Recently added articles from NBER Reporter:
Search technologies and retail competition.(Research Summaries)
Sep 22, 2009; ... When the Internet first came into wide consumer use, one heard a lot about the promise of "frictionless commerce." New search technologies would make it easy for consumers to find the exact product they wanted at the lowest possible price. Whether such a future comes to pass is obviously ...
Measuring tariff evasion and smuggling.(Research Summaries)
Sep 22, 2009; ... Tales of bribery and corruption date back to the beginning of recorded history. By the time the historian Suetonius was at work documenting the antics of Roman leaders, his chronicles were filled with extorting senators, vote-buying Caesars, and judges-for-sale. Needless to say, we do not ...
How labor institutions influence firms and labor markets.(Research Summaries)
Sep 22, 2009; ... During the past year, perceived market failures have resulted in financial and product markets being encouraged to increase their level of government regulation. The labor market, however, continues to be one segment of the economy with the most extensive and deeply ingrained role for ...
Dynamic measures of inflation.(Research Summaries)
Sep 22, 2009; ... While the definition of inflation is widely agreed upon--"a continuing rise in the general price level" according to Merriam-Webster--turning it into a concrete measure is much more difficult. One key obstacle is figuring out how to combine all of the price changes in the economy into a ...
Empirically evaluating economic policy in real time.(The Martin Feldstein Lecture)
Sep 22, 2009; ... To honor Martin Feldstein's distinguished leadership and extraordinary contributions to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Feldstein Lecture addresses an important question in applied economics, with an application to economic policy. In this inaugural lecture I consider ...