The NBER Reporter 2009 Number 4: Conferences


Regulation and Litigation Conference
NBER’s 24th Tax Policy and the Economy Conference Held in Washington
Frontiers in Health Policy Research
Economics of Religion
Accelerating Energy Innovation: Lessons from Multiple Sectors
Quantifying Systemic Risk

Regulation and Litigation Conference

The NBER held a conference on “Regulation and Litigation” on September 11-12, 2009. The organizers, NBER Research Associates Daniel Kessler of Stanford University and Andrei Shleifer of Harvard University, chose the following papers for discussion:

  • Richard Posner, United States Court of Appeals, "Regulation vs. Litigation: An Analytical Framework"

  • Andrei Shleifer, "Efficient Regulation"

  • Frederick Schauer, University of Virginia, and Richard Zeckhauser, Harvard University and NBER, "The Trouble with Cases" (NBER Working Paper No. 15279)

  • Joni Hersch, Vanderbilt University, and Kip Viscusi, Vanderbilt University and NBER, "Tobacco Regulation through Litigation: The Master Settlement Agreement"

  • Philip Cook, Duke University and NBER; Jens Ludwig, University of Chicago and NBER; and Adam Samaha, University of Chicago, "Gun Control after Heller: Litigating against Regulation"

  • John Coates, Harvard University, "M&A Break Fees: US Litigation vs. UK Regulation"

  • Dana Goldman, RAND and NBER; Tomas Philipson, University of Chicago and NBER; and Eric Sun, RAND, "The Effects of Product Liability Exemption in the Presence of the FDA"

  • Stephen Parente, University of Minnesota, "Exploring Ex Ante Regulatory Mechanisms for Detecting Prescription Drug Misuse"

  • Tom Chang, University of Southern California, and Mireille Jacobson, RAND and NBER, "Using Cap-and-Trade to Regulate Hospitals’ Provision of Essential Services"

  • Alison Morantz, Stanford University, "Opting Out of Workers’ Compensation in Texas: A Survey of Large, Multi-State Nonsubscribers"

  • Adam Gailey and Seth Seabury, RAND, "The Impact of Employment Protection on Workers Disabled by Workplace Injuries"

    Summaries of these papers may be found here

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    NBER’s 24th Tax Policy and the Economy Conference Held in Washington

    The NBER’s 24th Conference on Tax Policy and the Economy took place at the National Press Club in Washington on September 24, 2009. NBER Research Associate Jeffrey R. Brown of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign organized this year’s meeting. The following papers were discussed:

  • Gilbert E. Metcalf, Tufts University and NBER, “Investment in Energy Infrastructure and the Tax Code”

  • J. Karl Scholz, University of Wisconsin, Madison and NBER, and Robert A. Moffitt, Johns Hopkins University and NBER, “Trends in the Level and Distribution of Income Support”

  • Alberto F. Alesina, Harvard University and NBER, and Silvia Ardagna, Harvard University, “Large Changes in Fiscal Policy: Taxes versus Spending”

  • Mihir A. Desai and Monica Singhal, Harvard University and NBER, and Dhammika Dharmapala, University of Illinois, “Tax Incentives for Affordable Housing: The Low Income Housing Tax Credit”

  • Matthew D. Shapiro and Joel B. Slemrod, University of Michigan and NBER, and Claudia A. Sahm, Federal Reserve Board, “Household Response to the 2008 Tax Rebates: Survey Evidence and Aggregate Implications”

  • Bruce D. Meyer, University of Chicago and NBER, “The Effects of the EITC and Recent Reforms”

    Summaries of these papers may be found here

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    Frontiers in Health Policy Research

    The NBER’s 13th Annual Conference on “Frontiers in Health Policy Research” took place in Washington on October 14, 2009. David M. Cutler, NBER and Harvard University; Alan M. Garber, NBER and Stanford University; and Dana Goldman and William B. Vogt, NBER and RAND, jointly organized the conference. The following papers were presented:

  • Gabriel Aranovich, University of California, San Francisco; and Jay Bhattacharya, Alan M. Garber, and Thomas MaCurdy, Stanford University and NBER, “Coping with Chronic Disease: Chronic Disease and Disability in the Elderly American Population 1982-1999”

  • Murray Aitken, IMS Health; Mark Trusheim, MIT; and Ernst R. Berndt, MIT and NBER, “Characterizing Markets for Biopharmaceutical Innovation: Do Biologics Differ from Small Molecules?”

  • Gary Burtless, Brookings Institution, and Pavel Svaton, Toulouse, France, “Health Care, Health Insurance, and the Distribution of American Incomes”

  • Kenneth Y. Chay, Brown University and NBER, and Daeho Kim and Shailender Swaminathan, Brown University, “Medicare, Hospital Utilization, and Mortality: Evidence from the Program’s Origins”

  • Tomas J. Philipson, University of Chicago and NBER; Eric Sun, University of Chicago; Dana Goldman; and Anupam B. Jena, Harvard Medical School, “A Re-Examination of the Costs of Medical R&D”

  • Lindsey Leininger, University of Wisconsin; Helen Levy, University of Michigan; and Diane Whitmore, University of Chicago and NBER, “Consequences of Public Health Insurance Expansions for Household Well-Being”

    Summaries of these papers may be found here

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    Economics of Religion

    An NBER Conference on the Economics of Religion, organized by Jon Gruber, NBER and MIT, and Daniel Hungerman, NBER and University of Notre Dame, took place in Cambridge on October 15 and 16, 2009. These papers were discussed:

  • Kaivan Munshi, Brown University and NBER, and Nicholas Wilson, Williams College, "Identity, Parochial Institutions, and Occupational Choice: Linking the Past to the Present in the American Midwest"(NBER Working Paper No. 13717)

  • Shawn Kantor and Alexander Whalley, University of California, Merced and NBER, "The Ascendancy of America's Colleges and Universities: Separating the Roles of Church and State"

  • Dan Benjamin, Cornell University and NBER; James Choi, Yale University and NBER; and Geoffrey Fisher, Cornell University, "Religious Identity and Economic Behavior"

  • Gordon Hanson, University of California , San Diego and NBER, and Chong Xiang, Purdue University and NBER, "Exporting Christianity: Governance and Doctrine in the Globalization of Protestant Denominations"

  • Robert Woodberry, University of Texas at Austin, "Weber through the Back Door: Protestant Competition, Elite Dispersion and the Global Spread of Democracy"

  • Jay Hartzell, University of Texas at Austin; Christopher Parsons, University of North Carolina; and David Yermack, New York University, "Is a Higher Calling Enough? Incentive Compensation in the Church"

  • Raphael Franck, Bar Ilan University, and Laurence Iannaccone, George Mason University, “Why did Religiosity Decrease in the Western World during the Twentieth Century?"

  • Sascha Becker, University of Stirling, and Ludger Woessmann, University of Munich, "Dead End: Protestants and Suicide"

  • Murat Iyigun, University of Colorado, "Monotheism (From a Sociopolitical & Economic Perspective)"

  • Erik Meyersson, Institute for International Economic Studies, "Islamic Rule and the Emancipation of the Poor and Pious"

  • Stelios Michalopoulos, Tufts University; and Alireza Naghavi and Giovanni Prarolo, University of Bologna, "The Economic Origins of Islam: Theory and Evidence"

    Summaries of these papers may be found here

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    Accelerating Energy Innovation: Lessons from Multiple Sectors

    The NBER’s Program on Environmental and Energy Economics and the Program on Productivity held a conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2009 to present the findings of a forthcoming book titled Accelerating Energy Innovation: Lessons from Multiple Sectors. The volume was edited by NBER Research Associate Rebecca Henderson of Harvard University and Richard G. Newell of Duke University (on leave from NBER). The conference program was:

  • Introduction and Keynote Speaker: Steven E. Koonin, Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy

    Agriculture, Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology

  • Tiffany Shih and Brian Wright, University of California at Berkeley, “Agricultural Innovation”

  • Ashish Arora, Duke University and NBER, and Alfonso Gambardella, Bocconi University, “Implications for Energy Innovation from the Chemical Industry”

  • Iain Cockburn, Boston University and NBER; Scott Stern, Northwestern University and NBER; and Jack Zausner, Northwestern University, “Finding the Endless Frontier: Lessons from the Life Sciences Innovation System for Energy R&D”

    Semiconductors, Computers and the Internet

  • David Mowery, University of California at Berkeley and NBER, “Federal Policy and the Development of Semiconductors, Computer Hardware, and Computer Software: A Policy Model for Climate Change R&D?”

  • Shane Greenstein, Northwestern University and NBER, “Nurturing the Accumulation of Innovations: Lessons from the Internet”

  • Panel: Mary Bohman, Division Director, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Michael Holland, Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy; Carl Shapiro, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Justice; Bill Valdez, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy; and Jeannette Wing, Assistant Director, National Science Foundation

  • Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University and NBER, “Summary”

    Additional Chapters:

  • Joshua Lerner, Harvard University and NBER, “Venture Capital and Innovation in Energy”

    Summaries of these papers and more information on the book and the conference may be found here

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    Quantifying Systemic Risk

    The National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland jointly organized a conference on Quantifying Systemic Risk which took place in Cambridge on November 6, 2009. Joseph Haubrich, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and Andrew Lo, NBER and MIT, organized the conference. These papers were discussed:

  • Sujit Kapadia, John Elliott, and Gabriel Sterne, Bank of England, and Matthias Drehmann, Bank of International Settlements, “A Quantitative Model of Systemic Liquidity Risk”

  • Gianni De Nicolo, International Monetary Fund, and Marcella Lucchetta, University of Verona, “Systemic Risk and the Macroeconomy”

  • Jon Danielsson and Jean-Pierre Zigrand, London School of Economics, and Hyunsong Shin, Princeton University, “Risk Appetite and Endogenous Risk”

  • Tobias Adrian, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Markus K. Brunnermeier, Princeton University, “CoVar”

  • Romney B. Duffey, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, “The Quantification of Systemic Risk and Stability: New Methods and Measures”

  • Viral V. Acharya, Lasse Pedersen, Thomas Philippon, and Matthew Richardson, New York University and NBER; and Ashley Lester, New York University, “Regulating Systemic Risk”

    Summaries of these papers may be found here

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