Research

New NBER Papers

Latest Books

The Digest

Legal Changes in the 1960s Narrowed the Gender Pay Gap
Article
Two landmark pieces of federal legislation in the early 1960s targeted pay discrimination against women. In How the 1963 Equal Pay Act and 1964 Civil Rights Act Shaped the Gender Gap in Pay (NBER Working Paper 31332), Martha J. Bailey, Thomas E. Helgerman, and Bryan A. Stuart present new estimates of how these bills affected gender-based pay disparities. The study analyzes data from the 1950–60 Census and the 1962–75 Annual Social and...

The Role of Mega Firms in Patenting and Follow-On Innovation
Article
“Mega firms,” defined as the 50 publicly traded firms in the US with the highest annual sales, hold a disproportionate share of novel patents and may play a key part in spreading innovative ideas to smaller firms, Serguey Braguinsky, Joonkyu Choi, Yuheng Ding, Karam Jo, and Seula Kim found in Mega Firms and Recent Trends in the US Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the US Patent Data (NBER Working Paper 31460). The researchers...

The Reporter

The Next Flight of the Bumblebee: The Path to Common Fiscal Policy in the Eurozone
Article
Presented by Mario Draghi, former President, European Central Bank, and former Prime Minister, Italy The NBER is a cornerstone of economic thinking worldwide. Since its foundation over a century ago, its members have pushed the boundary of academic research to an extent that was simply unimaginable at that time. You have also guided the work of policymakers and contributed to making the world a better place. I am personally very grateful for the research you have produced...

How Do Corporate Taxes Affect Economic Activity?
Article
Author(s): Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen M. Zidar
This article surveys our recent work on the economic effects of corporate taxes, first discussing research on the effects of state corporate tax cuts and then considering how federal tax policies that encourage investment impact workers. It concludes by outlining new avenues for research on related issues. State Corporate Taxes and Local Economic Activity Local and state policymakers compete to attract companies to their jurisdictions. Proponents of using business tax...

The Bulletin on Retirement & Disability

The 25th Annual Meeting of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium
Article
The Social Security Administration (SSA) convened its 2023 Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) Meeting virtually on August 3–4. The meeting featured research funded through the NBER RDRC as well as through other RDRC centers based at Boston College, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin. Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of the SSA, provided welcoming remarks. She began by remembering Dr. William Spriggs, chair of the Department...

Inter-state Variation in Disability Applications during the Pandemic
Article
  The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated health and economic burdens have unfolded quite differently across states in the US. These differences are due to a variety of factors, including population density, socioeconomic status, health, and state policies. Variation across states in the timing and magnitude of the pandemic as well as in state characteristics and policies may have affected the dynamics of federal disability applications during this period. In...

The Bulletin on Health

Drinking Water Contamination, Even at Low Levels, Affects Birth Outcomes
Article
The Safe Drinking Water Act regulates over 90 contaminants — such as lead and arsenic — in community water systems. These regulations establish maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for each contaminant; levels that exceed MCLs are considered violations. However, even among water systems that meet regulatory standards, the levels of contaminants can vary. In Drinking Water Contaminant Concentrations and Birth Outcomes (NBER Working Paper 31567), researchers Richard DiSalvo and...

Opening a PCI Facility Improves Heart Attack Outcomes, Especially for Black Patients
Article
In the aftermath of a heart attack, Black patients are less likely than White patients to receive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure that improves blood flow in the heart. They also have higher one-year mortality rates following heart attacks. In Do PCI Facility Openings Differentially Affect AMI Patients by Individual Race and Community Segregation? (NBER Working Paper 31626), Renee Y. Hsia and Yu-Chu Shen demonstrate that the opening of a new PCI-...

The Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

Striking a Balance between Entrepreneurs and Investors
Article
In Do Entrepreneurs Want Control? And Should They Get What They Want? A Historical and Theoretical Exploration (NBER Working Paper 31106), Naomi R. Lamoreaux and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal develop a model of startup financing in which founders and outside investors compete for control of the firm. They apply their framework to study how companies’ outcomes, in particular subsequent innovations, are influenced by which group has the upper hand. The researchers find that no...

C-Suite Differences: Public versus Privately Held Firms
Article
Private equity (PE) firms’ business model is to acquire privately held companies, to change their strategy and operations with the goal of improving profitability and growth, and ultimately to sell the companies for a profit. The senior management team is replaced at a majority of private equity acquisitions. More than 40 percent of PE firms report that this is a key way to improve their acquisitions’ success. In The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity (...