly attentive
to nominating researchers from under-represented groups as well as those
who may not be well-connected to the NBER network.
Third, building upon the NBER Conference Code of Conduct that was
promulgated in early 2019, and in keeping with contemporary developments
elsewhere in the economics profession, at its September 2019 meeting the
NBER Board of Directors adopted a Code of Professional Conduct for
NBER-affiilated researchers.
https://nber.org/COI/CodeofConductPolicy0919.pdf
In the spirit of the American Economic Association's similar code, this
policy outlines the principles that NBER affiliates are expected to
abide by, as well as the potential consequences of violations.
Fourth, I would like to call your attention to several NBER
leadership changes in the past year.
* Ralph Koijen and Sydney Ludvigson became co-directors of the Asset
Pricing Program last summer, succeeding Monika Piazzesi.
* James Choi became a co-director of the NBER Retirement and Disability
Research Center, succeeding Jeffrey Brown.
In 2019, the NBER launched three new "Study Groups," projects that cut
across traditional sub-fields within economics. Each is supported by a
multi-year research grants.
* Sandra Black is directing a Study Group on Economic Mobility.
* Claudia Goldin, Seema Jayachandra, and Claudia Olivetti are directing
a Study Group on Gender in the Economy.
* Edward Glaeser, Stephen Redding, and I are directing a Study Group on
the Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century.
I am very grateful to all of these researchers for making time to serve
in these leadership positions.
Finally, the 2020 NBER Summer Institute will take place between
July 6 and July 25, 2020. The current meeting schedule is posted at
http://conference.nber.org/confer/2020/SI2020/SI2020.html
and the call for papers may be found at
https://conference.nber.org/confer/2020/SI2020/call2020.html
The submission deadline is Wednesday, March 18. This year's Martin
Feldstein Lecture will be delivered on Tuesday, July 21 by Claudia
Goldin of Harvard University, the past director of the Development of
the American Economy program. She will be speaking on "Journey Across a
Century of Women." The 2020 Methods Lectures, "Theory and Application
of Differential Privacy," will explore the application of differential
privacy tools to household survey data collection and analysis. The
lectures will be presented on Friday afternoon, July 17, by Daniel Kifer
of Penn State and Ian Schmutte of the University of Georgia, with an
introduction by Daniel Goroff of the Sloan Foundation. Because 2020 is
the NBER's Centennial Year, during each week of Summer Institute there
will be a panel discussion on open questions in economic policy and
future directions for economic research. I will circulate further
details about these panels in coming months.
All best wishes for the Spring semester. I look forward to seeing
you in July if not before.
Jim Poterba
Received on Fri Jan 31 2020 - 14:43:21 EST
