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Working Group Report: Market Design
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The Market Design Working Group, established in 2009 under the leadership of Susan Athey and Parag Pathak, is a preeminent research forum in the field of market design. The working group meets annually, alternating between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Palo Alto, California, to present research that bridges theoretical economics and practical applications, all focused on what The Economist aptly characterized as “an intelligently designed invisible hand.” Research in market design has been celebrated in academic circles, as evidenced by recognitions like the 2012 Nobel Prize for work on matching markets and the 2020 Nobel Prize for auction theory, and has also been instrumental in catalyzing tangible reforms in real-world institutions and markets.
One feature that sets market design apart…
A research summary from the monthly NBER Digest
The Inflation Reduction Act and the Electric Vehicle Market
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The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) relied heavily on electric vehicle (EV) subsidies to advance its goal of decarbonizing the US transportation sector. In The Effects of “Buy American”: Electric Vehicles and the Inflation Reduction Act (NBER Working Paper 33032), Hunt Allcott, Reigner Kane, Maximilian S. Maydanchik, Joseph S. Shapiro, and Felix Tintelnot find that the net social...
From the NBER Bulletin on Retirement and Disability
Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
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In Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (NBER Working Paper 32971 an earlier version, NBER RDRC Paper NB23-11), Nicolò Russo, Rory McGee, Mariacristina De Nardi, Margherita Borella, and Ross Abram use data from the Health and Retirement Study over the period 1996–2018 to evaluate measures of health inequality in middle age and the consequences of such health disparities.
They consider two health measures: self-reported health status, measured by the response to a survey question that asks individuals to rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor, and...
From the NBER Bulletin on Health
Digital Health Technology and Patient Outcomes
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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...
From the NBER Bulletin on Entrepreneurship
“Third Places” Boost Local Economic Activity
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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...
Featured Working Papers
John M. Barrios, Yael Hochberg, and Hanyi Yi find that new business registrations increased following stay-at-home mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effect was attenuated in areas with high potential for telework. Flexibility in traditional employment thus seems to reduce entrepreneurial intent.
Black and Hispanic respondents in a national survey demonstrate higher entrepreneurial intentions than Whites but are much less likely to launch ventures once ideas are conceived, which Victor M. Bennett and David T. Robinson find is related to differential reliance on social networks.
Using data on over 100 million physician office visits, Christopher Worsham, Charles Bray, and Anupam Jena find that the ADHD diagnosis rate was 62.7 per 10,000 child-visits on Halloween, compared with 55.1 during surrounding weekdays, suggesting that external factors that may influence ADHD diagnosis.
Venture capital investors — particularly those who had never previously funded a Black entrepreneur — increased investments in Black-founded startups following George Floyd’s murder, but these investments reverted to prior levels within two years, Matt Marx, Qian Wang, and Emmanuel Yimfor find.
In the anesthesia industry and 18 similar industries in which serial acquisitions — known as rollups — were used to consolidate ownership, Aslihan Asil, Paulo Ramos, Amanda Starc, and Thomas G. Wollmann find substantial price increases.
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