National Bureau of Economic Research
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Grandma Retires: How a New Grandchild Changes a Woman’s Career Choices
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A new study analyzes the effects of a new grandchild on a grandmother’s labor force participation and attempts to connect caring for grandchildren with retirement choices.
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Aligning Incentives: The Effectiveness of Performance-Based Pay for Tax Officials
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After being randomly assigned to a performance-based incentive structure, tax officials in Pakistan had significantly higher levels of revenue collection. This result suggests a potential solution to the widespread corruption and low collection rates of tax authorities in developing countries.
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Late Retirement Bonus: How the Government can Incentivize Working Longer
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A new study finds that individuals increase the age in which they intend to claim Social Security benefits when they are offered lump sums instead of and equal to their future benefit increases.
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The “Brand Premium”: Measuring the Welfare Consequences of Advertising on Consumers
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New research finds that misinformation plays a significant role in the brand choices of consumers for most healthcare items and pantry staples, concluding that marketing and advertising campaigns have a negative impact on consumer welfare.
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Scaling Back Quantitative Easing: Domestic Recovery at a Foreign Cost
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Federal Reserve announcements about “tapering,” or reducing the level of quantitative easing, had significant negative impacts on financial asset prices in otherwise robust emerging market economies.
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No Gains From Good Governance?: Why Foreign Companies Opt Out of Strict Regulatory Practices
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Foreign companies that cross-list on US stock exchanges can make substantial financial gains from adopting US corporate governance practices yet firms overwhelmingly choose to opt out, suggesting substantial private opportunity costs from stricter regulations.
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Reevaluating Openness to Trade: Estimating the True Potential Gains from the Service Industry
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New research finds that potential welfare gains from trade liberalization are likely highly underestimated because international trade statistics fail to capture the true economic impact of tradable services.
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Widening the Gap: China’s Land Reform and Gender Disparities
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The main culprit for China’s gender gap expansion in the early 1980s might have been the post-Mao land reform rather than the One Child Policy.
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Discounts at the Pump: How Much is Cheap Gas Really Costing Us?
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Gasoline and diesel subsidies have been criticized for encouraging excess consumption, but the total global economic cost is truly staggering, representing an annual welfare loss worth four percent of the total market for fuel.
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Enduring the Heat: Could residential air conditioning mitigate the danger of global climate change?
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From the US experience, the adoption of residential air conditioning appears to be a promising way to reduce heat-related mortality rates in developing countries.
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The Power of the (Medicare) Dollar: Changes in Medicare Payments Affect Private Insurance Payouts
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A study of market factors that influence Medicare’s ability to set prices provides interesting and offsetting long term implications.