Annual Review of Economics 

About: Annual Review of Economics is an academic journal published by Annual Reviews. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Economics & Productivity. It has an ISSN identifier of 1941-1383. Over the lifetime, 332 publications have been published receiving 32355 citations.

Microeconomics of technology adoption

Abstract: Differences in technology levels across countries account for a large component of the differences in wages and per-capita GDP across countries worldwide. This article reviews micro studies of the adoption of new technologies and the use of inputs complementary with new technologies to shed light on the barriers to technology diffusion in low-income countries. Among the factors examined affecting decisions pertaining to technology choice and input allocations are the financial and nonfinancial returns to adoption, one's own learning and social learning, technological externalities, scale economies, schooling, credit constraints, risk and incomplete insurance, and departures from behavioral rules implied by simple models of rationality.

The China Shock: Learning from Labor-Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade

Abstract: China's emergence as a great economic power has induced an epochal shift in patterns of world trade. Simultaneously, it has challenged much of the received empirical wisdom about how labor markets adjust to trade shocks. Alongside the heralded consumer benefits of expanded trade are substantial adjustment costs and distributional consequences. These impacts are most visible in the local labor markets in which the industries exposed to foreign competition are concentrated. Adjustment in local labor markets is remarkably slow, with wages and labor-force participation rates remaining depressed and unemployment rates remaining elevated for at least a full decade after the China trade shock commences. Exposed workers experience greater job churning and reduced lifetime income. At the national level, employment has fallen in the US industries more exposed to import competition, as expected, but offsetting employment gains in other industries have yet to materialize. Better understanding when and where trade is ...

Evolution of Eastern Asian and Eastern North American Disjunct Distributions in Flowering Plants

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The disjunct distributions of morphologically similar plants between eastern Asia and eastern North America have fascinated botanists and biogeographers since the Linnaean era. This biogeographic pattern is currently recognized by the disjunct distributions of some species, approximately 65 genera, and a few closely related genera in these two widely separated areas. Early workers treated many disjuncts as conspecific, but most were later recognized as intercontinental species pairs. Recent phylogenetic studies confirm affinities between many of the disjunct taxa but also indicate that the disjunct pairs of species are rarely each other's closest relatives. Instead, a pattern of further diversification of species on one or both continents is commonly found. Phylogenetic, molecular, geologic, and fossil data all support the hypothesis that the eastern Asian and eastern North American disjunct distributions are relicts of the maximum development of temperate forests in the northern hemisphere dur...

Power Laws in Economics and Finance

Abstract: A power law (PL) is the form taken by a large number of surprising empirical regularities in economics and finance. This review surveys well-documented empirical PLs regarding income and wealth, the size of cities and firms, stock market returns, trading volume, international trade, and executive pay. It reviews detailindependent theoretical motivations that make sharp predictions concerning the existence and coefficients of PLs, without requiring delicate tuning of model parameters. These theoretical mechanisms include random growth, optimization, and the economics of superstars, coupled with extreme value theory. Some empirical regularities currently lack an appropriate explanation. This article highlights these open areas for future research.

The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility

Abstract: This article distills and extends recent research on the economics of human development and social mobility. It summarizes the evidence from diverse literatures on the importance of early life conditions in shaping multiple life skills and the evidence on critical and sensitive investment periods for shaping different skills. It presents economic models that rationalize the evidence and unify the treatment effect and family influence literatures. The evidence on the empirical and policy importance of credit constraints in forming skills is examined. There is little support for the claim that untargeted income transfer policies to poor families significantly boost child outcomes. Mentoring, parenting, and attachment are essential features of successful families and interventions that shape skills at all stages of childhood. The next wave of family studies will better capture the active role of the emerging autonomous child in learning and responding to the actions of parents, mentors, and teachers.