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The Digest

Shifting Wealth of US Age Groups
Article
In The Extraordinary Rise in the Wealth of Older American Households (NBER Working Paper 34131), Edward N. Wolff documents changes in age-wealth profiles in the US between 1983 and 2022. Using data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), he computes the relative wealth changes for different age groups, focusing primarily on the youngest (under 35) and oldest (75 and over) households.In 1983, the average wealth of American households headed by someone...

Hospital Acquisitions of Physician Practices Generate Price Increases Without Evidence of Quality Improvements
Article
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in hospital acquisitions of physician practices that has transformed the structure of healthcare delivery across the United States. While antitrust enforcement has typically focused on horizontal mergers between direct competitors, there has been less regulatory scrutiny of these vertical or complementary acquisitions despite their potential impact on competition and pricing.In Are Hospital Acquisitions of Physician...

The Reporter

Program Report: Development of the American Economy
Article
Author(s): Leah Platt Boustan & William J. Collins
The Development of the American Economy (DAE) program was one of the first research programs launched by Martin Feldstein in 1978 when he formalized the modern structure of the NBER.The mission of the program is to research historical aspects of the American economy. Its members are economic historians whose specific interests span many subfields within economics, including macroeconomics, labor economics, finance, political economy, trade, and industrial organization....

Collusion in Public Procurement
Article
Author(s): Sylvain Chassang & Kei Kawai
In both developed and developing countries, annual spending on public procurement averages about 12 percent of national GDP. The efficiency of public procurement can have a long-run impact on the growth and productivity of countries. A major challenge in achieving efficiency, however, is the possibility of collusion among suppliers. Collusive agreements increase prices, leading to wasted tax dollars or, in the case of developing countries, wasted foreign aid. These...

The Bulletin on Health

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic
Article
 Death rates due to drug poisonings began to surge in the US in the mid-1990s, marking the emergence of an epidemic that has persisted for three decades. The health consequences have been stark, with annual deaths exceeding 100,000 since 2021.In Prescription for Disaster: The SSDI Rate, Pain, and Prescribing Practices (NBER Working Paper 34265), William N. Evans and Ethan M. J. Lieber examine characteristics of counties in 1990—prior to the surge—that predict the county...

Spousal Following and Medicare Part D Plan Choice
Article
 When Medicare beneficiaries enroll in Part D, they typically choose from a menu of approximately three dozen private insurance plans that feature different combinations of premiums, copayments, and drug coverage. The optimal plan choice varies across beneficiaries, depending on their prescription drug purchases. Yet, despite the wide array of options, 73 percent of married enrollees choose the same plan as their spouse. Even among couples with observable differences in...

The Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

Underwriting Based on Cash Flow Helps Younger Entrepreneurs Access Credit
Article
Younger entrepreneurs are disadvantaged in small business loan markets because lenders rely heavily on personal credit scores, which favor long histories of repaying debt. In Modernizing Access to Credit for Younger Entrepreneurs: From FICO to Cash Flow (NBER Working Paper 33367), researchers Christopher M. Hair, Sabrina T. Howell, Mark J. Johnson, and Siena Matsumoto document this fact and show that younger entrepreneurs benefit from underwriting that...

The Gig Economy and Entrepreneurship
Article
The rise of platform-based work has transformed labor markets. Nearly 10 million Americans have participated in the gig economy over the past decade. This transformation may have important effects on entrepreneurship by allowing individuals to gain industry experience, encouraging experimentation, and lowering downside risks faced by founders.In Entrepreneurship and the Gig Economy: Evidence from US Tax Returns (NBER Working Paper 33347), researchers Matthew R. Denes, ...