The NBER Reporter 2014 Number 3: Books
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Risk Topography: Systemic Risk and Macro Modeling, edited by Markus Brunnermeier and Arvind Krishnamurthy, will be available from the University of Chicago Press in August 2014.
The recent financial crisis and the difficulty of using mainstream macroeconomic models to accurately monitor and assess systemic risk have stimulated new analyses of how we measure economic activity and the development of more sophisticated models in which the financial sector plays a greater role.
The volume assembles contributions from leading academic researchers, central bankers, and other financial market experts that explore ways of refining and enhancing macroeconomic modeling in order to achieve more accurate economic measurement of risk factors. Essays in this volume focus on the development of models capable of highlighting and measuring vulnerabilities that leave the economy susceptible to adverse feedback loops and liquidity spirals. In a financial world of increasing complexity and uncertainty, this volume is an invaluable resource for policymakers working to design measurement systems and for academics concerned with conceptualizing effective measurement strategies.
The price of the clothbound volume is $110.00, and the ebook is $88.00.
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Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 14, edited by Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, is now available from the University of Chicago Press.
Appreciation of the importance of innovation to the economy has increased over the past decade. There is an active debate regarding the implications of technological change for economic policy and the appropriate policies and programs regarding research, innovation, and the commercialization of new technology. This debate has only intensified as policymakers focus on new sources of innovation and growth in light of the recent economic downturn and the associated focus on enhancing employment and growth. Four of the five papers in this year's volume highlight the growing role of the Internet and digitization in our understanding of the changing nature of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the impact of innovation policy. The first offers an overview of the impact of "Big Data" on the ability to conduct novel types of measurement and research in economics and related fields. The second highlights the increasingly sophisticated and creative research designs that have been used to evaluate the interplay between piracy, the availability of legitimate digital channels, and the impact of anti-piracy enforcement efforts. The third paper provides an overview of the rapidly emerging area of crowdfunding. The fourth addresses the underpinnings of much of the digital economy by focusing on the institutional logic of standard-setting organizations and the conditions that allow standard-setting bodies to function and achieve their objectives. The final paper focuses on the interplay between geographic clusters, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
The clothbound volume is available for $58.00, and the ebook for $7.00 to $46.00.
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NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2013, Volume 28, edited by Jonathan Parker and Michael Woodford, is now available from the University of Chicago Press.
The twenty-eighth edition of the NBER Macroeconomics Annual continues its tradition of featuring theoretical and empirical research on central issues in contemporary macroeconomics. As in previous years, this volume not only addresses recent developments in macroeconomics, but also takes up important policy-relevant questions and opens new debates that will continue for years to come. The first two papers in this year's issue tackle fiscal and monetary policy, asking how interest rates and inflation can remain low despite fiscal policy behavior that appears inconsistent with a monetary policy regime focused only on inflation and output and not on fiscal balances as recently observed in the United States. The third examines the implications of reference-dependent preferences and moral hazard in employment fluctuations in the labor market. The fourth paper addresses money and inflation, analyzing the long run inflation rate, the coexistence of money with pledgeable and money-like assets, and why inflation did not increase in response to business cycle fluctuations in productivity. The fifth looks at the stock market and how it relates to the real economy. The final chapter discusses the recent large and public shift toward more expansionary monetary policy in Japan.
The price of the clothbound volume is $90.00.
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Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, edited by Nancy L. Rose, is now available from the University of Chicago Press.
The past thirty years have witnessed a transformation of government economic intervention in broad segments of industry throughout the world has taken place. Many industries historically subject to economic price and entry controls have been largely deregulated, including natural gas, trucking, airlines, and commercial banking. However, recent concerns about market power in restructured electricity markets, instability amid chronic financial stress in the airline industry, and the challenges created by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed commercial banks to participate in investment banking, have led to calls for renewed market intervention.
Economic Regulation and Its Reform explores a wide range of issues surrounding government economic intervention. The essays observe that assessing the costs and benefits of such intervention requires a careful analysis of its consequences, and a recognition that actual regulation is likely to deviate from the regulatory prescriptions of economic theory. The contributors point out that government interventions may take a variety of forms, from relatively nonintrusive performance-based regulations to more aggressive antitrust and competition policies and barriers to entry. This volume introduces the key issues surrounding economic regulation, provides an assessment of the economic effects of regulatory reforms over the past three decades, and examines how these insights bear on some of today's most significant concerns in regulatory policy.
The clothbound volume is $110.00, and the ebook version is $88.00.
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Housing and Mortgage Markets in Historical Perspective, edited by Eugene N. White, Kenneth Snowden, and Price Fishback, will be available from the University of Chicago Press in July 2014.
The central role of the housing market in the recent recession raised questions about its contribution to previous economic downturns. Were the underlying causes of housing and mortgage crises the same in earlier episodes? Has the onset and spread of crises changed over time? Did previous policy interventions either damage or improve long-run market performance and stability? This volume begins to answer these questions, providing important context for understanding recent events by examining how historical housing and mortgage markets workedand how they sometimes failed. The contributors to this volume survey the foundational research on housing crises, comparing the downturn of the 1930s to that of the 2000s in order to identify the contributions to each crisis. Some chapters explore notable historical experiences with mortgage securitization and the role that federal policy played in the surge in home ownership between 1940 and 1960. By providing a broad historical overview of housing and mortgage markets, the volume offers valuable new insights that can inform future policy debates.
The price of the clothbound volume is $110.00, and the ebook is $88.00.
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Discoveries in the Economics of Aging, Edited by David A. Wise, is now available from the University of Chicago Press.
The oldest members of the baby boomer generation are now crossing the threshold of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare with extensive and significant implications for these programs' overall spending and fiscal sustainability. Yet the aging of the baby boomers is just one part of the rapidly changing landscape of aging in the United States and around the world.
The latest volume in the NBER's Economics of Aging series, Discoveries in the Economics of Aging assembles a number of the most recent and insightful studies in this expanding field of study. One substantive focus of the volume is the well-documented relationship between health and financial well-being as people age. The contributors explore this issue from a variety of perspectives. The first part of the volume explores recent trends in health measurement, including the use of alternative measurement indices. Later contributions explore alternate determinants of health, including retirement, marital status, and cohabitation with family, and the potential for innovations, interventions, and public policy to improve health and financial well-being.
The price of the clothbound volume is $110.00, and the ebook is $88.00.