International Seminar on Macroeconomics
The 28th NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference
Japan Project
Incentives and Limitations of Employment Policies on Retirement Transitions:
Comparisons of Public and Private Sectors
Economics of Mega-Firms and Changes in Market Power

A meeting of the NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics took place on June 27–28 in London. Research Associates Kristin Forbes of MIT and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas of the University of California, Berkeley organized the meeting. These researchers’ papers were presented and discussed:

François Fontaine, Paris School of Economics; Julien Martin, UQAM; and Isabelle Mejean, École Polytechnique, "Price Discrimination within and across EMU Markets: Evidence from French Exporters"

Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia University and NBER, and Yinxi Xie, Columbia University, "Monetary Policy in a World of Global Supply Chains"

Olivier Coibion, University of Texas at Austin and NBER; Yuriy Gorodnichenko, University of California, Berkeley and NBER; Saten Kumar, Auckland University of Technology; and Mathieu Pedemonte, University of California, Berkeley, "Inflation Expectations as a Policy Tool?" (NBER Working Paper 24788)

Sergio de Ferra, Stockholm University; Kurt Mitman, Institute for International Economic Studies; and Federica Romei, Stockholm School of Economics, "Household Heterogeneity and the Transmission of Foreign Shocks"

Chris Redl, Bank of England, "Uncertainty Matters: Evidence from Close Elections"

Ulrike Malmendier, University of California, Berkeley and NBER; Demian Pouzo, University of California, Berkeley; and Victoria Vanasco, Center for Research in International Economics, "Investor Experiences, Capital Flows and Debt Pricing" (NBER Working Paper 24697)

Nuno T. Coimbra, Paris School of Economics, "Sovereigns at Risk: A Dynamic Model of Sovereign Debt and Banking Leverage"

Julia Bevilaqua, Galina Hale, and Eric Tallman, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, "Corporate Spreads, Sovereign Spreads, and Crises"

Summaries of these papers are at www.nber.org/conferences/2019/ISOM19/summary.html

The 28th NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference took place in Tokyo July 27. This meeting was sponsored jointly by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, the NBER, the Tokyo Center for Economic Research, the Center for Advanced Research in Finance, and the Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy, and co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research in Finance (CARF), Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy (CIRJE), and the Research Institute of Capital Formation (RICF), of the Development Bank of Japan. Shin-ichi Fukuda and Kenichi Ueda, both of the University of Tokyo, Research Associate Takeo Hoshi of Stanford University, and Franklin Allen of Imperial College London organized the meeting. These researchers’ papers were presented and discussed:

Yukihiro Yasuda and Ryosuke Fujitani, Hitotsubashi University, and Joseph French, University of Northern Colorado, "Stock Market Listing, Investment, and Business Groups: How Firm Structure Impacts Investment"

Arantxa Jarque, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Edward S. Prescott, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, "Banker Compensation, Relative Performance, and Bank Risk"

Jennifer Corbett, Australian National University, and Ying Xu, Australian Treasury, "Using Network Method to Measure Financial Interconnection"

Renée Adams, University of Oxford; Brad Barber, University of California, Davis; and Terrance Odean, University of California, Berkeley, "Values in Finance"

Kenichi Ueda and Somnath Sharma, University of Tokyo and Reserve Bank of India, "Listing Advantages around the World"

Rodney Ramcharan, University of Southern California; Stefan Gissler, Federal Reserve Board; and Edison Yu, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, "The Effects of Competition in Consumer Credit Markets"

Andreas Lehnert, Federal Reserve Board; Michael Barr and Phillip Swagel, University of Maryland; and Neel Kashkari, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, "Inside the US Strategy for Fighting the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis"

Eugenio M. Cerutti, International Monetary Fund, "US vs. Euro Area: Who Drives Cross-Border Bank Lending to EMs?"

Yoshiaki Ogura, Waseda University, "Search for Yield under Prolonged Monetary Easing and Aging"

Summaries of these papers are at www.nber.org/conferences/2019/TRIO19/summary.html

The NBER Japan Project held a conference in Tokyo July 29. Shiro P. Armstrong of Australian National University, Tsutomu Watanabe, of the University of Tokyo, and Research Associates Charles Yuji Horioka of Kobe University, Takeo Hoshi of Stanford University, and David Weinstein of Columbia University organized the meeting. These researchers' papers were presented and discussed:

Melissa Dell, Harvard University and NBER, and Sahar Parsa, Tufts University, "Managerial Talent and Economic Performance: Evidence from Discontinuities in Douglas MacArthur's Economic Purge"

Yoon J. Jo and Misaki Matsumura, Columbia University, and David Weinstein, "The Impact of E-Commerce on Relative Prices and Consumer Welfare"

Takeo Hoshi and Anil K. Kashyap, University of Chicago and NBER, "The Great Disconnect: The Decoupling of Wage and Price Inflation in Japan"

Mari Tanaka and Chiaki Moriguchi, Hitotsubashi University, and Yusuke Narita, Yale University, "Meritocracy and Its Discontents: Evidence from Centralizing and Decentralizing School Admissions"

Iichiro Uesugi and Daisuke Miyakawa, Hitotsubashi University; Kaoru Hosono, Gakushuin University; Arito Ono, Chuo University; and Hirofumi Uchida, Kobe University, "The Collateral Channel versus the Bank Lending Channel: Evidence from a Massive Earthquake"

Elif C. Arbatli and Naoko Miake, International Monetary Fund; Steven J. Davis, University of Chicago and NBER; and Arata Itov, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, "Policy Uncertainty in Japan" (NBER Working Paper 23411)

Summaries of these papers are at www.nber.org/conferences/2019/JPMs19/summary.html

An NBER conference on Incentives and Limitations of Employment Policies on Retirement Transitions: Comparisons of Public and Private Sectors took place in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 9–10. Research Associates Robert L. Clark of North Carolina State University and Joseph P. Newhouse of Harvard University organized the meeting, which was sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. These researchers' papers were presented and discussed:

Katharine G. Abraham, University of Maryland and NBER, and Brad Hershbein and Susan Houseman, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, "Contract Work at Older Ages"

Richard V. Burkhauser, Cornell University, "How the CEA and the Trump Administration Addressed Work and Retirement Policies"

Péter Hudomiet, Andrew Parker, and Susann Rohwedder, RAND Corporation, and Michael D. Hurd, RAND Corporation and NBER, "Current and Desired Job Characteristics of Older Workers and Their Effects on Retirement"

Dhiren Patki, University of Michigan, "Breaking the Implicit Contract: Using Pension Freezes to Estimate the Labor Supply Elasticity"

Courtney Coile, Wellesley College and NBER, and Susan Stewart, NBER, "Retirement Incentives and Behavior of Private and Public Sector Workers"

Raimond Maurer, Goethe University Frankfurt, and Olivia S. Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, "Older Peoples' Willingness to Delay Social Security Claiming" (NBER Working Paper 22942)

Robert L. Clark and Robert G. Hammond and Siyan Liu, North Carolina State University, "Work after Retirement: Worklife Transitions of Career Public Employees"

Alicia Munnell, Boston College, and Geoffrey Sanzenbacher and Abigail Walters, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, "How Do Older Workers Use Nontraditional Jobs?"

John Chalmers, University of Oregon; Olivia S. Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania and NBER; Jonathan Reuter, Boston College and NBER; Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, Boston College; and Mingli Zhong, University of Pennsylvania, "Auto-Enrollment Retirement Plans for the People: Choices and Outcomes in OregonSaves"

Summaries of these papers are at www.nber.org/conferences/2019/ELMRs19/summary.html

An NBER conference on the Economics of Mega-Firms and Changes in Market Power took place in Cambridge September 12–13. Research Associates Chad Syverson of the University of Chicago and John Van Reenen of MIT organized the meeting, which was sponsored by the Smith Richardson Foundation. These researchers' papers were presented and discussed:

Luis Aguiar, University of Zurich, and Joel Waldfogel, University of Minnesota and NBER, "Platforms, Power, and Promotion: Evidence from Spotify Playlists"

José A. Azar, IESE Business School; Steven T. Berry, Yale University and NBER; and Ioana Marinescu, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, "Estimating Labor Market Power"

Ufuk Akcigit, University of Chicago and NBER, and Sina T. Ates, Federal Reserve Board, "What Happened to US Business Dynamism?" (NBER Working Paper 25756)

Matthew Backus, Columbia University and NBER; Christopher Conlon, New York University; and Michael Sinkinson, Yale University and NBER, "Common Ownership in America: 1980–2017" (NBER Working Paper 25454)

Chang-Tai Hsieh, University of Chicago and NBER, and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, Princeton University and NBER, "The Industrial Revolution in Services" (NBER Working Paper 25968)

Gregor Jarosch, Princeton University and NBER; Jan Sebastian Nimczik, ESMT Berlin; and Isaac Sorkin, Stanford University and NBER, "Granular Search, Market Structure, and Wages"

Brent Neiman and Joseph S. Vavra, University of Chicago and NBER, "The Rise of Niche Consumption" (NBER Working Paper 26134)

Xiang Ding, Harvard University; Teresa C. Fort, Dartmouth College and NBER; Stephen J. Redding, Princeton University and NBER; and Peter K. Schott, Yale University and NBER, "Structural Change within versus across Firms: Evidence from the United States"

Summaries of these papers are at www.nber.org/conferences/2019/MFf19/summary.html