Forecasting in the Presence of Instabilities: How We Know Whether Models Predict Well and How to Improve Them

By Barbara Rossi

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

This article provides guidance on how to evaluate and improve the forecasting ability of models in the presence of instabilities, which are widespread in economic time series. Empirically relevant examples include predicting the financial crisis of 2007...

A Survey on Income Inequality in China

By Junsen Zhang

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

After China's recent great success in eliminating absolute poverty, addressing relative income inequality becomes a more important issue. This survey finds that income inequality rapidly increased in the first three decades since 1978 but stabilized and s...

The Human Tide: A Review Essay

By Timothy W. Guinnane

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World, by Paul Morland, argues for the importance of demography in both historical events and our current situation. Intended for a general audience, the book traces demographic developments from...

Ten Years of Evidence: Was Fraud a Force in the Financial Crisis?

By John M. Griffin

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

This article synthesizes the large literature regarding the role of various players in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) securitization at the center of the 2008–09 US housing and financial crisis. Underwriting banks facilitated wide-scale...

"Somewhere in the Middle You Can Survive": Review of The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

By Avinash Dixit

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

This article reviews Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson's book The Narrow Corridor. They depict a constant tussle between "society," which wants liberty but cannot sustain order, and "state," which maintains order but grows oppressive. I argue tha...

Book Review: The Great Reversal by Thomas Philippon

By Jan Eeckhout

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

Thomas Philippon's The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets is a remarkable piece of research that draws our attention to a timely and relevant issue: the rise of market power and its macroeconomic implications. The book document...

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

Annotated Listing of New Books

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

JEL Classification System

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

Doctoral Dissertations in Economics

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2021

Beyond institutional enforcement

[Research Highlight]

December 10, 2021

Do institutions encourage prosocial behavior outside of their intended scope?

Spillover Effects of Institutions on Cooperative Behavior, Preferences, and Beliefs

By Florian Engl, Arno Riedl, and Roberto Weber

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, November 2021

Most institutions are limited in scope. We study experimentally how enforcement institutions affect behavior, preferences, and beliefs beyond their direct influence over the behaviors they control. Groups play two identical public good games, with coopera...

CSWEP News Issue IV: Find $$$ For Your Research

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Reimagining public safety research

[Research Highlight]

November 19, 2021

Yale sociologist Monica Bell talks about why economists must change the way they study police.

Work and childcare during the pandemic

[Research Highlight]

August 27, 2021

Stefania Albanesi discusses the effects of the COVID-19 recession on the US labor market.

A big push out of poverty

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A program in India shows that helping the ultra poor can have long-lasting effects.

Teenage Driving, Mortality, and Risky Behaviors

By Jason Huh and Julian Reif

American Economic Review: Insights, December 2021

We investigate the effect of teenage driving on mortality and risky behaviors in the United States using a regression discontinuity design. We estimate that total mortality rises by 5.84 deaths per 100,000 (15 percent) at the minimum legal driving age cut...