DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Studying the results of 50 $280 million dollar or more mergers, the researchers examine the effects of mergers on the sales prices and quantities

The researchers study the long-run effects of a big-push “graduation” program in Ethiopia in which very poor households received a one-time transfer of productive assets (mainly livestock), technical training, and access to savings accounts. After seven years, treatment effects on wealth and consumption remain economically meaningful but dissipated relative to the two- and three-year results. Treatment effects on other outcomes attenuated further. Based on absolute wellbeing (e.g., food security) not dropping, the authors argue that the treatment effect dissipation is driven primarily by improved living standards for control households, rather than losses of the previously accrued benefits for the treatment households.

We’ve become deeply familiar with stimulus checks in the last few years, but what isn’t clear is what affect these transfers may have on elections. Could stimulus checks be enough for citizens to change their votes to the party handing out the money and if so, is this a way for politicians to buy votes?Northwestern Professor of economics Silvia Vannutelli explores these questions in a paper titled “The Political Economy of Stimulus Transfers”. She looks at stimulus payments in Italy in 2014 and uncovers some surprising findings. Not only did these transfers appear to “purchase” some votes, but the effect seem to persist into the future.

Audits are a common mechanism used by governments to monitor public spending. In this paper, the researchers discuss the effectiveness of auditing with theory and empirics. In their model, the value of audits depends on both the underlying presence of abuse and the government’s ability to observe it and enforce punishments, making auditing most effective in middling state-capacity environments. Consistent with this theory, they survey all the existing credibly causal studies and show that government audits seem to have positive effects mostly in middle-state-capacity environments like Brazil. The authors present new empirical evidence from American city governments, a high-capacity and low-impropriety environment. Using a previously unexplored threshold in federal audit rules and a dynamic regression discontinuity framework, they estimate the effects of these audits on American city fina

The directors of the NBER’s 20 research programs recommend appointments after consulting with steering committees made up of leading scholars.

The EDE program was launched by BFI in 2021 and aims to increase diversity in economics through finding and supporting outstanding undergraduates who are interested in the field. Through the EDE Summer Institute, BFI and the Hutchins Center are dedicated to fostering a new generation of academics and professionals who draw on the tools of economics to offer new perspectives and research ideas, and eventually make a positive impact in the world. It recognizes the necessity of diversifying the study of economics and expanding the range of voices in the field.

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

The Econometrics Game, held annually by the University of Chicago, is a fast-paced competition where teams of one to four undergraduate students from universities across the US and internationally are given 13 hours with a dataset to devise and answer a question of economic importance. Northwestern's team, including Erica Ewing Zhou, Naoki Ito, Aren Soner Yalcin, and Natan Tesfahun, tied with Harvard to place first with their paper "Impacts of Pandemic Instruction Mode on High School Education Outcome: Evidence from Illinois."

Rebecca M. Blank, former president-elect and professor of economics at Northwestern, died Friday, Feb. 17, from cancer. She was 67 years old.

Northwestern honored 92 faculty members who earned tenure in 2020, 2021 and 2022 during a Feb. 6 ceremony in Evanston.

Economic Theory Fellows are selected for their scientific excellence, originality, and leadership; high ethical standards; and scholarly and creative achievement.

Jackson was previously Co-Editor of American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

His paper will be published in the Winter 2022 Issue

Professor Karlan will serve as USAID’s principal economist and top expert on economic policy and analysis.

Petryk is majoring in economics and international studies. She is interested in U.S. foreign policy and strengthening international commitments on economic development.

Every year, the Associated Student Government (ASG)asks the undergraduate student body to nominate faculty and administrators they believe have made an exceptional impact on their academic journey at Northwestern University. This year, Economics Department's Eric Schulz, James Hornsten, Mark Witte, Maxim Sinitsyn, Richard Walker, Sara Hernández-Saborit, and Sidonia McKenzie are recognized for their impact.

Congratulations to Piotr Dworczak and Benjamin Golub for their tenureship, and Lori Beaman and Mar Reguant for their promotions to full professor.

Working from home may have boosted fertility among college-educated women

Railroads and motor vehicles can come into conflict at level, or at-grade crossings. Such conflicts almost always lead to deadly consequences. In this podcast we consider the trend in rail grade crossing crashes, and the differences that crossing control devices, education, and other policies might make toward mitigating this risk.

New Econometric Society fellows also include Northwestern alumni Guido Menzio and Laura Veldkamp.

It’s not just the pandemic. For a wealthy country, Americans of every age, at every income level, are unusually likely to die, from guns, drugs, cars, our bodies.