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.

Mother's Education and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital: Evidence from College Openings

Abstract: We examine the effect of maternal education on birth outcomes using Vital Statistics Natality data from 1970 to 1999. We also assess the importance of four channels through which maternal education may improve birth outcomes: use of prenatal care smoking marriage and fertility. In an effort to account for the endogeneity of education attainment we use data about the availability of colleges in the womans country in her 17th year as an instrument for maternal education. We find that higher maternal education improves infant health as measured by birth weight and gestational age. It also increases the probability that a new mother is married reduces parity increases use of prenatal care and reduces smoking suggesting that may be important pathways for the ultimate effect on health. Our results add to the growing body of literature which suggests that estimates of the returns to education which focus only on increases in wages understate the total return.

Ethnic Capital and Intergenerational Mobility

Abstract: This paper analyzes the extent to which ethnic skill differentials are transmitted across generations. I assume that ethnicity acts as an externality in the human capital accumulation process. The skills of the next generation depend on parental inputs and on the quality of the ethnic environment in which parents make their investments, or "ethnic capital." The empirical evidence reveals that the skills of today's generation depend not only on the skills of their parents, but also on the average skills of the ethnic group in the parent's generation.

Why Some Firms Export

Abstract: This paper presents a dynamic model of the export decision by a profit-maximizing firm. Using a panel of U.S. manufacturing plants, we test for the role of plant characteristics, spillovers from neighboring exporters, entry costs and government export promotion expenditures. Entry and exit in the export market by U.S. plants is substantial, past exporters are apt to reenter, and plants are likely to export in consecutive years. However, we find that entry costs are significant and spillovers from the export activity of other plants negligible. State export promotion expenditures have no significant effect on the probability of exporting. Plant characteristics, especially those indicative of past success, strongly increase the probability of exporting as do favorable exchange rate shocks.

Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: the Poum Hypothesis

Abstract: Even relatively poor people oppose high rates of redistribution because of the anticipation that they or their children may move up the income ladder. This hypothesis commonly advanced as an explanation of why most democracies do not engage in large-scale expropriation and highly progressive redistribution. But is it compatible with everyone -- especially the poor -- holding rational expectations that not everyone can simultaneously expect to end up richer than average? This paper establishes the formal basis for the POUM hypothesis. There is a range of incomes below the mean where agents oppose lasting redistributions if (and, in a sense, only if) tomorrow's expected income is increasing and concave in today's income. The laissez-faire coalition is larger, the more concave the transition function and the longer the policy horizon. We illustrate the general analysis with an example (calibrated to the U.S.) where, in every period, 3/4 of families are poorer than average, yet a 2/3 majority has expected future incomes above the mean, and therefore desires low tax rates for all future generations. We also analyze empirical mobility matrices from the PSID and find that the POUM effect is indeed a significant feature of the data.

On the Limitations of Government Borrowing: A Framework for Empirical Testing

Abstract: This paper seeks to distinguish empirically between two views on the limitations of government borrowing According to one view, nothing precludes the government from running a permanent budget deficit, paying interest due on the growing debt load simply by issuing new debt, An alternative perspective holds that creditors would be unwilling to purchase government debt unless the government made a credible commitment to balance its budget in present value terms We show that distinguishing between these possibilities is mathematically equivalent to testing whether a continuing currency inflation might be fueled by speculation alone or is instead driven solely by economic fundamentals Empirical tests which have been developed for this economic question lead us to conclude that postwar US deficits are largely consistent with the proposition that the government budget must be balanced in present-value terms