Research

New NBER Papers

Latest Books

The Digest

Privacy Regulation and Transatlantic Venture Investment
Article
In the past decade, venture capital activity in the European Union (EU) has lagged that in the United States, with annual venture capital investments averaging 0.2 percent of GDP compared to 0.7 percent in the US. Since 2013, US-based venture capital funds have out-raised their EU partners by about $800 billion. European entrepreneurship relies on cross-border investment inflows from US investors to close the gap.In How Does Privacy Regulation Affect Transatlantic Venture...

Post-Pandemic Disinflation in the Historical Context
Article
Central banks' decisions about when and how to adjust monetary policy require weighing multiple objectives. In Trade-offs over Rate Cycles: Activity, Inflation, and the Price Level (NBER Working Paper 33825), Kristin Forbes, Jongrim Ha, and M. Ayhan Kose estimate the policy trade-offs across 24 advanced economies from 1970 through 2024 and consider the post COVID-19 monetary tightening against this backdrop. The researchers compile a comprehensive...

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

Health Status and Work Capacity Remain High at Older Ages, Especially for Educated Adults
Article
Proposed increases in the eligibility age for retirement benefits raise questions about the health status of older adults and their ability to continue working beyond current retirement ages. In Trends in Work Capacity in the US Population: Are Recent Cohorts in Worse Health? (NBER Working Paper 33733), David M. Cutler, Ellen Meara, and Susan Stewart describe the age profile of health status for older adults in the US, how it has changed across cohorts, and how it differs...

Medicaid’s Lifesaving Effects on Low-Income Adults
Article
Lower-income adults in the US are more likely to lack health insurance and to suffer worse health, a correlation that raises the long-standing question of whether health insurance affects health. In Saved by Medicaid: New Evidence on Health Insurance and Mortality from the Universe of Low-Income Adults (NBER Working Paper 33719), Angela Wyse and Bruce D. Meyer present new evidence on this question by evaluating the consequences of recent Medicaid expansions. The largest...

The Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship as an Alternative to Flexibility at Work
Article
The surge in remote work in recent years has transformed labor markets, with potentially important implications for the interaction between workplace flexibility and entrepreneurship. In Hustling from Home? Work from Home Flexibility and Entrepreneurial Entry (NBER Working Paper 33237), John M. Barrios, Yael Hochberg, and Hanyi (Livia) Yi explore whether the increased flexibility provided by work-from-home (WFH) arrangements has affected entrepreneurial decisions....

The Earnings of Self-Employed Workers
Article
Self-employed workers have significantly higher average incomes and steeper, more persistent income growth profiles than their paid-employed counterparts, according to On the Nature of Entrepreneurship (NBER Working Paper 32948), a study by Anmol Bhandari, Tobey Kass, Thomas J. May, Ellen McGrattan, and Evan Schulz. The researchers analyze a new longitudinal dataset constructed from Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration records,...