The NBER Reporter 2013 Number 2: Conferences

The 24th NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference Held in Tokyo
Understanding the Capital Structures of Non-Financial and Financial Corporations
Twenty-eighth Annual Conference on Macroeconomics
Economics of Culture and Institutions
Innovation Policy and the Economy
Conference on the Economics of Aging
Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy
The Labor Market in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

The 24th NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference Held in Tokyo

The 24th NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference on "Experiments for Development: Achievements and New Directions" took place in Tokyo on March 18 and 19, 2013. This meeting was sponsored jointly by: the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London; NBER; the Tokyo Center for Economic Research; and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). Organizers Shin-ichi Fukuda, University of Tokyo and TCER, Takeo Hoshi, University of California, San Diego and NBER, and Tetsushi Sonobe, GRIPS, chose these papers to discuss:

    David McKenzie, Francisco Campos, Aidan Coville, Ana Fernandes, and Markus Goldstein, The World Bank, "Learning from the Experiments that Never Happened: Lessons from Trying to Conduct Randomized Evaluations of Matching Grant Programs in Africa"

    Yukichi Mano, Hitotsubashi University, and Tetsushi Sonobe, "Teaching KAIZEN to Small Business Owners: An Experiment in a Metalworking Cluster in Nairobi"

    Alistair Munro, GRIPS, and Bereket Kebede, Marcela Tarazona-Gomez, and Arjan Verschoor, University of East Anglia, "Autonomy and Efficiency. An Experiment on Household Decisions in Two Regions of India"

    Tahir Andrabi, Pomona College; Jishnu Das, The World Bank; and Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Harvard University and NBER, "Understanding Educational Markets: A Sentinel Approach"

    Tomoya Matsumoto, GRIPS, "Disseminating New Farming Practice among Small Scale Farmers: Experimental Intervention in Uganda"

    Alex Oo and Russell Toth, University of Sydney, "Using Framed Field Experiments to Understand Market Behavior in Developing Countries: Do Community-Sanctioned Social Pressures Constrain Microenterprise Growth?"

    Hisaki Kono, Institute of Developing Economies, "Microcredit Games with Noisy Signals: Collusion or Free-Riding?"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/TRIO13/summary.html

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Understanding the Capital Structures of Non-Financial and Financial Corporations

NBER Research Associates Viral Acharya of NYU's Stern School of Business, Heitor Almeida of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Malcolm Baker of the Harvard Business School organized an NBER conference on "Understanding the Capital Structures of Non-Financial and Financial Corporations" which took place on April 5 and 6, 2013. They selected these papers to discuss:

    Alexander Ljungqvist, New York University and NBER, and Florian Heider, European Central Bank, "As Certain as Debt and Taxes: Estimating the Tax Sensitivity of Leverage from Exogenous State Tax Changes" (NBER Working Paper No. 18263)

    Jaewon Choi and Dirk Hackbarth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Josef Zechner, Vienna University of Economics and Business, "Granularity of Corporate Debt"

    Arvind Krishnamurthy and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, Northwestern University and NBER, "Short-term Debt and Financial Crises: What We Can Learn from U.S. Treasury Supply"

    Isil Erel, Ohio State University; Stewart Myers, MIT and NBER; and James Read, The Brattle Group, "Capital Allocation"

    Franklin Allen, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, and Elena Carletti, European University Institute, "Deposits and Bank Capital Structure"

    Konstantin Milbradt, MIT, and Martin Oehmke, Columbia University, "Maturity Rationing and Collective Short-Termism"

    Anat Admati and Paul Pfleiderer, Stanford University; Peter DeMarzo, Stanford University and NBER; and Martin Hellwig, Max Planck Institute, "Debt Overhang and Capital Regulation"

    Shekhar Aiyar, International Monetary Fund; Charles Calomiris, Columbia University and NBER; John Hooley and Yevgeniya Korniyenko, Bank of England; and Tomasz Wieladek, London Business School, "The International Transmission of Bank Capital Requirements: Evidence from the UK"

    Andres Almazan, University of Texas at Austin; Adolfo de Motta, McGill University; and Sheridan Titman, University of Texas, Austin and NBER, "Debt, Labor Markets, and the Creation and Destruction of Firms"

    John Graham, Duke University and NBER; Mark Leary, Washington University in St. Louis; and Michael Roberts, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, "A Century of Capital Structure: The Leveraging of Corporate America"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/UCSs13/summary.html

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Twenty-eighth Annual Conference on Macroeconomics

The NBER's Twenty-eighth Annual Conference on Macroeconomics, organized by Research Associates Jonathan Parker or Northwestern University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University, took place in Cambridge on April 12 and 13. These papers were discussed:

    Elena Asparouhova, University of Utah; Peter Bossaerts and Nilanjan Roy, California Institute of Technology; and William Zame, University of California, Los Angeles, "Experiments on the Lucas Asset Pricing Model"

    Venky Venkateswaran, Pennsylvania State University, and Randall Wright, University of Wisconsin, Madison and NBER, "Pledgability and Liquidity: A New Monetarist Model of Financial and Macroeconomic Activity"

    Paul Beaudry, University of British Columbia and NBER, and Franck Portier, Toulouse School of Economics, "Understanding Non-Inflationary Demand Driven Business Cycles"

    Martin Lettau, University of California at Berkeley and NBER, and Sydney Ludvigson, New York University and NBER, "Shocks and Crashes" (NBER Working Paper No. 16996)

    Francesco Bianchi, Duke University, and Leonardo Melosi, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, "Dormant Shocks and Fiscal Virtue"

    Kfir Eliaz, Brown University, and Rani Spiegler, Tel Aviv University, "Reference Dependence and Labor-Market Fluctuations"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/macro13/summary.html

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Economics of Culture and Institutions

An NBER Conference on the Economics of Culture and Institutions took place in Cambridge on April 13, 2013. NBER Research Associate Alberto Bisin of New York University and NBER Faculty Research Fellow Paola Giuliano of the University of California, Los Angeles, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed:

    Alberto Alesina, Harvard University and NBER; Johann Harnoss, University of Lille; and Hillel Rapoport, Bar-Ilan University, "Birthplace Diversity and Economic Prosperity" (NBER Working Paper No. 18699)

    Saumitra Jha, Stanford University, and Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, University of California at San Diego, "Does Contract Failure Foster Ethnic Assimilation? Evidence from Cochineal in Mexico"

    David Atkin, Yale University and NBER, "The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants"

    Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia University and NBER; Xiaobo Zhang, International Food Policy Research Institute; and Yin Liu, Tsinghua University, "Status Competition and Housing Prices" (NBER Working Paper No. 18000)

    Davide Ticchi and Andrea Vindigni, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca, and Thierry Verdier, Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques, "Democracy, Dictatorship and the Cultural Transmission of Political Values"

    Robert Akerlof, University of Warwick, "Duty, Anger, and Compliance"

    Christine Binzel, University of Heidelberg, and Jean-Paul Carvalho, University of California at Irvine, "Education, Social Mobility and Religious Movements: A Theory of the Islamic Revival in Egypt"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/CIs13/summary.html

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Innovation Policy and the Economy

The NBER's fourteenth annual Conference on Innovation Policy and the Economy took place in Washington on April 23, 2013. The conference was organized by NBER Research Associates Josh Lerner of Harvard University and Scott Stern of MIT. The following papers were discussed:

    Liran Einav and Jonathan Levin, Stanford University and NBER, "The Data Revolution and Economic Analysis"

    Aaron Chatterji, Duke University, and Edward Glaeser and William Kerr, Harvard University and NBER, "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation"

    Timothy Simcoe, Boston University and NBER, "Industry Standards and Innovation Policy"

    Brett Danaher, Wellesley College, and Michael Smith and Rahul Telang, Carnegie-Mellon University, "Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Mechanisms"

    Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto and NBER, and Christian Catalini and Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto, "Crowdfunding and Innovation"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013 /IPEs13/summary.html

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Conference on the Economics of Aging

An NBER Conference on the Economics of Aging, organized by David Wise of NBER and Harvard University, took place on May 10 and 11 in Arizona. These papers were discussed:

    Angus Deaton, Princeton University and NBER, and Arthur Stone, Stony Brook University, "Grandpa and the Snapper: the Well-Being of the Elderly Who Live with Children"

    James Poterba, MIT and NBER; Steven Venti, Dartmouth College and NBER; and David Wise, "The Nexus of Social Security Benefits, Health, and Wealth at Death" (NBER Working Paper No. 18658)

    David Cutler, Harvard University and NBER, Kaushik Ghosh, NBER; and Mary Beth Landrum, Harvard School of Public Health, "Evidence for Significant Compression of Morbidity in the Elderly U.S. Population"

    James Banks and Elaine Kelly, Institute for Fiscal Studies, and James Smith, RAND Corporation, "Spousal Health Effects: the Role of Selection"

    Michael Hurd, RAND Corporation and NBER, and Pierre Carl Michaud and Susann Rohwedder, RAND Corporation, "The Lifetime Risk of Nursing Home Use"

    Arie Kapteyn and Erik Meijer, University of Southern California, "A Comparison of Different Measures of Health and their Relation to Labor Force Transitions at Older Ages"

    Amitabh Chandra, Harvard University and NBER; David Malenka, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; and Jonathan Skinner, Dartmouth College and NBER, "On the Diffusion of Drug-Eluting Stents"

    Florian Heiss, University of Mainz; Daniel McFadden, University of California, Berkeley and NBER; Till Stowasser, Würzburg; and Joachim Winter, University of Munich, "Understanding the SES Gradient in Health Among the Elderly: The Role of Childhood Circumstances"

    John Beshears, Stanford University and NBER; James Choi, Yale University and NBER; David Laibson, Harvard University and NBER; and Brigitte Madrian, Harvard University and NBER, "Who Uses the Roth 401(k), and How Do They Use It?"

    Gabor Kezdi, Central European University; and Robert Willis, University of Michigan and NBER, "Expectations, Aging and Cognitive Decline"

    Axel Boersch-Supan, MEA and NBER, "Early Retirement, Mental Health and Social Networks"

    Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, MIT and NBER, and Sharon Barnhardtv, Indian Institute of Management, "Nutrition, Iron Deficiency Anemia, and the Demand for Iron Fortified Salt: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Bihar"

Summaries of these papers may be available at: http://conference.nber.org/confer/2013/AGs13/summary.html

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Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy

An NBER/Universities' Research Conference on "Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy" took place in Cambridge on May 10 and 11, 2013. NBER Research Associates Phillip Levine of Wellesley College and Melissa Schettini Kearney of the University of Maryland organized the conference and chose these papers to discuss:

    Marianne Bitler, University of California at Irvine and NBER; Hilary Hoynes, University of California at Davis and NBER; and Elira Kuka, University of California at Davis, "Do In-Work Tax Credits Serve as a Safety Net?"

    Bhashkar Mazumder, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Sarah Miller, University of Michigan, "The Effects of the Massachusetts Health Reform on Financial Well Being"

    Joanne Hsu, Federal Reserve Board, and David Matsa and Brian Melzer, Northwestern University, "Unemployment Insurance and Consumer Credit"

    Patricia Anderson, Dartmouth College and NBER; Kristin Butcher, Wellesley College and NBER; Hilary Hoynes; and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Northwestern University and NBER, "Understanding Food Security Over the Great Recession"

    Lucie Schmidt, Williams College, and Lara Shore-Sheppard and Tara Watson, Williams College and NBER, "The Effect of Safety Net Programs on Food Insecurity"

    Hannes Schwandt, Princeton University, "Unlucky Cohorts: Income, Health Insurance and AIDS Mortality of Recession Graduates"

    Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago; Magne Mogstad, University College London; and Mari Rege and Mark Votruba, Case Western Reserve University, "Father Presence and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment"

    Phillip Levine and Melissa Schettini Kearney, "Income Inequality and the Decision to Drop Out of High School"

    Anna Aizer, Brown University and NBER; Florencia Borrescio Higa, Brown University; and Hernan Winkler, University of California at Los Angeles, "Impact of Rising Inequality on Health at Birth"

    Adriana Lleras-Muney, University of California at Los Angeles and NBER; Anna Aizer; Joseph Ferrie, Northwestern University and NBER; and Shari Eli, University of Toronto, "The Long Term Impact of Means-Tested Transfers: Evidence from the Mother's Pension Program"

    Anuj Shah, University of Chicago; Sendhil Mullainathan, Harvard University and NBER, and Eldar Shafir, Princeton University, "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function"

Summaries of these papers are available at: http://conference.nber.org/confer/2013/URCs13/summary.html

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The Labor Market in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

An NBER Conference on "The Labor Market in the Aftermath of the Great Recession" took place in Cambridge on May 17 and 18, 2013. NBER Research Associates Alexandre Mas of Princeton University and David Card, University of California at Berkeley, organized the program. These papers were discussed:

    Joseph Altonji and Lisa Kahn, Yale University and NBER, and Jamin Speer, Yale University, "Cashier or Consultant? Entry Labor Market Conditions, Field of Study, and Career Success"

    Jesse Rothstein, University of California at Berkeley and NBER, "Disability Insurance and the Business Cycle?"

    Edward Lazear and Kathryn Shaw, Stanford University and NBER, and Christopher Stanton, University of Utah, "Making Do with Less: Working Harder During Recessions"

    Giuseppe Moscarini, Yale University and NBER, and Fabien Postel-Vinay, University of Bristol, "Did the Job Ladder Fail after the Great Recession?"

    Marianne Bitler, University of California at Irvine and NBER, and Hilary Hoynes, University of California at Davis and NBER, "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The Safety Net, Living Arrangements, and Poverty in the Great Recession"

    Kory Kroft, University of Toronto; Fabian Lange, McGill University; Matthew Notowidigdo, University of Chicago and NBER; and Lawrence Katz, Harvard University and NBER, "Duration Dependence and the Great Recession"

    Thomas Lemieux, University of British Columbia and NBER, and Florian Hoffmann, University of British Columbia, "Unemployment in the Great Recession: A Comparison of Germany, Canada and the United States"

    Erling Barth, University of Oslo and NBER; Jim Davis, Bureau of the Census; and Richard Freeman, Harvard University and NBER, "Dispersion of Employment Growth and Wages among Establishments in Recession and Recovery"

    Lucia Foster and Cheryl Grim, Bureau of the Census, and John Haltiwanger, University of Maryland and NBER, "Reallocation in the Great Recession: Cleansing or Not?"

    Paul Beaudry, University of British Columbia and NBER; David Green, University of British Columbia; and Benjamin Sand, York University, "The Great Reversal in the Demand for Skill" (NBER Working Paper No. 18901)

    Daron Acemoglu and David Autor, MIT and NBER; David Dorn, CEMFI; Gordon Hanson, University of California at San Diego and NBER; and Brendan Price, MIT, "Import Competition and the Great U.S. Employment Sag of the 2000s"

    Michael Elsby, University of Edinburgh; Donggyun Shin, Kyung Hee University; and Gary Solon, Michigan State University and NBER, "Wage Adjustment in the Great Recession"

    Till von Wachter, Columbia University and NBER, "The Effect of the Great Recession on Older Workers"

Summaries of these papers may be available at: http://conference.nber.org/confer/2013/LMs13m/summary.html

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