National Bureau of Economic Research

The NBER has awarded four Robert Summers fellowships that enable economic statisticians to attend the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (CRIW) meeting on July 20–21, 2026, in Cambridge, MA. Founded in 1936 by Simon Kuznets, the CRIW provides a forum for academics, government representatives, and business economists to present and discuss the latest research in this area. The fellows will participate in the meeting, which is part of the NBER Summer Institute, and have an opportunity to interact with leading scholars and practitioners in the field of economic measurement. 

The…

Over half of US freight, measured in ton-miles, moves using more than one transport mode. Roughly two-thirds of shipments traveling over 500 miles rely on combinations of road, rail, and waterway networks connected by ports and inland terminals. Recent disruptions—from pandemic-era port congestion to the Panama Canal drought and threatened rail strikes—have shown how problems at local bottlenecks can ripple through this multimodal system, raising transport costs and affecting supply chains nationwide.

In Multimodal Transport Networks (NBER Working Paper 35065), Simon Fuchs and Woan Foong Wong develop a…

The NBER Economics of Education Program covers topics related to education in a manner that is deeply informed by economic logic and empirical methods. The program draws upon theory from several fields including public, labor, development, and urban economics, as well as industrial organization. The program has 179 members and meets three times a year in Cambridge, Chicago, Stanford, and Washington. The average meeting attracts about 100 submissions for a program of about 10 papers. The program has a culture that combines rigor, constructive advice, and noteworthy collegiality.

Top North American universities are very well represented, but the Economics of Education draws participants from many states, countries, universities, and organizations. While the papers often analyze high-income countries’ policies, most of the…

Nursing homes certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide care and receive public reimbursement through Medicare and Medicaid are subject to mandatory annual inspections. While inspections are unannounced, they typically occur on an approximately yearly basis, as 74 percent of inspections take place between 40 and 60 weeks after the previous one. The average gap is around 53 weeks. Due to the cyclical nature of inspections, nursing home operators are able to anticipate when an inspection is likely and adjust their behavior accordingly. They appear to devote more effort to patient care when inspections are approaching.

In Predictably Unpredictable Inspections (NBER Working Paper 34491), Ashvin Gandhi, Andrew Olenski, and Maggie Shi study how the predictability of nursing home inspections shapes facility effort and patient...

Roughly one-quarter of new employer businesses in the United States are started by immigrants. Immigrant inventors have been responsible for approximately 23 percent of US patents produced since 1976 despite making up only 16 percent of the total US-based inventor population. Yet immigrant entrepreneurs usually do not build companies in isolation—many cofound startups alongside US-born entrepreneurs. In Native-Immigrant Entrepreneurial Synergies (NBER Working Paper 33804), Zhao Jin, Amir Kermani, and Timothy McQuade examine whether startups cofounded by immigrant and native entrepreneurs outperform those with founders from exclusively one...