AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 2, July 2022
The Reporter
A free quarterly publication featuring program updates, several summaries of affiliates' research, and news about the NBER
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When the NBER’s Program on the Economics of Aging began in 1986 under the direction of David Wise, the baby-boom generation was between the ages of 22 and 40. Long-run projections at the time forecast that the United States would transition to an older population distribution. Today, with baby boomers ranging in age from 58 to 76, that projected future is the ongoing reality of our nation. One-fifth of the population will be age 65 or older in the next decade.
Since its...
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Individual records from the 1950 US Census were publicly released on April 1, 2022. Economic historians had been waiting for this day for 10 years. This data source, like the individual-level data from earlier censuses, makes it possible to locate the information reported by a specific person.
I found the records for my grandparents along with those for my mother, who was born in December 1949. They lived in rural Lincoln County, Kentucky. My grandfather, Bernard...
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Financial markets are central banks’ gateway to the economy. After the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve came to the rescue of financial markets with an aggressive mix of conventional and unconventional policies. During the COVID-19 shock, the Fed implemented similar policies even though this shock did not originate in financial markets. In both instances, asset prices rose rapidly in response to policy interventions. Rising asset prices...
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US environmental regulations have expanded dramatically since passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and similar laws a half century ago. Today, these policies face growing debate. While they have improved environmental quality, they also impose important costs. Moreover, their benefits and costs can have uneven impacts across racial and income groups.
Economists have long studied the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of environmental policy, but three...
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In recent decades, economists have studied how beliefs and preferences are formed and updated, and how cultural and social norms affect economic decisions.1 In a series of papers, together with our collaborators, we investigate how vertical and horizontal cultural transmission of preferences may affect educational outcomes.
Long-Term Orientation and Educational Outcomes
In our work with Umut Özek, we study the relevance of one specific cultural value — long-term...
News
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Following a call for nominations in January, the NBER has appointed 70 new affiliates: 23 research associates and 47 faculty research fellows. In addition, four faculty research fellows have been promoted to research associates.
The directors of the NBER’s 20 research programs recommend appointments after consulting with steering committees made up of leading scholars. Research associate appointments must be approved by the NBER Board of Directors,...
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Eleven postdoctoral scholars, including two in new fellowship programs, have been awarded NBER fellowships for the 2022–23 academic year. The two new programs support fellows studying environmental and energy economics and racial and ethnic disparities in economic outcomes. In all cases, fellows are selected by review panels following widely disseminated calls for applications.
Samuel Arenberg, who received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, and...
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Each year, the NBER provides fellowship support for the dissertation research of a number of doctoral students in economics and finance. Nineteen students have been awarded support for the 2022–23 academic year.
Two students, Menaka Hampole of Northwestern University and Xian Ng of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, are the inaugural fellows in a new program that supports dissertation research on consumer financial management. The fellowship program is...
More News
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Oleg Itskhoki of UCLA has won the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded biannually by the American Economic Association to an American economist under the age of 40 who has made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.
Itskhoki has made path-breaking contributions to understanding of the dynamics of international trade and international finance. His research on trade has provided new insights on how expanding trade can affect within-country inequality. In...
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Lisa D. Cook, an NBER affiliate since 2018 in two programs, Development of the American Economy and Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, has been confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. A professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, she is the first Black woman to serve on the board in its 108-year history.
Cook’s research interests include economic growth,...
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The American Economic Association has named NBER Research Associates Barry Eichengreen, James Poterba, and Carmen M. Reinhart distinguished fellows, and John Van Reenen a foreign honorary member. The Association also honored Sadie T.M. Alexander posthumously as a distinguished fellow.
Eichengreen, a leading scholar of economic history and international macroeconomics, is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and...
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The NBER working paper series reached a milestone this week with the distribution of the 30,000th paper. The series was launched in 1973 by labor economist Robert Michael to disseminate research prior to journal publication and to facilitate distribution of data appendices and related material. Working paper #1 was Education, Information, and Efficiency by Finis Welch.
The series began on a modest scale, a reflection of the then-small number of NBER...
Conferences and Meetings
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ArticleEconomics of Privacy An NBER conference on the Economics of Privacy took place March 31 to April 1 in Washington, DC and online. Research Associates Avi Goldfarb of the University of Toronto and Catherine Tucker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology organized the meeting, which was supported by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant #G-2020-12662. A keynote address was delivered by Elizabeth Goitein, codirector of the Liberty & National Security Program at the...
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ArticleEnvironment and Energy Economics Members of the NBER’s Environment and Energy Economics Program met March 24–25 in Cambridge and online. Program Director Christopher R. Knittel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Faculty Research Fellow Lint Barrage of the University of California, Santa Barbara organized the meeting. These researchers’ papers were presented and discussed: Yuanning Liang, Peking University; Ivan J. Rudik, Cornell University; and Eric...
Books
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ArticleMartin Eichenbaum and Erik Hurst, editors The NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2021 presents research on central issues in contemporary macroeconomics. Robert Hall and Marianna Kudlyak examine unemployment dynamics during economic recoveries. They present new empirical findings and explore models in which the labor market gradually draws down the stock of unemployed workers in the aftermath of a downturn. Titan Alon, Sena Coskun, Matthias Doepke, David Koll, and Michèle...
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ArticleRobert Moffitt, editor This volume presents five new studies on current topics in taxation and government spending. Natasha Sarin, Lawrence Summers, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick study how investors respond to taxes on capital gains, whether their incentives to invest are affected by those taxes, and whether that responsiveness has changed over time. Ethan Rouen, Suresh Nallareddy, and Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato revisit the question of whether cuts to corporate taxes...
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ArticleJosh Lerner and Scott Stern, editors Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely recognized as key drivers of long-term economic growth. Understanding the forces that influence them is essential for policy design. Building on the 20-year legacy of the NBER Innovation Policy and the Economy series, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy showcases recent research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy. The volume reports on five research projects...
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