Research
The NBER conducts and disseminates independent, cutting-edge, non-partisan research that advances economic knowledge and informs policy makers and the business community.
New NBER Papers
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Working Paper
We estimate the effect of granting access to driver licenses to undocumented immigrants on their offspring’s access to...
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Working Paper
Standard methods for estimating production functions in the Olley and Pakes (1996) tradition require assumptions on...
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Working Paper
Digital advertising, which uses consumer data to target ads to users, now accounts for most of global ad expenditures...
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Working Paper
Using rich data on hourly physical productivity and thousands of ownership changes from US power plants, we study the...
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Working Paper
The U.S. healthcare system requires substantial out-of-pocket payments by most consumers, which can prevent some from...
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The Digest
The Digest is a free monthly publication featuring non-technical summaries of research on topics of broad public interest.
Article
In less than a decade, the United States has gone from being a net importer of liquified natural gas (LNG) to the world’s largest exporter. This change resulted from two developments: the fracking revolution and the construction of a number of LNG export terminals. A decade ago, the US natural gas market was separate from the world market. Because export capacity was limited, rising domestic production due to fracking sharply reduced prices. Today, domestic and global...
Article
Initiatives to mitigate societal challenges have historically been financed primarily with public and philanthropic resources. In Blended Finance (NBER Working Paper 32287), Caroline Flammer, Thomas Giroux, and Geoffrey Heal examine World Bank initiatives to attract private investors to support projects that create societal value but are perceived to have low prospective profitability or high potential risk of failure. They focus on the International Finance...
The Reporter
The Reporter is a free quarterly publication featuring program updates, affiliates writing about their research, and news about the NBER.
Article
Author(s):
On July 1, the Program on Children was renamed the Program on Children and Families. This change, which better captures the range of research carried out by its 171 affiliates, in part marks a return to the program’s roots. In 1993, the late Alan Krueger launched an NBER project on the Economics of Families and Children. It subsequently became a program and has been known as the Program on Children since 1997.1 Broadening the program name recognizes the complex web of...
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Air pollution has serious and longstanding negative effects on human health. The primary focus of research on air pollution in the United States since the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 has been the health implications of particulate matter. In comparison, there has been relatively little work on air pollution and health in historical periods, even though air pollution was much higher in earlier times than it is today. Research on historical air pollution...
The Bulletin on Retirement & Disability
The Bulletin on Retirement and Disability summarizes research in the NBER's Retirement and Disabiy Research Center. A quarterly, it is distributed digitally and is free.
Article
In a new study of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in SSDI Entry and Health (NBER RDRC Center Paper NB23-04), Colleen Carey, Nolan H. Miller, and David Molitor document significant racial and ethnic differences in the use of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Non-Hispanic Blacks and Native Americans enter the SSDI program at the highest rates relative to their share of the population while non-Hispanic Asians enter at the lowest rates. Average...
Article
Native Americans have long experienced poor health outcomes and high mortality rates. Poverty, a critical social determinant of health, is pervasive in tribal communities, contributing to persistent inequities. In an effort to address these challenges, some Native American tribes have turned to casino operations as a means of generating revenue and promoting economic development. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 paved the way for this approach by allowing...
The Bulletin on Health
The Bulletin on Health summarizes recent NBER Working Papers pertaining to health topics. It is distributed digitally three times a year and is free.
Article
As the population ages, the need for surrogate decision-makers for patients near the end of their lives is rising. When hospitalized older adults are unable to actively participate in decisions about their care, surrogates must make choices, often with limited information. Advance care planning with written directives may improve surrogate decision-making, but directives have limitations: preferences may change after completion, directions may not apply to the ultimate...
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Between 1995 and 2010, the share of births in Sweden that involved assisted reproductive technologies (ART) rose from 2 to 10 percent. These treatments range from low-cost drugs to costly and invasive interventions, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).In The Economics of Infertility: Evidence from Reproductive Medicine (NBER Working Paper 32445), Sarah Bögl, Jasmin Moshfegh, Petra Persson, and Maria Polyakova provide new evidence on the...
The Bulletin on Entrepreneurship
Introducing recent NBER entrepreneurship research and the scholars who conduct it
Article
Immigrants play a significant role in the entrepreneurial landscape. In the United States, immigrants are 80 percent more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans. More than half of America's billion-dollar startup companies trace their roots to immigrant founders. There is limited research, however, on the factors that influence immigrants' decisions about where to locate their startup businesses. In The Effect of Immigration Policy on Founding...
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A significant amount of corporate innovation, including in dynamic industries such as software and biotech, is the direct result of university-based research. Consequently, policymakers around the globe have sought to promote the diffusion and successful commercialization of academic research in the private sector. In The Wandering Scholars: Understanding the Heterogeneity of University Commercialization (NBER Working Paper 32069), Josh Lerner, Henry...
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