The Economic Effects of Energy Price Shocks

By Lutz Kilian

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Large fluctuations in energy prices have been a distinguishing characteristic of the U.S. economy since the 1970s. Turmoil in the Middle East, rising energy prices in the United States, and evidence of global warming recently have reignited interest in...

Central Bank Communication and Monetary Policy: A Survey of Theory and Evidence

By Alan S. Blinder, Michael Ehrmann, Marcel Fratzscher, Jakob De Haan, and David-Jan Jansen

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Over the last two decades, communication has become an increasingly important aspect of monetary policy. These real-world developments have spawned a huge new scholarly literature on central bank communication—mostly empirical, and almost all of ...

A Review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World

By Robert C. Allen

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

A Farewell to Alms advances striking claims about the economic history of the world. These include (1) the preindustrial world was in a Malthusian preventive check equilibrium, (2) living standards were unchanging and above subsistence for the la...

Is the Obesity Epidemic a Public Health Problem? A Review of Zoltan J. Acs and Alan Lyles's Obesity, Business and Public Policy

By Tomas J. Philipson and Richard A. Posner

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

We review the recent but growing economic literature on the worldwide growth of obesity, relating the review to a recent anthology of articles—Obesity, Business and Public Policy. We discuss the competing explanations for the growth of obes...

A Review of Tito Boeri, Lans Bovenberg, Benoît Coeuré, and Andrew Roberts's Dealing with the New Giants and Peter J. Orszag, Mark Iwry, and William G. Gale's Aging Gracefully

By Olivia S. Mitchell

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Global aging will impose greater economic demands on the young and may entail dramatic consumption shortfalls for the old. Against this gloomy backdrop, many analysts hail the world’s funded pension systems as a means to protect future retirement sec...

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Front matter includes Table of Contents.

Annotated Listing of New Books

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

JEL Classification System

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Doctoral Dissertations in Economics One-Hundred-Fifth Annual List

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

General Index

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

Index of Authors of New Books

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2008

The Social Multiplier and Labor Market Participation of Mothers

By Eric Maurin and Julie Moschion

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

In France, as in the US, a mother's labor market participation is influenced by the sex composition of her two eldest siblings. This paper shows that it is also affected by the sex composition of the eldest siblings of the other mothers living in the s...

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Agricultural Credit in India

By Shawn Cole

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

This paper integrates theories of political budget cycles with theories of tactical electoral redistribution to test for political capture in a novel way. Studying banks in India, I find that government-owned bank lending tracks the electoral cycle, wi...

Biological Gender Differences, Absenteeism, and the Earnings Gap

By Andrea Ichino and Enrico Moretti

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

In most countries, women are absent from work more frequently than men. Using personnel data, we find that the absences of women below the age of 45 follow a 28-day cycle, while the absences of men and of women over the age of 45 do not. We interpret t...

The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Mortality: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the Minimum Drinking Age

By Christopher Carpenter and Carlos Dobkin

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

We estimate the effect of alcohol consumption on mortality using the minimum drinking age in a regression discontinuity design. We find large and immediate increases in drinking at age 21, including a 21 percent increase in recent drinking days. We als...

Many Children Left Behind? Textbooks and Test Scores in Kenya

By Paul Glewwe, Michael Kremer, and Sylvie Moulin

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

A randomized evaluation in rural Kenya finds, contrary to the previous literature, that providing textbooks did not raise average test scores. Textbooks did increase the scores of the best students (those with high pretest scores) but had little effect...

Incentives and Services for College Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Trial

By Joshua Angrist, Daniel Lang, and Philip Oreopoulos

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

This paper reports on an experimental evaluation of strategies designed to improve academic performance among college freshmen. One treatment group was offered academic support services. Another was offered financial incentives for good grades. A third...

Sticking with Your Vote: Cognitive Dissonance and Political Attitudes

By Sendhil Mullainathan and Ebonya Washington

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that the act of voting for a candidate leads to a more favorable opinion of the candidate in the future. We find support for the empirical relevance of cognitive dissonance to political attitudes. We examine the pr...

Separated at Girth: US Twin Estimates of the Effects of Birth Weight

By Heather Royer

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2009

The fetal origins hypothesis asserts that nutrient deprivation in utero can raise chronic disease risk. Within economics, this hypothesis has gained acceptance as a leading explanation for the correlations between birth weight, a proxy for fetal nutrie...