Research

New NBER Papers

Latest Books

The Digest

Job Growth in Counties Targeted by the CHIPS and Science Act
Article
 The CHIPS and Science Act, passed in August 2022, committed the federal government to spending nearly $53 billion to revitalize domestic semiconductor production. While job creation was a central argument of the legislation's proponents, there has been limited assessment since its passage of whether the act delivered on employment promises. In Employment Impacts of the CHIPS Act (NBER Working Paper 34625), Bilge Erten, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Eric Verhoogen...

Pass-Through of Tariffs: Evidence from European Wine Imports
Article
 The incidence of tariffs on producers, in the form of lower pre-tariff prices, and consumers, in the form of higher tariff-inclusive prices, is a long-standing issue in international economics. While economic theory suggests various possibilities, empirical evidence on the distribution of tariff burdens across the supply chain, from producers through distributors to retailers, is limited.   In Who Pays for Tariffs Along the Supply Chain? Evidence from...

The Reporter

Program Report: Industrial Organization
Article
Author(s): Liran Einav
Researchers in the Industrial Organization (IO) program study consumer and firm behavior, competition, innovation, and government regulation. This report begins with a brief summary of general developments in the last four decades in the range and focus of program members’ research, then discusses specific examples of recent work.When the program was launched in the early 1990s, two developments had profoundly shaped IO research. One was the development of game-theoretic...

The Risks and Rewards of Homeownership
Article
Author(s): Patrick Bayer, Fernando V. Ferreira & Stephen Ross
The US government has long promoted homeownership through subsidies and tax incentives, viewing it as both socially beneficial and a primary pathway to individual wealth accumulation. For the middle class—those in roughly the middle three-fifths of the wealth distribution—housing wealth remains the most important source of financial security and net worth. Homeownership is also widely believed to provide access to better neighborhoods and higher-quality schools. Yet despite...

The Bulletin on Health

Immunotherapy Increases the Cost of Cancer Care but Reduces Mortality
Article
 Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are immunotherapy drugs that mobilize the patient’s immune system to detect and attack cancer cells. They are considered a breakthrough development in cancer care, but are very expensive, with a full course of treatment costing more than $150,000 per patient. In The Impact of Immunotherapy on Reductions in Cancer Mortality: Evidence from Medicare (NBER Working Paper 34317), Danea Horn, Abby E. Alpert, Mark Duggan, and Mireille...

Nursing Home Roommate Assignments, Cognitive Health, and Mortality
Article
 In 2025, nearly 1.2 million Americans lived in nursing homes. Medicaid and Medicare expenditures of $91 billion represented two-thirds of total revenues for nursing care facilities. With the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD) projected to rise as the US population ages, the need for nursing home care is expected to increase. Nearly 80 percent of nursing home patients are assigned shared rooms, which raises the question...

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, ...