The NBER Reporter 2008 Number 4: Bureau Books

The following volumes may be ordered directly from:

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Health at Older Ages: The Causes and Consequences of Declining Disability among the Elderly

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 staying healthier longer-than ever before. Despite the rapid disappearance of pensions and health care benefits for retirees, older people are healthier and better off than they were twenty years ago. In Health at Older Ages, a distinguished team of economists analyzes the foundations of disability decline, quantifies this phenomenon in economic terms, and discusses a number of options for accelerating future improvements in the health of our most elderly populations.

This breakthrough volume argues that educational attainment, high socioeconomic status, an older retirement age, and accessible medical care together have contributed to improved health and quality of life for seniors. A decline in disability, for example, yields economic benefits that include an increased proportion of seniors in the workplace, relief for the healthcare system and care-giving families, and reduced medical expenses for the elderly themselves. Health at Older Ages will be an essential contribution to the debate about meeting the medical needs of an aging nation.

Both Cutler and Wise are Professors of Economics at Harvard University and members of the NBER's Programs of Research on Aging and Health Care.

Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data

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 recently has begun releasing official statistics that measure the movements of firms in and out of business and workers in and out of jobs. The economic analyses in Producer Dynamics exploit this newly available data on establishments, firms, and workers, to address issues in industrial organization, labor, growth, macroeconomics, and international trade.

This innovative volume brings together a group of renowned economists to probe topics such as: firm dynamics across countries; patterns of employment dynamics; firm dynamics in nonmanufacturing industries such as retail, health services, and agriculture; employer-employee turnover from matched worker/firm datasets; and turnover in international markets.

Dunne is a senior economic advisor in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Jensen is a Research Associate in the NBER's Program on International Trade and Investment and an Associate Professor in Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Roberts is also an NBER Research Associate and is a Professor of Economics at Pennsylvania State University.

The Structure of Wages: An International Comparison

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 income, the rate of pay raises, and the mobility of employees are all crucial to our understanding of labor economics. But though there is much research on the distribution of wages across individuals in the economy, wage differentials within firms remain a mystery to economists. This volume represents a first effort to examine linked employer-employee data across countries and to analyze labor trends and their institutional background in the United States and eight European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and West Germany. A distinguished team of contributors reveal how a rising wage variance rewards star employees at a higher rate than ever before, how talent has become concentrated in a few firms over time, and how outside market conditions affect wages in the twenty-first century. From a comparative perspective that examines wage and income differences within and between countries, this volume will be required reading for economists and those working in industrial organization.

Lazear is the Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business; Shaw is the Ernest C. Arbuckle Professor of Economics at the same institution. Both are members of the NBER's Program of Research in Labor Studies.