The NBER Digest
Coronavirus Relief Act Boosts Many Workers’ Incomes
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New NBER Research
2 July 2020
Pandemic Effects on US Outpatient Providers
By mid-April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with about a 67 percent decline in the total number of outpatient visits per provider relative to the same week in prior years, Pinka Chatterji and Yue Li calculate.
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1 July 2020
Boll Weevil Shock Narrowed Black-White Inequality
White sons born after the early 20th century boll weevil shock to agriculture had similar wages and schooling outcomes to white sons born prior to the weevil’s arrival, while black sons born after the boll weevil had significantly higher wages and years of schooling, Karen Clay, Ethan J. Schmick, and Werner Troesken find.
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30 June 2020
The US Labor Market during Onset of the Pandemic
American workers in the bottom quintile of the wage distribution experienced a 35 percent employment decline between mid-February and mid-April while those in the top quintile experienced only a 9 percent decline, according to research by Tomaz Cajner, Leland D. Crane, Ryan A. Decker, John Grigsby, Adrian Hamins-Puertolas, Erik Hurst, Christopher Kurz, and Ahu Yildirmaz.
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2020 NBER Virtual Summer Institute
The NBER Summer Institute is a collection more than 50 distinct research meetings, on a wide range of topics, taking place between July 6 and July 25. Most meetings are being live-streamed on the NBER YouTube channel. The schedule of meetings may be found here. The live-stream URLs are assigned each day by YouTube, and they will be posted as soon as they are available here.Bulletin on Health
What Can We Learn About COVID-19 Infection Rates
and Infection Fatality Rates Without Randomized Testing?
The summer issue of the Bulletin on Health features two studies that introduce methods for using currently available information to better understand COVID-19 infection rates and the implied infection fatality rates. One paper generates upper and lower bounds on the rates of COVID-19 infection under minimal assumptions, and finds that these bounds are necessarily wide, due to the small proportion of the population that has been tested. The second paper leverages additional assumptions and data, such as travel patterns from the virus epicenters, to infer infection rates. Although the studies take different approaches, they both indicate that infection fatality rates are considerably lower than the fatality rates among confirmed COVID-19 cases. Also featured in this issue of the free Bulletin on Health are a study of the long-term impacts of OxyContin’s reformulation on fatal drug overdoses, a study of the role of Medicaid coverage in reducing infant mortality during flu pandemics, and a profile of NBER research associate Doug Almond.
Examining Approaches to Rehabilitating Criminals,
The Effects of Sick Pay Mandates
The NBER Reporter
Examining Approaches to Rehabilitating Criminals,
Questioning the Widespread Idea that ‘Nothing Works’
Following an influential report on prisoner rehabilitation programs that concluded that "nothing works" in the United States rose sharply, ensuing policy discussions gradually led to rehabilitation programs being subordinated to policies emphasizing punishment and incapacitation. Research into the Norwegian prison system, featured in the current edition of the NBER Reporter, challenges that approach. Also in this issue of the free quarterly Reporter, NBER affiliates write about investigations into barriers to take-up of government initiatives, the impact of rare events on financial markets, the impact of land systems and misallocation on agricultural productivity, and the role of the firm in explaining the structure and evolution of wages and worker risk .
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Bulletin on Retirement and Disability
The Effects of Sick Pay Mandates
Fewer than half of low-income and part-time workers have access to paid [sick?] leave. In the absence of federal action, numerous states and localities have enacted sick pay mandates. A study summarized in the current issue of the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability finds that following the introduction of a mandate, coverage rises by 13 percentage points, from an initial level of 66 percent overall. Also in this issue: a summary of how student loan forgiveness affects disability insurance applications, a study of how bill timing affects low-income and aged households, and a feature on the NBER Retirement and Disability Research Center’s Training Fellowship program.
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NBER in the News
Mid-year - How will economic reality influence markets?
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Defund the Pro-Life Movement
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Livewire: Finance News Australia
July 1, 2020
Read the Research
Defund the Pro-Life Movement
Marie Claire
June 30, 2020
Read the Research
Populists Don't Know Much About Private Equity
The Wall Street Journal
June 30, 2020
Read the Research or a non-technical summary
Protests probably didn't lead to coronavirus spikes, but it's hard to know for sure
The Washington Post
June 30, 2020
Read the Research
Wildfires Are Taking an Unexpectedly Huge Toll on America's Lungs
Bloomberg
June 30, 2020
Read the Research
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