NBER Reporter articles from December 2008

NBER Reporter archives from December 2008

The program on children.(Program Report)
December 22, 2008... The impact of public policy on the well-being of children continues to be a major area of interest for policymakers. Likewise, the economics of children's issues continue to be a major area of research for members of the Children's Program at...

Bossonomics? The economics of management and productivity.(Research Summaries)
December 22, 2008... Management and Productivity Economists have long speculated on why such astounding differences in productivity exist between firms and plants within countries, even within the same narrow sector. (1) While the popular press and business...

Banking Crises.(Research Summaries)
December 22, 2008... The current global financial crisis grew out of banking losses in the United States related to subprime lending. How well do economists understand the origins of such crises and how they spread? Was this crisis something new or a replay of...

Using field experiments in the economics of charity.(Research Summaries)
December 22, 2008... The experimental approach in scientific inquiry is commonly traced to Galileo Galilei, who pioneered the use of quantitative experiments to test his theories of falling bodies. (1) Extrapolating his experimental results to the heavenly bodies,...

Prices, productivity, and innovation.(Research Summaries)
December 22, 2008... Economists have long known the importance of focusing on "real" as opposed to "nominal" variables in order to understand a wide range of economic outcomes including growth, productivity, and welfare. While the distinction between real and...

NBER profile: Nick Bloom.
December 22, 2008... Nick Bloom is a Research Associate in the NBER Programs on Economic Fluctuations and Growth, Monetary Economics, and Productivity. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Stanford University and an Associate of the...

NBER profile: Christian Broda.
December 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Christian Broda is an NBER Faculty Research Fellow and a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1997 from Universidad de San...

NBER profile: Charles W. Calomiris.
December 22, 2008... Charles W. Calomiris is a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on the Development of the American Economy and the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at the Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. He is also a...

NBER profile: John A. List.
December 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John A. List is a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Public Economics and a Professor in Economics and the College and Co-Director of Graduate Admissions at the University of Chicago. He received a B.A. in...

NBER profile: John Van Reenen.
December 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John Van Reenen has been a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on Labor Studies since 2006. He has also been Director of the Centre for Economic Performance and a professor in the Department of Economics at the...

NBER profile: David E. Weinstein.
December 22, 2008... David E. Weinstein is an NBER Research Associate, Director of the NBER's Japan Project, and the Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy at Columbia University. He is also the Associate Director of Research at the Center for Japanese...

NBER's 23rd Tax Policy and the Economy Conference held in Washington.(Conferences)(Conference news)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's 23rd Conference on Tax Policy and the Economy took place at the National Press Club in Washington on September 25. NBER Research Associate Jeffrey R. Brown of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NBER President James M....

American Universities in a Global Market.(Conferences)
December 22, 2008... An NBER conference on "American Universities in a Global Market" organized by NBER Research Associate Charles T. Clotfelter of Duke University, was held on October 2-4. Since World War II, American universities have occupied an unchallenged...

Europe and the Euro.(Conferences)
December 22, 2008... An NBER conference on "Europe and the Euro" took place on October 17 and 18 at Bocconi University in Milan. The conference highlighted the success of the first ten years of the Euro in terms of product market reforms, increased trade between...

Understanding long-run economic growth: a conference honoring the contributions of Kenneth Sokoloff.(Conferences)(Conference news)
December 22, 2008... The NBER, the All-UC Economic History Group, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) jointly sponsored "Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth: A Conference Honoring the Contributions of Kenneth Sokoloff" on November 7 and 8 in Los...

Microeconomics, efficiency, and welfare: lessons for Latin America.(Conferences)
December 22, 2008... The NBER and Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile co-sponsored this year's Inter-American Seminar on Economics on "Microeconomics, Efficiency, and Welfare: Lessons for Latin America." The conference was held in Santiago on November 10...

Economic aspects of obesity.(Conferences)
December 22, 2008... Genetic factors cannot account for the rapid increase in obesity since 1980--these factors change slowly over long periods of time. Therefore, economists can play a role in examining the determinants and consequences of this trend, although the...

NBER researcher wins Nobel Prize in Economics.(NBER News)
December 22, 2008... NBER Research Associate Paul Krugman of Princeton University is the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. Krugman has been affiliated with the NBER since 1979 and is a member of the Programs on International Trade and Investment and...

Two new directors-at-large.(NBER News)
December 22, 2008... The NBER'S Board of Directors elected two new at-large members at its September 8 meeting: Mohamed El-Erian and John S. Reed. El-Erian is CEO of PIMCO, the world's largest bond investor; he previously worked as the investment manager of Harvard...

China working group meets in Cambridge.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Working Group on China, directed by NBER Research Associate Shang-Jin Wei of Columbia University, met on October 3 and 4 in Cambridge. These papers were presented and discussed: Shing-Yi Wang, New York University, "Credit...

Entrepreneurship working group.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Working Group on Entrepreneurship met in Cambridge on October 3. Group Director Josh Lerner, of NBER and Harvard University, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: Luis Cabral, New York University, and Zhu Wang,...

Economic Fluctuations and Growth.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Economic Fluctuations and Growth met on October 17 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Organizers Janice C. Eberly, NBER and Northwestern University, and Giuseppe Moscarini, NBER and Yale University, chose the following...

Market Microstructure.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Working Group on Market Microstructure met on October 24 in Cambridge. Group Director Bruce Lehmann of University of California, San Diego, Eugene Kandel, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, University of...

Labor Studies.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Labor Studies met in Cambridge on October 31. Program Director Richard B. Freeman and NBER Research Associate Lawrence F. Katz, both of Harvard University, organized the meeting and chose the following papers to discuss: ...

Political Economy.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Political Economy met in Cambridge on October 31. NBER Research Associate Romain Wacziarg of University of California, Los Angeles organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: Pedro Dal Bo, Brown University and...

Public Economics.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Public Economics met at Stanford University on November 6-7. Organizers Raj Chetty and Emmanuel Saez, both of the University of California, Berkeley and NBER, chose the following papers to discuss: Amy Finkelstein, MIT...

International Finance and Macroeconomics.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Program on International Finance and Macroeconomics met in Cambridge on November 7. Organizers Charles Engel, NBER and University of Wisconsin, and Linda Tesar, NBER and University of Michigan, chose the following papers to discuss:...

Health Care.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Health Care met in Cambridge on November 12. Organizer Richard Frank, of Harvard Medical School and NBER, chose the following papers to discuss: Ming Tai-Seale, Texas A&M University, and Tom McGuire, Harvard University,...

Higher Education.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Working Group on Higher Education met in Cambridge on November 13. The group's Director, Charles T. Clotfelter of NBER and Duke University, chose these papers to discuss: Judith Scott-Clayton, Harvard University, "On Money and...

Education Program meets.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Program on Education met in Cambridge on November 14. Program Director Caroline M. Hoxby of NBER and Stanford University organized the meeting. These papers were discussed: Richard J. Murnane, Harvard University and NBER, and...

Monetary Economics.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Program on Monetary Economics met in Cambridge on November 14. Organizers Ricardo Reis and Michael Woodford of NBER and Columbia University chose these papers to discuss: Mark Bils, University of Rochester and NBER; Peter J....

Asset Pricing.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... NBER's Program on Asset Pricing met on November 21 in Cambridge. Organizers Monika Piazzesi, Stanford University and NBER, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, New York University and NBER, chose the following papers to discuss: Eric Swanson and...

Behavioral Finance.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Behavioral Finance group met on November 22 in Cambridge. Brad Barber, University of California, Davis, and Terrance Odean, Hass School of Business at Berkeley, organized the meeting, These papers were discussed: Camelia M....

Corporate Finance.(Program and Working Group Meetings)
December 22, 2008... The NBER's Corporate Finance Program, met on November 21 in Cambridge. Organizers Holger Mueller, NBER and New York University, and Joshua Rauh, NBER and University of Chicago, chose these papers to discuss: Martijn Cremers, Yale...

Health at Older Ages: The Causes and Consequences of Declining Disability among the Elderly.(Bureau Books)
December 22, 2008... Health at Older Ages: The Causes and Consequences of Declining Disability among the Elderly, edited by David M. Cutler and David A. Wise, is available from the University of Chicago Press this January. Americans are living longer--and...

Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data.(Bureau Books)
December 22, 2008... Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data, one of NBER's Studies in Income and Wealth edited by Timothy Dunne, J. Bradford Jensen, and Mark J. Roberts, is available from the University of Chicago Press this January. The Census Bureau...

The Structure of Wages: An International Comparison.(Bureau Books)
December 22, 2008... The Structure of Wages: An International Comparison, part of the NBER's Comparative Labor Markets Series edited by Edward P. Lazear and Kathryn L. Shaw, is available from the University of Chicago Press this January. The distribution of...