National Bureau of Economic Research

Seven postdoctoral scholars have been awarded NBER fellowships for the 2024–25 academic year, following widely disseminated calls for applications.

Woojin Kim, who received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and Chika O. Okafor, who received his PhD from Harvard University, will hold fellowships in aging and health economics supported by the National Institute on Aging. Kim is studying the interaction between physicians political allegiance and practice patterns, while Okafor will investigate how the criminal legal system impacts health outcomes and disparities.

Sean Kiely, who received his PhD from the University of California, Davis, will hold a fellowship in agricultural economics supported by the US Department of Agriculture. His research focuses on the impact of information and food labeling…

Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) “family maximum” rules cap the benefits that can be paid to a disabled worker’s family at the lower of 85 percent of the worker’s average indexed monthly earnings and 150 percent of their primary insurance amount. The effect of these rules is that family payments are the same whether a DI beneficiary has one or many dependents, and when DI beneficiaries have low benefit determinations, there are no payments for dependents at all. 

In Understanding the Disparate Impacts of the Social Security Disability Insurance Family Maximum Rules (NBER RDRC Paper NB23-07), Timothy J. Moore examines how the economic wellbeing of DI beneficiary...

NBER affiliates Anusha Chari, Matthew Kraft, and Laura Wherry are currently serving as senior economists at the Council of Economic Advisers. Chari, affiliated with the International Finance and Macroeconomics program, is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Kraft, an Economics of Education program affiliate, is an Associate Professor of Education at Brown University. Wherry, affiliated with the Economics of Health program, is an Associate Professor at New York University’s Graduate School of Public Service. 

Three other affiliates have…

While some colleges use transparent criteria such as grade point averages (GPAs) and class ranks to evaluate applicants, many add elements such as applicant essays and letters of recommendation to their admissions process. Broader criteria allow colleges to consider more information about applicants at the cost of increased opacity of the admissions process. This lack of transparency may deter applicants who are uncertain about their chances of satisfying vague requirements.

In Transparency and Percent Plans (NBER Working Paper 32372), Adam Kapor studies the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan, a policy dating back to 1997 that guarantees admission to any Texas public college to high school students...

Air pollution has serious and longstanding negative effects on human health. The primary focus of research on air pollution in the United States since the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 has been the health implications of particulate matter. In comparison, there has been relatively little work on air pollution and health in historical periods, even though air pollution was much higher in earlier times than it is today. Research on historical air pollution can provide new evidence on the health consequences of air pollution in the United States and offer insights that may be relevant for policymaking in settings with high levels of air pollution, such as developing countries.

Our research focuses on four topics related to historical air pollution and health: the costs and benefits of expansion of coal-fired…

Adults who live in more educated communities have lower mortality rates. In 2010, every 10 percentage point increase in an area’s share of adults with a college degree — equivalent to moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile of area education — was associated with 97 (8 percent) fewer deaths per 100,000 people. In Human Capital Spillovers and Health: Does Living around College Graduates Lengthen Life? (NBER Working Paper 32346), researchers Jacob H. Bor, David M. Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser, and Ljubica Ristovska explore this relationship...

Immigrants play a significant role in the entrepreneurial landscape. In the United States, immigrants are 80 percent more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans. More than half of America's billion-dollar startup companies trace their roots to immigrant founders. There is limited research, however, on the factors that influence immigrants' decisions about where to locate their startup businesses. 

In The Effect of Immigration Policy on Founding Location Choice: Evidence from Canada's Start-up Visa Program (NBER Working Paper 31634), Saerom Lee and Britta Glennon investigate the impact of Canada's Start-up Visa Program on US-based…