NBER Reporter articles from December 2002

NBER Reporter archives from December 2002

Economics of Education. (Program Report).(of the National Bureau of Economic Research)
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Economics of Education Program has just celebrated its first anniversary, having started officially in September 2001. However, the program was created to recognize the large and rapidly growing body of economic research on...

New drugs: health and economic impacts. (Research Summaries).
December 22, 2002... Many economists believe that new goods are at the heart of economic progress, and that innovative goods are better than older products because they provide more "product services" in relation to their cost of production. The pharmaceutical...

Liquidity traps, policy rules for inflation targeting, and Eurosystem monetary-policy strategy. (Research Summaries).
December 22, 2002... The field of monetary policy continuously provides new challenges for economic research. For instance, the experience of Japan since the early 1990s has generated new work on how to avoid and escape from a liquidity trap. The rapid spread of...

Technology and inequality. (Research Summaries).(wages)
December 22, 2002... Many OECD economies have experienced sharp increases in wage and income inequality over the past several decades. In the United States, for example, the college premium -- the wages of college graduates relative to the wages of high school...

Patent policy reform and its implications. (Research Summaries).
December 22, 2002... Economists have long viewed the patent system as a crucial lever with which policymakers can affect the speed and nature of innovation in the economy. It is not surprising, then, that the profound changes that have roiled the U.S. patent system...

NBER profile: Daron Acemoglu.(National Bureau of Economic Research)(Brief Article)(Biography)
December 22, 2002... Daron Acemoglu is a Research Associate in the NBER's Programs in Labor Studies and Economic Fluctuations and Growth and a Professor of Economics at MIT. He received a B.A. in economics at the University of York in 1989 and a Ph.D. in economics...

NBER profile: Josh Lerner.(National Bureau of Economic Research)(Brief Article)(Biography)
December 22, 2002... Josh Lerner is an NBER Research Associate in the Corporate Finance Program and the Productivity Program. In addition, he is an organizer of the NBER group on Innovation Policy and the Economy, and serves as co-editor of their publication,...

NBER profile: Frank R. Lichtenberg.(National Bureau of Economic Research)(Brief Article)(Biography)
December 22, 2002... Frank R. Lichtenberg is a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Productivity and Program on Health Care. He is also the Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Lichtenberg...

Japan conference. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER, CEPR, CIRJE, and EIJS jointly organized a conference on the Japanese economy in Tokyo on September 13-14. The co-chairmen of the meeting were: Magnus Blomstrom, NBER and Stockholm School of Economics; Jennifer Corbett, Australian...

Tax Policy and the Economy. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Seventeenth Annual Conference on Tax Policy and the Economy, organized by James M. Poterba of NBER and MIT, took place in Washington, DC on October 8. These papers were discussed: David Figlio, NBER and University of Florida,...

Inter-American Seminar on Economics.
December 22, 2002... The NBER and ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico jointly organized the 2002 Inter-American Seminar on Economics, which took place in Mexico on November 15-16. Sebastian Edwards, NBER and University of California, Los Angeles, put together this program:...

Organizational Economics. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER held a conference on "Organizational Economics" in Cambridge on November 22-23. NBER Research Associate Robert Gibbons, also of MIT, organized the two-day meeting. The following papers were discussed. Oliver S. Hart, NBER and...

Economic Analysis of Government Expenditure Programs. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... An NBER-Universities Research Conference on the topic "Economic Analysis of Government Expenditure Programs" took place in Cambridge on December 6 and 7. Mark Duggan and Steven D. Levitt, NBER and the University of Chicago, organized this...

McClellan to head FDA. (Bureau News).(Mark B. McClellan)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... Mark B. McClellan, a former NBER Research Associate and professor of economics at Stanford University; has been confirmed by the Senate as head of the Food and Drug Administration. Most recently, he had been a member of the President's Council...

King to lead Bank of England. (Bureau News).(Mervyn A. King)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2002... Mervyn A. King, who had been an NBER Research Associate since 1978 in the Programs in Public Economics, Asset Pricing, and Monetary Economics, will become Governor of the Bank of England next summer. King is currently Deputy Governor, a...

Economic Fluctuations and Growth. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Economic Fluctuations and Growth met in Chicago on October 18. Organizers Daron Acemoglu, NBER and MIT, and Thomas J. Sargent, NBER and Stanford University, chose these papers for discussion: Stephen L. Parente and...

International Finance and Macroeconomics. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on International Finance and Macroeconomics met in Cambridge on October 18. Organizers Charles M. Engel, NBER and University of Wisconsin, and Linda Tesar, NBER and University of Michigan, chose the following papers to be...

Labor Studies. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Labor Studies met in Cambridge on October 18. Program Director Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University and NBER Research Associate Lawrence F. Katz, also of Harvard, organized this program: Bruce D. Meyer, NBER and...

International Trade and Organizations. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Working Group on International Trade and Organizations met in Cambridge on October 26. The group's director, Gordon H. Hanson of NBER and the University of California, San Diego, organized this program: Niko Matouschek,...

Health Care. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Health Care met in Cambridge on November 1. Alan M. Garber, NBER and Stanford University, organized the meeting, at which these papers were discussed: Sherry A. Glied, NBER and Columbia University, and Adriana...

Monetary Economics. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Monetary Economics met in Cambridge on November 1. Organizers Simon Gilchrist, NBER and Boston University, and John V. Leahy, NBER and New York University, chose the following papers to be discussed: Daron Acemoglu...

Macroeconomics and Individual Decisionmaking. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Working Group on Macroeconomics and Individual Decisionmaking met in Cambridge on November 2. Organizers George A. Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley, and Robert J. Shiller, NBER and Yale University, chose these papers to...

Public Economics. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Public Economics met on November 7-8 in Cambridge. Organizer James M. Poterba, NBER and MIT, chose these papers for discussion: Austan D. Goolsbee and Jonathan Guryan, NBER and University of Chicago, "The Impact of...

Asset Pricing. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Asset Pricing met in Cambridge on November 8. John H. Cochrane, NBER and University of Chicago, and Jonathan Lewellen, NBER and MTT, organized this program: John Y. Campbell and Tuomo Vuolteenaho, NBER and Harvard...

Behavioral Finance. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Working Group on Behavioral Finance met in Cambridge on November 9. Robert J. Shiller, NBER and Yale University, and Richard H. Thaler, NBER and University of Chicago, organized the meeting. The program was: Markus K....

Program on Education. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Education met in Cambridge on November 14. Program Director Caroline M. Hoxby of Harvard University organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: Benjamin Scafidi and David Sjoquist, Georgia State University, and...

Corporate Finance. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Corporate Finance met in Cambridge on November 15. Program Director Raghuram Rajan, University of Chicago, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: Oliver S. Hart, NBER and Harvard University, and Bengt R....

Higher Education. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Working Group on Higher Education met in Cambridge on November 15. Director Charles T. Clotfelter of Duke University organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: John M. de Figueiredo, NBER and MIT, and Brian S. Silverman,...

International Trade and Investment. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on International Trade and Investment met at the Bureau's California office on December 6-7. Program Director Robert C. Feenstra, University of California, Davis, organized this meeting. The following papers were discussed:...

Market Microstructure. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Working Group on Market Microstructure met in Cambridge on December 6. Bruce Lehmann, NBER and University of California, San Diego; Andrew Lo, NBER and MIT; Matthew Spiegel, Yale University; and Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, University of...

Productivity. (Conferences).
December 22, 2002... The NBER's Program on Productivity met in Cambridge on December 6. Bronwyn H. Hall, NBER and University of California, Berkeley, organized this program: Bee Yan Aw-Roberts, Pennsylvania State University; Mark J. Roberts, NBER and...

Managing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets. (Bureau Books).(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... Managing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets, edited by Michael P. Dooley and Jeffrey A. Frankel, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $68.00. The twelve papers, comments, and discussions in this volume analyze currency crises...

Economic and Financial Crises in Emerging Market Economies. (Bureau Books).(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... Economic and Financial Crises in Emerging Market Economies, edited by Martin S. Feldstein, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $70.00. This NBER Conference Volume draws together the views of senior officials, business leaders,...

Scanner Data and Price Indexes. (Bureau Books).(Book Review)
December 22, 2002... Scanner Data and Price Indexes, NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 64, edited by Robert C. Feenstra and Matthew D. Shapiro, is available from the University of Chicago Press for $75.00. Every time you buy a can of soup, or a new...

NBER Working Papers On-Line. (Current Working Papers).(National Bureau of Economic Research)
December 22, 2002... A complete list of all NBER Working Papers with searchable abstracts, and the full texts of Working Papers (issued since November l994) are available at http://www.nber.org/wwp.html to anyone located at a university or other organization that...