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NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH HOME PAGE loading... Select one Research Researchers InstitutionalBulletin on Retirement and Disability What Drives Prescription Opioid Abuse? While the magnitude of the US opioid crisis is fairly well understood, its causes are less well established. This issue is the topic of study of a paper summarized in the current issue of the free Bulletin on Retirement and Disability . The research finds that opioid abuse jumps shortly after a move and remains at the new higher level for up to five years after the move, suggesting that place-specific factors may explain about one-fourth of opioid abuse. Also featured in this issue: a summary of research on how perception of pain differs by education level, an exploration of trends in work and disability application among people with mental illness, and a joint Q&A with NBER research associates Richard Frank and Ellen Meara, both of Harvard University. Subscribe Read online Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, volume 1 Matthew J. Kotchen , James H. Stock , and Catherine D. Wolfram , editors New papers on environmental and energy economics and policy evaluate carbon taxes versus a cap-and-trade mechanism for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, identify the conditions under which exemption of electric vehicles from the gasoline tax is likely to be efficient, analyze the rapidly growing market for green bonds, develop a general framework for evaluating fuel economy standards, present a measure of US output over the last 60 years that accounts for air pollution damages, and illustrate methods of accounting for employment effects of environmental regulations. For more information or to order Wesley Clair Mitchell The NBER at 100: A Century-Long Search for Facts to Underpin Economic Policy The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) was founded one hundred years ago — on January 23, 1920 — as a New York State nonprofit corporation. The founders, who were leaders in business and academia, declared that the organization would "encourage ... investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge... in the fields of economic, social, and industrial science." Its research program, formulated by founding Director of Research Wesley Clair Mitchell, focused on determining and reporting facts of relevance to economic policy, while adhering to the founders’ prescription to abstain from making policy recommendations. In its first half century, the NBER supported a small group of researchers who carried out major projects on topics such as national income accounting, business cycle fluctuations, the measurement of monetary aggregates, and the role of human capital in labor markets, and who published their findings in NBER volumes. More recently, it has concentrated on convening groups of its more than 1,500 college- and university-based affiliates to conduct research, on hosting research colloquia, and on enabling grant-funded research by its affiliates. Former Director of Research Solomon Fabricant described the NBER’s founding and early years in a short history . Over the course of 2020, the NBER will host a series of events to consider current and future directions in economic research. Photo credit: University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University LibrariesProductivity in Higher Education How do the benefits of higher education compare with its costs, and how does this vary across individuals and institutions? Productivity in Higher Education uses rich and novel administrative data, modern econometric methods, and deep institutional understanding to explore these issues. Researchers examine the returns to undergraduate education, differences in costs by major, the productivity of for-profit schools, the productivity of various types of faculty, the effects of online education on the market, and the ways in which the productivity of institutions responds to market forces. Edited by Caroline M. Hoxby and Kevin Stange. Additional information Agricultural Productivity and Producer Behavior While agricultural yields have increased steadily in the last half century, inflation-adjusted agricultural commodity prices have been trending downward as increases in supply outpace the growth of demand. Yet recent severe weather events, biofuel mandates, and a switch toward a more meat-heavy diet in emerging economies have boosted prices. Whether this is a temporary jump or the beginning of a longer-term trend is an open question. Agricultural Productivity and Producer Behavior explores issues including potential environmental consequences of yield growth, genetically modified crops, changing climatic factors, production responses to government regulations, and the role of crop diversification, disease management, and water-saving methods. Edited by Wolfram Schlenker. Additional information - New NBER Research 25 February 2020 IRS Nudges and Health Insurance Take-up In early 2017, the IRS sent informational letters to 3.9 million taxpayers who paid a tax penalty for lacking health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Subsequently, coverage increased and mortality among middle-aged adults in this group declined, Jacob Goldin , Ithai Z. Lurie , and Janet McCubbin report. ( ...more... ) 24 February 2020 The Federal Minimum Wage and Small Business In states where the federal minimum wage is binding, increase in that wage are associated with a decline in bank credit, a rise in loan defaults, a drop in the number of employees, and lower net entry rates for small businesses, according to Sudheer Chava , Alexander Oettl , and Manpreet Singh . ( ...more... ) 21 February 2020 Gender Disparities in Disability Insurance Approval Rates Women with severe, work-limiting, permanent impairments are 20 percentage points more likely than equivalent men to be rejected for disability insurance benefits, according to new findings by Hamish Low and Luigi Pistaferri finds. ( ...more... ) New NBER Research New NBER ResearchMore Research How the Notion of Human Capital, Once Scorned by Economists, Was Nurtured and Expanded at the NBER Marking the 100th anniversary of the NBER’s founding, affiliated researchers chronicled major chapters in the organization’s evolution at this year’s annual meeting of the American Economic Association. Research Associate Claudia Goldin of Harvard University described how the NBER became an incubator of the notion that investment in the capacities of human beings played a significant role in capital formation, and now is understood to play a role in many sub-fields of economics. See other presentations Bulletin on Health Length of Life for Older Americans: Location Matters The most recent issue of the Bulletin on Health features a study that examines the longevity of Medicare beneficiaries who move from one location to another.Using a panel of Medicare data, the researchers estimate that remaining life expectancy at age 65 increases by 1.1 years for a person moving from an area in the lowest 10 percent in terms of life expectancy impact to one in the highest 10 percent. Equalizing the effects of location would eliminate 15 percent of the variation in life expectancy across areas. Also featured in this issue of the Bulletin on Health are studies of birth outcomes at hospitals with relatively high C-section rates, and the effects of increased Medicaid reimbursement rates on patient access to care. 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