National Bureau of Economic Research
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New Business Applications Surged during the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to restructuring in some parts of the US economy. Many businesses have closed, particularly in hard-hit sectors like entertainment, hospitality, and transportation. At the same time, entrepreneurs have been launching new businesses. In mid-2020, several months into the pandemic, the number of business startups reached an all-time peak. In a new research paper (28912), NBER Research Associate John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland analyzes the Business Formation Statistics compiled by the US Census Bureau. He documents the sharp and sustained increase in new business registrations, and distinguishes between startups that are likely to hire employees and those that are not. Haltiwanger describes his findings in the video below, and explains that the surge in startups is a critical part of the reallocation of economic activity associated with the pandemic. An archive of NBER videos on pandemic-related research may be found here. An archive of NBER videos on pandemic-related research may be found here.
Three new working papers distributed this week report on economic, health, and related consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and public policies that have responded to it. One describes the power of high-frequency data to track state-level economic fluctuations and illustrates the use of the resulting measures during the pandemic (29003). Another shows that epidemics are associated with a shift from in-person to on-line banking and use of ATMs, particularly among young, high-income households (29006). Yet another examines the potential of vaccine “dose-stretching” — injecting vaccine recipients with half-doses, thereby doubling the number that could receive some protection — to accelerate the pace of vaccination globally and slow the pandemic’s spread (29018).
More than 425 NBER working papers have addressed various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These papers are open access and have been collected for easy reference. Like all NBER papers, they are circulated for discussion and comment, and have not been peer-reviewed. View them in reverse chronological order or by topic area.
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Ten Researchers Receive Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Ten post-doctoral scholars will be supported by NBER fellowships for the 2021–22 academic year. These fellows are selected by review panels following widely disseminated calls for applications. Read More...
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Featured Working Papers
LEED certification has no effect on average energy consumption in federal buildings, with the trade-offs across LEED attributes accounting for the absence of energy savings, according to a study by Karen Clay, Edson R. Severnini, and Xiaochen Sun.
Nonprosecution of nonviolent misdemeanor offenses is associated with large reductions in the likelihood of new criminal complaints against the offenders during the next two years, according to research by Amanda Y. Agan, Jennifer L. Doleac, and Anna Harvey.
Firms operating in countries where nonfinancial sectors hold comparatively more debt in foreign currency increase their leverage comparatively more after the home currency appreciates, and vice versa, Ṣebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Ilhyock Shim, and Xiaoxi Liu find.
Current-day US business formation is positively related to historical attributes that presage individualist culture, such as the frontier experience, historical birthplace diversity, and the county’s topographical features, according to a study by John M. Barrios, Yael Hochberg, and Daniele Macciocchi.
Greater craft beer availability in recent years accounts for 85 percent of the 11.5 percentage point craft beer consumption gap between millennials and Baby Boomers, with the remainder explained by intrinsic generational differences in preferences, Bart J. Bronnenberg, Jean-Pierre H. Dubé, and Joonhwi Joo find.
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