Dear Members of the Board:
The manuscripts below have been recommended for publication by the
NBER. We are sending this information to you in accordance with the
rules for publication of NBER volumes.
Please let me know if you would like a hard copy of the entire
manuscript for review.
Any Director who wishes to report comments or reservations regarding
policy recommendations in the manuscript should do so within forty-five
days after the date of this notice.
Below are summaries and links to the chapters.
Helena Fitz-Patrick
*1) **Risk Topography: Systemic Risk and Macro Modeling*
edited by Markus K. Brunnermeier and Arvind Krishnamurthy
http://www.nber.org/books/brun11-1
The Great Recession was an urgent call for rethinking the measurement of
economic activity and for developing macroeconomic models in which
finance plays an important role.Macroeconomic models with financial
frictions are key to assess the impact of a meltdown of the financial
sector ("systemic risk") and to conceptualize measurement. Measurements
in turn help to discriminate across different macroeconomic models in
addition to revealing the fragility of the financial sector, and
potential adverse spillover effects to the real economy. The book
contains a selection of papers that discuss ideas on advancing
measurement and macroeconomic modeling. Two themes run through the book:
First existing flow and stock measures need to be complemented by
measures of risk, the risk topography. Second, in order to capture
endogenous systemic risk it is important to acknowledge the interplay
between general equilibrium (macro) models and data collection. The book
will be of value to those in regulatory positions who since the crisis
have been involved in efforts to improve current measurement systems.The
book will also be of interest to academics who plan to conceptualize
effective measurement and plan to make future use of the collected data
to discriminate across various macroeconomic models with financial
frictions.
**2) Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures**
edited by Christopher Carroll, Thomas Crossley, and John Sabelhaus
http://papers.nber.org/books/carr11-1
Many countries including the U.S. are now embarking on multiyear
projects to redesign their surveys of household expenditures. This
volume presents work by many of the world's leading experts on
consumption measurement meant to illuminate the challenges and
opportunities that lie ahead. The aim of the volume, in broadest terms,
is to provide a knowledge base for use of agencies and researchers as
they design new systems for measurement of household expenditures. To
that end, the volume includes a comprehensive set of papers describing
the current status and use of the U.S. Consumer Expenditure survey; a
number of papers describing new modes of data collection (including the
use of scanner data, internet panels, and administrative data from
government and private sources); papers outlining the importance of
various objectives that such surveys might satisfy; papers describing
comparisons of the data available from other existing sources to those
obtainable from an expenditure survey; comparisons of alternative
approaches and results in different countries; and much more.
*3) The Economics of Food Price Volatility*
edited by Jean-Paul Chavas, David Hummels, and Brian Wright
https://www.nber.org/books/chav12-1
Historically, food markets have been subject to much instability, and
the last few years have seen very large swings in food prices with
significant consequences for farmers, market participants and consumers.
The chapters in this volume address the factors that contribute to large
price swings and the impacts of market and policy responses to
it.Specifically, we address whether price instability arises primarily
from technological or weather related supply shocks, from demand shocks
such as those induced by biofuels, or from financial speculation and
globalization.We address the welfare effects of increased food price
volatility for farmers, traders and consumers.Finally, we analyze the
role of private stockholding, and domestic agriculture policy and trade
policy to understand whether existing management practices and policy
interventions serve to mitigate or exacerbate volatility.
*4) Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress*
edited by Dale Jorgenson, J. Steven Landefeld, and Paul Schreyer
http://www.nber.org/books/jorg12-1
The purpose of the proposed /Studies in Income and Wealth Volume/,
''Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress,"is to disseminate and
foster innovative and collaborative solutions -- between academic and
policy researchers and official statisticians -- to some of today's most
important economic measurement challenges. The challenges addressed in
the papers of this volume are: 1) better understanding of the
distribution of economic growth and its impact, in turn, on growth and
well-being; 2) filling gaps in the economic data bearing on the
sustainability of growth revealed by the Great Recession; and 3)
expanding the scope of economic accounts to better measure key issues
affecting the rate and sustainability of economic growth and well-being,
including health, human capital, and the environment.Historically, the
/Studies in Income and Wealth/ volumes have played a key role updating
and increasing the relevance of economic statistics through the adoption
of the solutions suggested at NBER-CRIW conferences into the
macro-economic statistics of the United States and other countries.The
editors believe that the proposed volume will continue this tradition by
addressing the measurement challenges associated with some of the most
important economic and social challenges confronting the U.S. and world
economy today.
Received on Thu Jun 13 2013 - 08:12:17 EDT
