DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

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.

When schools close for the summer—even in the years before the pandemic—food hardship among families with children rises. But there is a policy that can help: for the summer of 2022, summer months count as school closures and all states can apply to provide eligible children with Pandemic EBT.

Poor countries should not be significantly affected by the loss of Ukrainian agricultural products. While Russia’s war has undoubtedly caused real problems in global food markets, they are different and more complex than what most news coverage suggests.

As fertility rates have declined in high-income countries, the cross-country relationship between women’s labour supply and fertility has reversed. Today, in countries where more women are working, more babies are born. This column suggests that classic models of fertility no longer explain ultra-low fertility rates in high-income countries, where the compatibility of women’s career and family goals are now a key driver of fertility decisions. The authors highlight four factors that facilitate combining a career and childbirth: family policy, cooperative fathers, favourable social norms, and flexible labour markets.

For Those Living in Poverty, Therapy Can Have Benefits Beyond Mental Health A large study suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy can also improve physical health and economic outcomes.

A patient seller interacts with a sequence of myopic consumers. Each period, the seller chooses the quality of his product, and a consumer decides whether to trust the seller after she observes the seller’s actions in the last K periods (limited memory) and at least one previous consumer’s action (observational learning). However, the consumer cannot observe the seller’s action in the current period. With positive probability, the seller is a commitment type who plays his Stackelberg action in every period. I show that under limited memory and observational learning, consumers are concerned that the seller will not play his Stackelberg action when he has a positive reputation and will play his Stackelberg action after he has lost his reputation. Such a concern leads to equilibria where the seller receives a low payoff from building a reputation.

Northwestern’s Joel Mokyr's book is a recommended read in The Economist's article, "What to read to understand the history of Western capitalism"

As countries work to expand renewable energy, Gonzales, Ito, and Reguant study the static and dynamic impacts of market integration on renewable energy expansion in Chile using two recent grid expansions in the electricity market.

Northwestern University has announced the winners of the 2022 Nemmers Prizes in Earth sciences, economics and mathematics. The biennial prizes recognize top scholars for their lasting significance, outstanding achievements, contributions to knowledge and the development of significant new modes of analysis.