AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 4, December 2022
The Reporter
A free quarterly publication featuring program updates, several summaries of affiliates' research, and news about the NBER
Author(s):
The NBER Health Economics Program has historically studied the determinants and consequences of differences in health outcomes, with a focus on education, health insurance coverage, obesity, and risky behaviors such as smoking and drinking. Since the last program report, in 2015, the program has evolved in several important ways. Most notably, Michael Grossman, distinguished professor emeritus at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, stepped down from directing...
![2022number4 howell Figure 1 [Click and drag to move] ](/sites/default/files/styles/two_up_large/public/2023-01/innovation%20-%20figure%201%20final-01_0.jpg?itok=n123y82e)
Article
Author(s):
The importance of innovation to job creation and economic growth — especially in young, high-growth firms — is widely accepted among economists as well as members of the business and policy communities. There is also a recognition that, at least at some times or in certain settings, the private sector underinvests in innovation, creating an opportunity for the public sector to step into the breach.
The longstanding problem is how. What tools are most effective?
There...
Article
Author(s):
Real estate values capture the agglomeration benefits tied to the area where properties are located. Improvements to these locations, for example infrastructure investments, increase real estate values. Conversely, these values are vulnerable to reductions in local economic activity. My recent research uses changes in real estate values to measure the location-specific impact of the pandemic and to evaluate location-improving policies.
One branch of this work focuses on...
Article
Author(s):
The idea that parenthood has differential effects on women and men is not new. However, recent work has developed new and transparent ways of estimating the magnitude of child penalties — the negative effects of having children on the labor market outcomes of women relative to men. This research quantifies how much of gender inequality child penalties explain and studies their underlying drivers.
While this research agenda is ongoing, a clear picture is beginning to...
Article
Author(s):
Identifying competitors and analyzing competitive interactions is difficult in many markets. For well-defined markets with well-defined products, many examinations of competitors and markets can be done with traditional methods. However, firms increasingly operate in multiple markets. A given firm’s products may also differ sharply, both in their attributes and consumers, within markets. In addition, some firms may offer customized products or offer services along with...
News
Article
Former NBER research associate Ben Bernanke, current research associate Douglas Diamond, and Philip Dybvig have been awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in recognition of their "research on banks and financial crises." In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained that "Modern banking research clarifies why we have banks, how to make them less vulnerable in crises, and how bank collapses exacerbate financial crises. [...
Article
Austan D. Goolsbee, a research associate in the NBER Public Economics Program and the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, has been named the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He will take up this new role in January, and will be a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee.
Goolsbee is an expert on macroeconomics and public finance who has taught at Chicago since 1995. He chaired the...
Article
Dean Karlan, an affiliate of the NBER’s Development Economics Program, is taking leave from the NBER to serve as Chief Economist of the United States Agency for International Development.
Karlan, the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University, has carried out research on a wide range of issues that affect developing nations.
Article
Arik Levinson, an affiliate of the NBER’s Environment and Energy Economics and Public Economics Programs, is taking leave from the NBER to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics in the US Department of the Treasury, a position previously held by NBER affiliate Catherine Wolfram. Levinson is a professor of economics at Georgetown University whose research has examined both tax policy and environmental economics issues.
Article
Two NBER affiliates, Michael Sinkinson of the Industrial Organization Program and Randall Akee of the Labor Studies Program and the Program on Children, have joined the Council of Economic Advisers as senior economists. Jacob Goldin, an affiliate of the Public Economics Program, has joined the US Department of the Treasury.
Sinkinson is an assistant professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. Akee is an associate professor at the University of California,...
Article
Raffaella Sadun, the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, will become the director of the NBER’s Working Group on Organizational Economics at the start of 2023. She succeeds Robert Gibbons, who launched the working group in 2002.
Sadun, an NBER affiliate since 2010, is a research associate in the Labor Studies and Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Programs. Her work has focused on the managerial and...
Article
The NBER and the Indian School of Business (ISB) inaugurated an annual meeting series on December 17–18, 2022, with a conference on Entrepreneurship, Public Policy, and Economic Outcomes. The program, organized by Shilpa Aggarwal of ISB and Amit Seru of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the NBER, featured 10 papers addressing various aspects of small business creation and the role of new enterprises in India and North America.
NBER Board Chair John...
Conferences and Meetings
Conferences
-
ArticleTrade and Trade Policy in the 21st Century A conference on Trade and Trade Policy in the 21st Century was held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on September 29, 2022. Program Director Stephen J. Redding of Princeton University organized the meeting, which was supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation. These researchers’ papers were presented and discussed: Robert W. Staiger, Dartmouth College and NBER, “Future of the World Trading System” Pinelopi K...
Meetings
-
ArticleInternational Finance and Macroeconomics Program Meeting An International Finance and Macroeconomics Program meeting was held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, MA and over Zoom.us on October 14, 2022. Research Associate Wenxin Du of the University of Chicago and Research Associate Kei-Mu Yi of the University of Houston organized the meeting. These researchers’ papers were presented and discussed: Julian di Giovanni, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Şebnem...
Keep Track of New NBER Working Papers with New This Week