scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Institution

National Bureau of Economic Research

NonprofitCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
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.


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an evaluation of the substantive corporate governance mandates of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 that is informed by the relevant empirical accounting and finance literature and the political dynamics that produced the mandates is provided.
Abstract: This paper provides an evaluation of the substantive corporate governance mandates of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 that is informed by the relevant empirical accounting and finance literature and the political dynamics that produced the mandates. The empirical literature provides a metric for evaluating the mandates' effectiveness, by facilitating identification of whether specific provisions can be most accurately characterized as efficacious reforms or as quack corporate governance. The learning of the literature, which was available when Congress was legislating, is that SOX's corporate governance provisions were ill-conceived. The political environment explains why Congress would enact legislation with such mismatched means and ends. SOX was enacted as emergency legislation amidst a free-falling stock market and media frenzy over corporate scandals shortly before the midterm congressional elections. The governance provisions, included toward the end of the legislative process in the Senate, were not a focus of any considered attention. Their inclusion stemmed from the interaction between election year politics and the Senate banking committee chairman's response to suggestions of policy entrepreneurs. The scholarly literature at odds with those individuals' recommendations was ignored, while the interest groups whose position was more consistent with the literature - the business community and accounting profession - had lost their credibility and become politically radioactive. The paper's conclusion is that SOX's corporate governance provisions should be stripped of their mandatory force and rendered optional. Other nations, such as the members of the European Union who have been revising their corporation codes, would be well advised to avoid Congress' policy blunder.

566 citations

ReportDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a Monte-Carlo-based robustness test is proposed which compares the elasticity of domestic productivity with respect to foreign R&D estimated by Coe and Helpman with an elasticity which is based on counterfactual international trade patterns.

564 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors showed that most indicators of institutional quality used to establish the proposition that institutions cause economic growth are conceptually unsuitable for that purpose and also found that some of the instrumental variable techniques used in the literature are flawed.
Abstract: We revisit the debate over whether political institutions cause economic growth, or whether, alternatively, growth and human capital accumulation lead to institutional improvement. We find that most indicators of institutional quality used to establish the proposition that institutions cause growth are constructed to be conceptually unsuitable for that purpose. We also find that some of the instrumental variable techniques used in the literature are flawed. Basic OLS results, as well as a variety of additional evidence, suggest that a) human capital is a more basic source of growth than are the institutions, b) poor countries get out of poverty through good policies, often pursued by dictators, and c) subsequently improve their political institutions.

564 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine a large sample of private credit agreements between banks and public firms and find that 32% of the agreements contain an explicit restriction on the firm's capital expenditures.
Abstract: We present novel empirical evidence that conflicts of interest between creditors and their borrowers have a significant impact on firm investment policy. We examine a large sample of private credit agreements between banks and public firms and find that 32% of the agreements contain an explicit restriction on the firm's capital expenditures. Creditors are more likely to impose a capital expenditure restriction as a borrower's credit quality deteriorates, and the use of a restriction appears at least as sensitive to borrower credit quality as other contractual terms, such as interest rates, collateral requirements, or the use of financial covenants. We find that capital expenditure restrictions cause a reduction in firm investment and that firms obtaining contracts with a new restriction experience subsequent increases in their market value and operating performance.

564 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this monetary policy strategy and suggests that although inflation targeting is not a panacea and may not be appropriate for many emerging market countries, it can be a highly useful monetary policy policy strategy in a number of them.
Abstract: This paper outlines what inflation targeting involves for emerging market/transition countries and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this monetary policy strategy. The discussion suggests that although inflation targeting is not a panacea and may not be appropriate for many emerging market countries, it can be a highly useful monetary policy strategy in a number of them.

563 citations


Authors

Showing all 2855 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
James J. Heckman175766156816
Andrei Shleifer171514271880
Joseph E. Stiglitz1641142152469
Daron Acemoglu154734110678
Gordon H. Hanson1521434119422
Edward L. Glaeser13755083601
Alberto Alesina13549893388
Martin B. Keller13154165069
Jeffrey D. Sachs13069286589
John Y. Campbell12840098963
Robert J. Barro124519121046
René M. Stulz12447081342
Paul Krugman123347102312
Ross Levine122398108067
Philippe Aghion12250773438
Network Information
Related Institutions (5)
Federal Reserve System
10.3K papers, 511.9K citations

93% related

World Bank
21.5K papers, 1.1M citations

88% related

International Monetary Fund
20.1K papers, 737.5K citations

88% related

Bocconi University
8.9K papers, 344.1K citations

86% related

London School of Economics and Political Science
35K papers, 1.4M citations

86% related

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
202379
2022253
2021661
2020997
2019767
2018780