The Digest

California homes built after 2008 and subject to statewide wildfire building codes are 40 percent less likely to be destroyed if a wildfire strikes than homes built in 1990. Wildfires have ravaged California in recent decades, often destroying homes and displacing residents. Building codes that require fire resistance in new construction have been one of the responses to this devastation. In Mandated vs. Voluntary Adaptation to Natural Disasters: The Case of US...

Providing youths in a New York City summer jobs program with recommendation letters increased their subsequent employment and earnings. Providing summer youth workers with letters of recommendation to use in job applications raised their employment and earnings, according to Sara B. Heller and Judd B. Kessler in The Effects of Letters of Recommendation in the Youth Labor Market (NBER Working Paper 29579). The researchers partnered with the New York City Summer...

The real price of nails fell by a factor of 10 from the late 1700s to the middle of the twentieth century, largely as a result of productivity growth in manufacturing. In The Price of Nails since 1695: A Window into Economic Change (NBER Working Paper 29617), Daniel E. Sichel tracks nail prices over three centuries. He uses this extraordinary data series to explore changes in manufacturing processes and productivity growth. He focuses on nails because they are a...