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National Bureau of Economic Research

Latest from the nber, a research summary from the monthly nber digest.

Contractor Incentives Improve Performance of Weatherization Program

In a program designed to save energy by promoting home weatherization among low-income households, compensating contractors based on the amount of natural gas saved increased the average benefit by 24 percent.  Peter Christensen ,  Paul Francisco , and  Erica Myers  report this finding in  Incentive Pay and Social Returns to Worker Effort in Public Programs: Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program  (NBER Working Paper 31322).

The researchers partnered with the Illinois Home Weatherization Assistance Program and studied projects that were undertaken in 2018 and 2019. Jobs were randomly assigned contracts of three types: high incentive, low incentive...

NBER Appoints 54 Research Associates, 3 Faculty Research Fellows

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From the NBER Bulletin on Health

What Accounts for the Rise in Suicide Rates in the US?

Annual suicide deaths per 100,000 people in the US increased gradually from 10 in 1950 to 13 in 1970 then experienced a long decline, reaching a trough at 10 in 2000. Between 2000 and 2020, however, the US suicide rate exhibited an upward trend.  

Two aspects of this increase are especially notable. The first is its speed. Between 2000 and 2020, the suicide rate rose from 10 per 100,000 to just over 14 — a 40 percent increase in only 20 years, and enough to temporarily catapult suicide into the top 10 causes of death in the US. The second was the absence of other countries experiencing...

Three New Directors Elected to NBER Board

Esther George, William M. Lewis Jr., and Laurence C. Morse were elected members at large of the NBER Board of Directors at the board’s September 11 meeting.

From the NBER Bulletin on Retirement and Disability

Do Married Couples Coordinate Their Retirement Savings Efficiently?

As nearly two-thirds of US civilian workers have access to an employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plan, workers’ decisions as to whether and how much to contribute to their DC plans have important consequences for their retirement security. Most employers offer a “match,” where the employer’s contribution to the plan depends on the employee’s contribution, though the match rate and the amount of contributions eligible to be matched vary across employers. An employer match creates a large and transparent incentive to contribute by offering a guaranteed return on the worker’s contribution.

From the NBER Reporter: Research, program, and conference summaries

Evaluating Urban Transportation Policies

Traffic congestion poses a significant challenge in urban centers, especially in fast-growing emerging economies where rapid urbanization and increased travel demand have outpaced road infrastructure and regulations. Longer travel times and worsened air quality resulting from congestion hinder mobility and urban development while reducing the overall quality of life. In the 2018 TomTom Traffic Index, which is based on real-time GPS traffic data from 403 cities in 56 countries, the 10 most congested cities were all in developing and emerging economies. In these cities, commuters spent over 200 hours of extra travel time per year relative to when transport was flowing freely.

From the NBER Bulletin on Entrepreneurship

Gender and race gaps on the path to startup success.

Depending on the data source, 12 and 28 percent of high-growth startups are run by women, although women make up 45 percent of the overall labor force. Fewer than 10 percent of entrepreneurs are Black. In Race and Gender in Entrepreneurial Finance (NBER Working Paper 30444), Michael Ewens surveys available data and presents a framework for assessing gender and race gaps in startup founding, financing, and growth.  

Featured Working Papers

Claire E. Boone ,  Pablo A. Celhay ,  Paul Gertler , and Tadeja Gracner find that reminders of primary care appointments increased preventative care visits by about 10%, leading to improved medication adherence and more timely hospitalizations among hypertension and type 2 diabetes patients.

In rich countries, urban travel is about 50% faster than in poor countries. Prottoy A. Akbar ,  Victor Couture ,  Gilles Duranton , and Adam Storeygard find, this is primarily because cities in richer countries have more major roads and wider land areas which increases uncongested speeds but do not reduce congestion.

Target Date Funds were a stabilizing force in US equity markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, generating contrarian investment flows across asset classes, find Jonathan A. Parker  and Yang Sun .

Communication interventions targeting low-income adults in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 9.8% decrease in mental distress, according to Francis Annan  and Belinda Archibong .

After Canada adopted a Start-up Visa Program in 2013, the fraction of US-based immigrants who had an active start-up in Canada rose by 69%, according to new research by Saerom (Ronnie) Lee  and Britta Glennon .

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