National Bureau of Economic Research
Latest from the NBER

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior
news article
Axel Börsch-Supan and Courtney Coile, editors.
Employment among older men and women has increased dramatically in recent years, reversing a downward trend in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior examines how changing retirement incentives have reshaped labor force participation trends among older workers.
The chapters feature country-specific analyses for Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain,…
A research summary from the monthly NBER Digest

Household Heat Pump Adoption and Energy Use
article
In Decarbonizing Heat: The Impact of Heat Pumps and a Time-of-Use Heat Pump Tariff on Energy Demand (NBER Working Paper 33036), researchers Louise Bernard, Andy Hackett, Robert D. Metcalfe, and Andrew Schein study the impact of heat pumps, a low-carbon alternative to gas boilers, on household energy demand. They analyze data from Octopus Energy, a global energy supplier, focusing specifically on residential heat pump installations in the UK. Their data sample includes…

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, volume 4
news article
Benjamin Jones and Josh Lerner, editors.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, volume 4 synthesizes key findings about entrepreneurial and innovative activity in many sectors of the economy, conveying insights on contemporary challenges and seeking to inform policy. Several research papers address issues related to artificial intelligence (AI).
In the first paper, Pierre Azoulay, Joshua Krieger, and Abhishek Nagaraj examine the future evolution of AI and potential effects on...
From the NBER Reporter: Research, program, and conference summaries

Working Group Report: Market Design
article
The Market Design Working Group, established in 2009 under the leadership of Susan Athey and Parag Pathak, is a preeminent research forum in the field of market design. The working group meets annually, alternating between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Palo Alto, California, to present research that bridges theoretical economics and practical applications, all focused on what The Economist aptly characterized as “an intelligently designed invisible hand.” Research in market design has been celebrated in academic circles, as evidenced by recognitions like the 2012 Nobel Prize for work on matching markets and the 2020 Nobel Prize for auction theory, and has also been instrumental in catalyzing tangible reforms in real-world institutions and markets.
One feature that sets market design apart…
From the NBER Bulletin on Retirement and Disability

Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
article
In Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (NBER Working Paper 32971 an earlier version, NBER RDRC Paper NB23-11), Nicolò Russo, Rory McGee, Mariacristina De Nardi, Margherita Borella, and Ross Abram use data from the Health and Retirement Study over the period 1996–2018 to evaluate measures of health inequality in middle age and the consequences of such health disparities.
They consider two health measures: self-reported health status, measured by the response to a survey question that asks individuals to rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor, and...
From the NBER Bulletin on Health

Digital Health Technology and Patient Outcomes
article
Digital health technologies, such as remote monitoring devices and telemedicine services, have attracted considerable interest due to their potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. These innovations could, however, exacerbate health disparities if adoption rates are lower among underserved communities.
In Equity and Efficiency in Technology Adoption: Evidence from Digital Health (NBER Working Paper 32992), researchers Itzik Fadlon, Parag Agnihotri, Christopher Longhurst, and Ming Tai-Seale analyze a remote...
From the NBER Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

“Third Places” Boost Local Economic Activity
article
Sociologists have argued that “third places” like cafés, which provide opportunities for individuals to socialize and exchange ideas outside of home and work, improve neighborhood life. But what about the relationship between such places and economic activity? In Third Places and Neighborhood Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Starbucks Cafés (NBER Working Paper 32604), researchers Jinkyong Choi, Jorge Guzman, and Mario L. Small use data on US business registrations between 1990 and 2022 from the Startup Cartography Project to examine whether the opening of a Starbucks in a neighborhood with no previous cafés affects local entrepreneurship...
Featured Working Papers
Matthew Turner and David N. Weil estimate that if the US had enforced a population limit of one million people per city beginning in 1900, national output in 2010 would have been 8 percent lower than its actual value.
Mexicans who immigrated to the US as children are less likely to self-identify as Mexican or Hispanic than those who immigrated as adults, Brian Duncan and Stephen J. Trejo find.
In a study of US labor markets, David J. Deming, Christopher Ong, and Lawrence H. Summers find that the 1990–2017 period experienced less technological disruption than any prior period since 1880. They conjecture that AI could turn out to be as disruptive as innovations such as steam power and electricity.
In the currency wars that broke out during the Great Depression, over 70 countries devalued their currency relative to the price of gold, leading to an average 21 percent reduction in trade, Kris James Mitchener and Kirsten Wandschneider find.
Using Danish administrative data, Janet Currie, N. Meltem Daysal, Mette Gørtz, and Jonas Cuzulan Hirani find that in households with three children, when the third child has a disability, second-born children are 11 percent more likely than first-born children to use mental health services.
In the News
Recent citations of NBER research in the media
_______________________________________
Research Projects
Conferences
Books & Chapters
Through a partnership with the University of Chicago Press, the NBER publishes the proceedings of four annual conferences as well as other research studies associated with NBER-based research projects.
Videos
Recordings of presentations, keynote addresses, and panel discussions at NBER conferences are available on the Videos page.