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International Social Security Project Analyzes
Pension Programs and Workforce Participation

The emergence of increasingly generous pension plans was associated with a decline in labor force participation by older people during the 20th century; more recently, pension reforms and cutbacks have incentivized workers to stay on the job. Courtney Coile of Wellesley College and the NBER is a long-time researcher in an NBER project that has studied retirement decisions and related issues for more than 20 years.

The NBER International Social Security Project book series
The Evolution of Retirement Incentives in the U.S.

The NBER Digest

Ups and Downs of U.S. Interest Rates Have Strong
Effects on Loan Volume in Emerging Market Economies




When the Federal Reserve lowers U.S. interest rates, cross-border lending by global banks, much of which is denominated in dollars, increases, particularly in emerging market economies, research featured in the new issue of NBER Digest shows. When U.S. monetary policy tightens, this loan volume declines. Also featured in this edition of the monthly Digest are studies examining the impact of burgeoning online commerce on traditional retailers' pricing practices, the association between early retirement and blue-collar men's mortality, consolidation among defense industry contractors, the effect of neighborhood environments on children's future possibilities, and U.S. retention of STEM PhDs from abroad.

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New NBER Research

4 January 2019

Variation across Insurers in Payments to Hospitals

Studying hospital-payer pairs in Massachusetts, Stuart V. Craig, Keith Marzilli Ericson, and Amanda Starc find that between-payer price variation is similar in magnitude to between-hospital price variation. Administrative-services-only contracts, in which insurers do not bear risk, have higher prices.

3 January 2019

Financing the Response to Climate Change

Bonds whose proceeds are used for environmentally sensitive purposes are issued at a premium to otherwise similar ordinary bonds, and are more likely to be closely held, Malcolm Baker, Daniel Bergstresser, George Serafeim, and Jeffrey Wurgler find.

2 January 2019

Curb Appeal and Home Values

By using computer vision techniques and images of homes recorded by various on-line real estate services, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Scott Kincaid, and Nikhil Naik estimate that a one standard deviation improvement in the appearance of a home in Boston is associated with a 16 percent increase in its value, holding fixed location.
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NBER in the News




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How Globalization of R&D and the Spread of AI
Affect Innovation, Competition and the Labor Force



Volume 19 in the NBER's Innovation Policy and the Economy series focuses on the interaction between public policy and innovation. Edited by Josh Lerner and Scott Stern and published by the University of Chicago Press, this volume examines the globalization of R&D and its effects, the impact of trade shocks on innovation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency model for funding and managing high-risk R&D, drug discovery and development, and issues around the diffusion of artificial intelligence.
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New Research Associates
and Faculty Research Fellows for 2018




The NBER appointed 58 new research associates and 45 new faculty research fellows in 2018. New appointees must be faculty members at North American colleges and universities, and are recommended by program directors in the culmination of a highly competitive process.
New appointees and their research program affiliations

The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health

Elderly Katrina Survivors Who Moved after the Storm
Are Living Longer than They May Have Otherwise




Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and displaced more than one million residents of the Gulf Coast region. Research summarized in the most recent issue of the NBER's Bulletin on Aging and Health finds that elderly Medicare beneficiaries, who make up one-fifth of those displaced by the storm, generally moved to areas that have lower mortality rates than New Orleans and are benefitting from longer lives because of it. Also in this edition: A study of how doctors' race affects their patients' utilization of preventative medical treatments and how fragmentation of the kidney exchange market affects hospitals' ability to match donors to recipients.

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The NBER Reporter

Subprime Lenders Wrongly Blamed for Housing Crisis;
Broad-Based Expansion of Credit Fueled Speculation




African-American and Hispanic homebuyers were hurt most by the avalanche of mortgage foreclosures when the housing market collapsed, but not because they were holding subprime mortgages. Research discussed in the current edition of the NBER Reporter finds that a general expansion of credit fueled speculation and that minorities paid higher mortgage costs whether they used prime or subprime loans. Also in this edition of the quarterly Reporter, NBER affiliates write about their explorations of the role of liquidity in the 2007–09 financial crisis, the sometimes unforeseen consequences of energy and environmental policies, the effects of taxation on innovation, and the changing process of pharmaceutical development.

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Study of a Wellness Program Finds that, in Year One,
It Did Not Lead to Lower Spending on Health Care

As health-care costs continue to rise, workplace wellness programs have become popular with employers looking for ways to cut costs. Damon Jones of the University of Chicago and the NBER is a leader of a large-scale study of wellness programs' effectiveness at cutting costs and enrolling targeted populations.

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Visit the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study website





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