The NBER Reporter 2014 Number 3: Conferences

The NBER in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Research in Finance, the Center on Japanese Economy and Business, and the Australia-Japan Research Centre held a meeting on the Japanese economy in Tokyo on July 31 and August 1, 2014. The organizers were: Shiro Armstrong, Australian National University; Charles Horioka, University of the Philippines and NBER; Takeo Hoshi, Stanford University and NBER; Tsutomu Watanabe, University of Tokyo; and David Weinstein, Columbia University and NBER. The following papers were presented and discussed:

Gary Hansen, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER, and Selo Imrohoroglu, University of Southern California, "Fiscal Reform and Government Debt in Japan: A Neoclassical Perspective"

Jessie Handbury, University of Pennsylvania; Tsutomu Watanabe; and David Weinstein, "How Much Do Official Price Indexes Tell Us About Inflation?"

Saroj Bhattarai and Bulat Gafarov, Pennsylvania State University, and Gauti Eggertsson, Brown University and NBER, "Time Consistency and the Duration of Government Debt: A Signaling Theory of Quantitative Easing"

Suparna Chakraborty, University of San Francisco, and Joe Peek, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, "Lending to Unhealthy Firms in Japan during the Lost Decade: Which, Technical or Financial?"

Shigeru Fujita, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Ippei Fujiwara, Australian National University, "Aging and Deflation: Japanese Experience"

Andrew Bernard and Andreas Moxnes, Dartmouth College and NBER, and Yukiko Saito, Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry (RIETI), "Production Networks, Geography, and Firm Performance"

Serguey Braguinsky, Carnegie Mellon University; Atsushi Ohyama, Hokkaido University; Tetsuji Okazaki, University of Tokyo; and Chad Syverson, University of Chicago and NBER, "Acquisitions, Productivity, and Profitability: Evidence from the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry"

Hanna Halaburda and Jordan Siegel, Harvard University, and Naomi Kodama, Hitotsubashi University, "The Unfairness Trap: A Key Missing Factor in the Economic Theory of Discrimination"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2014/JPMs14/summary.html

The NBER held a conference titled "Tax Policy and the Economy" in Washington on September 18, 2014. The organizer was Jeffrey Brown of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and NBER. The following papers were presented:

Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago and NBER, "The New Full-time Employment Taxes"

Bradley Heim, Indiana University; Ithai Lurie, Department of the Treasury; and Kosali Simon, Indiana University and NBER, "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Tax Data"

Louis Kaplow, Harvard University and NBER, "Government Policy and Labor Supply with Myopic or Targeted Sav-ings Decisions"

Martin Feldstein, Harvard University and NBER, "Raising Revenue by Limiting Tax Expenditures"

George Bulman, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Caroline Hoxby, Stanford University and NBER, "The Returns to the Federal Tax Credits for Higher Education"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2014/TPE14/summary.html

The NBER held its annual Universities Research Conference in Cambridge on September 19 and 20, 2014. Research Associates Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and Xavier Gabaix of New York University organized the meeting on the topic "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Risk and Uncertainty." These papers were discussed:

Pedro Bordalo, University of London; Nicola Gennaioli, Bocconi University; and Andrei Shleifer, Harvard University and NBER, "Stereotypes" (NBER Working Paper No. 20106)

Anna Orlik, Federal Reserve Board, and Laura Veldkamp, New York University and NBER, "Understanding Uncertainty Shocks and the Role of Black Swans"

Gill Segal and Ivan Shaliastovich, University of Pennsylvania, and Amir Yaron, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, "Good and Bad Uncertainty: Macroeconomic and Financial Market Implications"

George Alessandria, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Horag Choi, Monash University; Joseph Kaboski, University of Notre Dame and NBER; and Virgiliu Midrigan, New York University and NBER, "Microeconomic Uncertainty, International Trade, and Aggregate Fluctuations"

Marina Azzimonti, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, "Partisan Conflict"

John Campbell and Luis Viceira, Harvard University and NBER, and Carolin Pflueger, University of British Columbia, "Monetary Policy Drivers of Bond and Equity Risks" (NBER Working Paper No. 20070)

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, University of Pennsylvania and NBER; Pablo Guerrón-Quintana, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Keith Kuester, University of Bonn; and Juan Rubio-Ramíírez, Duke University, "Fiscal Volatility Shocks and Economic Activity" (NBER Working Paper No. 17317)

Dario Caldara, Cristina Fuentes-Albero, and Egon Zakrajsek, Federal Reserve Board, and Simon Gilchrist, Boston University and NBER, "The Macroeconomic Impact of Financial and Uncertainty Shocks"

François Gourio, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and NBER; Michael Siemer, Federal Reserve Board; and Adrien Verdelhan, MIT and NBER, "Uncertainty Betas and International Capital Flows"

Zhaogang Song, Federal Reserve Board, and George Gao, Cornell University, "Rare Disaster Concerns Everywhere"

Pablo Fajgelbaum, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER; Edouard Schaal, New York University; and Mathieu Taschereau-Dumouchel, University of Pennsylvania, "Uncertainty Traps" (NBER Working Paper No. 19973)

Bryan Kelly, University of Chicago and NBER; Hanno Lustig, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER; and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, New York University and NBER, "Firm Volatility in Granular Networks" (NBER Working Paper No. 19466)

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2014/URCf14/summary.html

In conjunction with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the NBER held a meeting on "Productivity Growth and Innovation in the Long Run" on September 25 and 26, 2014. The conference was held at the OECD's Conference Center in Paris. The program was organized by Research Associate Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and Chiara Criscuolo of the OECD. The program included seven panel discussions on distinct topics. These topics, and the speakers who discussed each of them, are listed below:

Session 1: Will Long-Term Patterns in Global Productivity Continue?

Chair: Graziella Bertocchi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Speakers: Francesco Caselli, London School of Economics and NBER, and Diego Comin, Dartmouth College and NBER

Session 2: The Future of Productivity: Inequality and Growth

Chair: Stefano Scarpetta, Employment and Social Affairs Directorate, OECD
Speakers: William Kerr, Harvard Business School and NBER, and Andrew Leigh, Member of Parliament in Australia

Session 3: The Future of Productivity: Sustainability Issues

Chair: Simon Upton, Environment Directorate, OECD
Speakers: Michael Greenstone, University of Chicago and NBER, and Federick van der Ploeg, University of Oxford

Session 4: The Long-Term Future of Productivity: The State of the Debate

Chair: Jonathan Haskel, Imperial College London
Speakers: Robert Gordon, Northwestern University and NBER, and Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University and NBER

Session 5: The Drivers of Productivity: The Role of Organizational Change and Other Firm-Level Factors

Chair: Andrew Wyckoff, Science, Technology, and Innovation Directorate, OECD
Speakers: Nicholas Bloom, and Luis Garicano, London School of Economics, and Catherine Mann, OECD

Session 6: The Drivers of Productivity: Technical Progress, Diffusion, and Resource Allocation

Chair: Christian Kastrop, Economics Department, OECD
Speakers: Ufuk Akcigit, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, and Chad Syverson, University of Chicago and NBER

Session 7: The Drivers of Productivity: Agglomeration and Network Issues

Chair: Joaquim Oliveira Martins, Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development, OECD
Speakers: Gilles Duranton, University of Pennsylvania, and César Hidalgo, MIT

Video recordings of the presentations may be found at: http://www.oecd.org/economy/productivity-growth-and-innovation-in-the-long-run.htm