AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 7, July 2014
The Digest
A free monthly publication featuring non-technical summaries of research on topics of broad public interest
firms that held a shareholder meeting at least 50 miles from their headquarters and at least 50 miles from a major airport [experienced an] abnormal six-month return [of] ... -6.8 percent.
When a company moves its shareholder meeting to a remote location, it is often associated with bad news, according to Evasive Shareholder Meetings (NBER Working Paper No. 19991) by Yuanzhi Li and David Yermack. The study finds that "companies are more likely to announce unfavorable...
Article
...young adults entering the labor market today have roughly the same likelihood of moving up the income distribution ladder relative to their parents as those who were born in the 1970s...
Has intergenerational income mobility, a child's chance of eventually earning more than his or her parents, declined in the United States? In Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility (NBER Working Paper No. 19844) Raj Chetty,...
Article
Each additional ... wind project that the developer and the manufacturer build together decreases unit costs by about 0.25 percent.
China's wind power industry has developed rapidly during the past ten years, in part because of financial support through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM is a project-based carbon trade mechanism that subsidizes the users of climate-friendly technologies and encourages technology transfer between developed and developing...
Article
...stronger emerging markets on average were affected more negatively by tapering news than their weaker counterparts.
In The Transmission of Federal Reserve Tapering News to Emerging Financial Markets (NBER Working Paper No. 19980), Joshua Aizenman, Mahir Binici, and Michael Hutchison find substantial declines in emerging-market stock prices and exchange rates in response to news announcements -- tapering news -- suggesting that the Federal Reserve Board would reduce...
Article
...the move from check-based welfare payments to EBT payments was associated with a substantial drop in street crime ...
In Less Cash, Less Crime: Evidence from the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program (NBER Working Paper No. 19996), authors Richard Wright, Erdal Tekin, Volkan Topalli, Chandler McClellan, Timothy Dickinson, and Richard Rosenfeld investigate whether the amount of cash circulating within a community affects the crime rate. The researchers take advantage...
Article
Applying for a patent appears to act as a signal to potential investors ... and leads to the availability of more capital.
Small firms often face early-stage problems in raising funds to support research and development of new products. In Patents as Quality Signals? The Implications for Financing Constraints on R&D (NBER Working Paper No. 19947), Dirk Czarnitzki, Bronwyn Hall, and Hanna Hottenrott confirm that small firms face R&D funding constraints, but...