National Bureau of Economic Research

About: National Bureau of Economic Research is a nonprofit organization based out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Monetary policy & Population. The organization has 2626 authors who have published 34177 publications receiving 2818124 citations. The organization is also known as: NBER & The National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Rigidity of Prices

Abstract: This paper presents evidence on the amount of price rigidity that exists in individual transaction prices Using the Stigler-Kindahi data, I examine the behavior of individual buyers' prices for certain products used in manufacturing My most important findings are: 1The degree of price rigidity in many industries is significant It is not unusual in some industries for prices to individual buyers to remain unchanged for several years 2Even for what appear to be homogeneous commodities, the correlation of price changes across buyers is very low 3There is no evidence that there is an asymmetry in price rigidity In particular, prices are not rigid down-ward 4The fixed costs of changing price at least to some buyers seem trivial There are plenty of instances where small price changes occur 5The level of industry concentration is strongly correlated with rigid prices The more concentrated the industry, the longer is the average spell of price rigidity 6There appears to be a relationship between price rigidity, size of price change, and the length of time a buyer and seller deal with each otherI interpret the findings as evidence that it is erroneous to focus attention on price as the exclusive mechanism to allocate resources Nonprice rationing is not a fiction, it is a reality of business and may be the efficient response to economic uncertainty

The economics of smoking

Abstract: 1. Tobacco Warfare In America: An Overview.- A Battlefield Tour.- American Principles, Public Policy, and Tobacco Warfare.- Organization of this Book.- 2. Welfare Economics, Public Policy, And Smoking.- Smoking, the Market Process, and a Free Society.- Taxation and Regulation in a Market Economy.- Welfare Economics and Tobacco Policy.- Tobacco Taxation as Corrective Taxation.- Tobacco Taxation: An Overview.- 3. The Taxation And Regulation of Smoking: Principle vs. Expediency.- Realistic Politics and Tobacco Policy.- Knowledge and the Improbability of Corrective Taxation.- Political Incentive and Actual Tobacco Taxation.- Rationale, Reality, and Tobacco Regulation.- Tobacco Policy in Constitutional Perspective.- 4. Smoking And The Economic Cost Of Lost Production.- Smoking and Health: The Method of "Attributable Risk".- How Accurate are Measures of Attributable Risk?.- Economic Measurement of Indirect Costs.- Joint Costs and Improper Cost Attribution.- Who Loses Lost Production: Smokers or Nonsmokers?.- What about the Benefits of Smoking?.- 5. Markets, Insurance, And The Medical Costs Of Smokers.- Attribution of "Medical Costs" to Smoking.- Medical Costs, Personal Responsibility, and Insurance.- Life Insurance and Nonsmoker Discounts.- Health Insurance and Smoker-Nonsmoker Parity.- Smoking and Fire Costs.- Moral Hazard and Insurance Costs.- 6. Medicare, Medicaid, And The Social Cost Of Smoking.- Smokers and the Cost of Medicare.- Transfers and Social Costs: A Clarification.- Proposals for Earmarked Cigarette Taxes.- Principle, Expediency, and Wealth Transfers.- 7. Smoking, Business Costs, And Social Cost.- Smoking and the Efficiency of Team Production.- Smoking and Workplace Efficiency.- Workplace Costs: A Further Consideration.- Smoking and Economic Productivity: A Conceptual Framework.- Smoking and Productivity: Discussion of the Data.- 8. ETS And Governmental Protection Of Consumers And Workers.- The Economics of Clean Indoor Air Acts.- The Coase Theorem, Ownership Rights, and Markets.- An Alternative Explanation.- Tobacco and "Public Health".- 9. Advertising, "Addiction," And The Denial Of True Choice.- Separating Advertising Myth from Advertising Reality.- Impact of Cigarette Advertising on Smoking by Youth.- Cigarette Advertising is a Firm-Specific Investment.- International Evidence: Cigarette Advertising Bans do not Work.- The Constitution and the Protection of Commercial Speech.- Advertising and Addiction.- The New Economics of Addiction.- Consumer Sovereignty or Health Fascism?.- 10. Self Interest, Public Interest, And Legislation.- Corrective Cigarette Taxation: An Analytical Unicorn.- An Economic Approach to Legislation and Regulation.- Democratic Politics and Tax Policy.- Rent Seeking, Tax Resistance, and Social Waste.- The Social Cost of Tobacco Taxation: A Recalculation.- Economic Principles and the Anti-Cancer Bureaucracy.- Tobacco Taxation and Regulation: A Realistic Approach.- 11. Interest Groups And The Public's Health.- Overview.- Market Processes and Personal Health.- Is Health Research a Public Good?.- Public Health and the Collective Interests of Physicians.- Self Interest in Public Interest Organizations.- 12. Principle And Expediency In Public Policy.- Principles of Constitutional Political Economy.- The Self-Ownership Foundations of a Democratic Polity.- Considerations from the Economic Theory of Legislation.- Implications for Public Policy Toward Tobacco.- Implications for Public Policy More Broadly Considered.- References.

The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation

Abstract: Simultaneity between prisoner populations and crime rates makes it difficult to isolate the causal effect of changes in prison populations on crime. To break that simultaneity, this paper uses prison overcrowding litigation in a state as an instrument for changes in the prison population. The resulting elasticities are two to three times greater than those of previous studies. A one-prisoner reduction is associated with an increase of fifteen Index I crimes per year. While calculations of the costs of crime are inherently uncertain, it appears that the social benefits associated with crime reduction equal or exceed the social costs of incarceration for the marginal prisoner.

The Long-term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades

Abstract: Can part of Africa’s current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa’s slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. To better understand if the relationship is causal, I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave trades, and use instrumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the slave trades have had an adverse effect on economic development.

Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States.

Abstract: Estimates of climate change damage are central to the design of climate policies. Here, we develop a flexible architecture for computing damages that integrates climate science, econometric analyses, and process models. We use this approach to construct spatially explicit, probabilistic, and empirically derived estimates of economic damage in the United States from climate change. The combined value of market and nonmarket damage across analyzed sectors-agriculture, crime, coastal storms, energy, human mortality, and labor-increases quadratically in global mean temperature, costing roughly 1.2% of gross domestic product per +1°C on average. Importantly, risk is distributed unequally across locations, generating a large transfer of value northward and westward that increases economic inequality. By the late 21st century, the poorest third of counties are projected to experience damages between 2 and 20% of county income (90% chance) under business-as-usual emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5).