National Bureau of Economic Research

A new study of German and Swedish data finds that men’s earnings increase following a couple’s move to a new commuting zone, while women’s earnings stay the same or decline at the outset. Couples are also more likely to relocate when a man is laid off than after a woman is.

These findings suggest that couples’ relocation decisions are driven by traditional gender norms rather than efforts to maximize household income, according to Moving to Opportunity, Together (NBER Working Paper 32970), by Seema Jayachandran, Lea Nassal, Matthew J. Notowidigdo, Marie Paul, Heather Sarsons, and Elin Sundberg.

The study focuses on couples who moved between commuting zones...

Digital health technologies, such as remote monitoring devices and telemedicine services, have attracted considerable interest due to their potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. These innovations could, however, exacerbate health disparities if adoption rates are lower among underserved communities.

In Equity and Efficiency in Technology Adoption: Evidence from Digital Health (NBER Working Paper 32992), researchers Itzik Fadlon, Parag Agnihotri, Christopher Longhurst, and Ming Tai-Seale analyze a remote...

The US safety net provides a wide variety of supports for low-income families from food assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to wage subsidies like the Earned Income Tax Credit. However, receipt of these benefits among eligible households is not automatic — households must actively apply to each program from which they seek benefits. Enrollment processes often include lengthy procedures associated with demonstrating need or complying with other eligibility criteria during both the initial application and recertification periods.

The benefits of completing these administrative requirements are substantial — for example, the average SNAP participant receives roughly $2,500 per year in benefits. However, recent research on administrative burdens in government programs suggests that…

Social Security Disability (SSD) program beneficiaries, like other consumers, have been negatively affected by inflation over the past several years. In a survey from June of 2023, more than half (59 percent) of SSD program beneficiaries reported higher prices for the disability-related goods and services they need to purchase, and more than one-quarter reported reducing food spending to cover disability-related costs, Zachary Morris and Stephanie Rennane found in Examining the Impact of Inflation on the Economic Security of Disability Program Beneficiaries (NBER RDRC Paper NB23-08).

Using new survey data, the researchers found that 82 percent of beneficiaries reported out-of-pocket expenses related to their disability, with average annual spending of $4,412 and median spending...

Sociologists have argued that “third places” like cafés, which provide opportunities for individuals to socialize and exchange ideas outside of home and work, improve neighborhood life. But what about the relationship between such places and economic activity? In Third Places and Neighborhood Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Starbucks Cafés (NBER Working Paper 32604), researchers Jinkyong Choi, Jorge Guzman, and Mario L. Small use data on US business registrations between 1990 and 2022 from the Startup Cartography Project to examine whether the opening of a Starbucks in a neighborhood with no previous cafés affects local entrepreneurship...