AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 3, March 2013
The Digest
A free monthly publication featuring non-technical summaries of research on topics of broad public interest
The likelihood of receiving a callback for a job interview sharply declines with unemployment duration.
According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, long-term unemployment may "produce a self-perpetuating cycle wherein protracted spells of unemployment heighten employers' reluctance to hire those individuals, which in turn leads to even longer spells of joblessness." Policymakers and researchers alike tend to believe that this adverse effect of a...
Article
Life expectancy for 40-year old men in 2040 is expected to increase by 0.92 years compared to... 2010. For women [there is] ... a smaller increase in expected life expectancy -- only 0.26 years.
Deaths from smoking and obesity play a significant role in any estimates of future U.S. life expectancy. Cigarette consumption per adult per year has fallen from a high of more than 4,000 in the early 1960s to fewer than 2,000 in the early 2000s, and that reduction in smoking...
Article
At the end of four years, the average household that was still receiving [energy use] reports was taking actions equivalent to turning off a standard 60-watt light bulb for about 11 hours each day.
In 2008, one electric utility implemented a program in which it randomly selected about 43,000 of its household customers to receive "Home Energy Reports" which feature personalized feedback, social comparisons, and energy conservation information. About a quarter of that...
Article
Parents appear more motivated to help their less fortunate children than to treat all of their children equally.
In Dynamic Aspects of Family Transfers (NBER Working Paper No. 18446), Kathleen McGarry examines data on 17 years of transfers between parents and their adult children and finds that parents evaluate their children's income prospects before making gifts. When those prospects dim, especially after a reversal such as the loss of a job or a divorce, parents...
Article
Moving to increased use of PEVs may not reduce CO2 because of local variation in daily, and even hourly, patterns of electricity production and consumption.
The policy goal of reducing CO2 and other emissions from the transportation sector has led to interest in plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The United Kingdom has made electric cars an important part of its overall efforts to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. In California, policymakers have required manufacturers...
Article
When provided with insurance against the primary catastrophic risk they face -- drought or floods -- farmers are able to find the resources to increase expenditure on their farms.
In recent decades lagging agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa has motivated charities and policymakers to implement assistance programs, usually by promoting hybrid seeds and fertilizers. But in focus group interviews, farmers in the region commonly report "lack of money" or...