Subject: NBER Productivity News and Plans for 2004
From: Lita Kimble (lkimble@nber.org)
Date: Wed Jan 07 2004 - 15:27:32 EST
To: Members and Friends of the NBER Productivity Program
From: Ernst R. Berndt, Director
Re: News and Plans for 2004
Date: 8 January 2004
It has been some time since I have written regarding the
Productivity Program-related news events and schedules for future
meetings. The last complete letter to all program members was in November
2000. Instead of making a 2004 letter the subject of a New Years
resolution, Ill try and get this out before the year 2003 comes to an end.
2003 will be remembered particularly as the year in which
we had two conferences honoring the memory of Zvi Griliches. The first
was in Paris in late August. In addition to involving several invited
papers reviewing selected subject areas in which Zvi had made significant
contributions, more than forty other papers were presented. Proceedings
will be published in Annales de Econometrie (edited by Jacques Mairesse and
Manuel Trajtenberg), and most likely also as an NBER/CRIW orange
volume. Thanks to Manuel Trajtenberg, Chuck Hulten, and especially Jacques
Mairesse for organizing and helping to raise funds for the
conference. Thanks are also due the National Science Foundation, and
Martin Feldstein of the NBER, who provided financial support. A heartening
aspect of that conference was that a substantial number of young
researchers had a chance to mingle with more senior scholars, and listen to
wonderful stories involving Zvi, and perhaps even more important, to become
more familiar with his various contributions. The Zvi tree lives and grows&
The second Zvi conference was in Bethesda, Maryland, on
the same day that Hurricane Isabel arrived. As a result, attendance was
not as great as expected, although the turnout on Saturday, the second day,
was remarkable. About 15 papers were presented, Jack Triplett discussed
Zvis contribution to government statistics at a luncheon address, and at
the end of the conference a panel of young and more senior friends of Zvi
shared cherished memories. Proceedings of this conference, edited by Chuck
Hulten and me, will be published in the NBER orange volumeseries.
In addition to putting on these two conferences and having
the traditional 2003 Summer Institute meetings last July, in March Iain
Cockburn and Amil Petrin organized the Spring productivity program meeting,
while Aviv Nevo put together the program for the December 2003
meeting. Thanks to all three of you for your efforts.
Since the last newsletter, a number of new NBER Productivity Program
Faculty Research Fellows and Research Associates have been named. New FRFs
in 2001 include Gautam Gowrisankaran (Minnesota) and David Popp
(Syrcause). This year Pierre Azoulay (Columbia), Chad Syverson (Chicago)
and Johannes van Biesebroeck (Toronto) were named FRFs, while Susan Helper
(Case Western Reserve) and David Mowery (UC-Berkeley) were named new
Research Associates in 2001, as was Thomas Holmes (Minnesota) in
2002. Welcome to each of you! Amil Petrin was also awarded the
Griliches/NBER post-doctoral fellowship, which he took up at the NBER in
Cambridge during academic year 2002-2003.
A number of the Productivity Program members have changed
employment. Among these are Jim Adams (from Florida to Renssalaer), Eli
Berman (from BU and then Rice to UC-San Diego), Wes Cohen (CMU to Duke),
Shane Greenstein (Illlinois to Northwestern), Sam Kortum (BU to Minnesota),
Catherine Shaw (CMU to Stanford), Dan Ackerberg (BU to UCLA), Lee
Branstetter (UC-Davis to Columbia), Jenny Lanjouw (Yale to UC-Berkeley),
Steve Olley (Georgetown to NERA), Neal Rappaport (US Air Force Academy to
Air Force Attache to the Government of Macedonia), and Scott Stern (MIT to
Northwestern). Ned Nadiri has temporarily reduced his commitments to NYU
as he works to help rebuild Afghanistan. Erwin Diewert was the first
economist in Canada to receive the distinguished Killam Award. Bob
Gordons book, Productivity Growth, Inflation and Unemployment, has just
been published by Cambridge University Press. Joe Newhouse will be
receiving a TIAA/CREF award for his book on health insurance at the San
Diego ASSA meetings. Congratulations to all of you! By the way, please
let me know if awards, job changes or any other major events come your way.
In terms of forthcoming activities and events, each year
in January Martin Feldstein sends a letter to all NBER RAs and FRFs,
inviting nominations for each program. These nominations are then
forwarded to the appropriate program heads. In years past, at most each
program was permitted to add two or three new members each year. As with
many other NBER programs, an Advisory Committee works with me in deciding
which nominations to the Productivity Program should be brought
forward. This year Iain Cockburn and Ariel Pakes will continue to advise
me, and they will be joined by Tim Bresnahan, who has replaced Adam Jaffe
(now Dean of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis). If you have individuals in
mind you believe would be worthy Productivity Program FRFs or RAs, please
let Iain, Ariel, Tim and/or or me know of them, in addition to sending the
nomination on to Martin Feldstein.
The Spring 2004 Productivity Program meeting will be held
at the NBER in Cambridge on Friday, March 12. Chad Syverson (Chicago) and
I will serve as coorganizers of that meeting. Rather than adhering to a
strict theme that day, we will try to put together a productivity potpourri
program. A formal call for papers will be coming out from the NBER
shortly. In the mean time, feel free to email me
(<mailto:eberndt@mit.edu>eberndt@mit.edu) or Chad
(<mailto:syverson@uchicago.edu>syverson@uchicago.edu) (773-702-7815), or
snail mail us details of a paper youd like to present (or of a paper you
have come across authored by someone else that you think would be
appropriate).
Since the Democratic National Convention is coming to
Boston the last week in July 2004, some of the NBER Summer Institute
program meetings have been rescheduled from their usual times. However,
for the most part the Productivity Program meetings will remain in their
third week in July time slot. Specifically, Adam Jaffe, Joshua Lerner and
Scott Stern are organizing the Innovation Policy and the Economy program
scheduled for Monday, July 19; Scott Stern and Ben Jones are organizing
what we used to call Patents Dayon Tuesday, July 20; I am organizing the
Micro/Productivity program on Wednesday, July 21; Susanto Basu and I are
co-organizing the Macro/Productivity program for Thursday, July 21; and
Mark Roberts is in charge of organizing an NBER/CRIW pre-conference on LRD
and other micro data on Friday, July 22. I understand the usual lobster
and clambake will be on Wednesday evening, July 20. The joint meetings
between Health Care, Aging and Productivity will, however, be rescheduled
in to the first week of August. Details will follow in the near future
from the NBER Conference department.
Finally, Chuck Hulten, Carol Corrado and I will be
co-organizing the joint NBER/CRIW program on Monday and Tuesday, July
26-27, 2004. Since this week will coincide with the Democratic National
Convention, it will be particularly important that everyone wanting a hotel
room make reservations through the NBER Conference Department far ahead of
time.
While the date is not yet final, it is quite likely that
the Fall 2004 Productivity Program meeting will be held at the NBER in
Cambridge on Friday, December 10. Let me know if that does not work out
well for you. Right now the only viable alternative date is Friday,
November 19 the Friday before Thanksgiving.
One other matter. Let me remind each of you that the NBER
is eager to provide research proposal support to any of you considering
running your research grant proposal through the NBER. Please contact
Susan Colligan (<mailto:colligan@nber.org>colligan@nber.org) or me for
further details.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2004! I hope to
see many of you in San Diego at the ASSA meetings.
