Program and working group meetings.

Chinese Economy

The NBER's Working Group on the Chinese Economy met in Cambridge on October 4 and 5, 2013. Research Associate Hanming Fang of the University of Pennsylvania and Research Associate and Working Group Director Shang-Jin Wei of Columbia University organized the conference. The following papers were discussed:

* Emi Nakamura and Jon Steinsson, Columbia University and NBER; and Miao Liu, Columbia University, "Are Chinese Growth and Inflation Too Smooth? Evidence from Engel Curves"

* Chunxin Jia and Yaping Wang, Peking University; and Wei Xiong, Princeton University and NBER, "How Local and Foreign Investors React to Public News"

* Erwin Bulte, Wageningen University; Lihe Xu, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China; and Xiaobo Zhang, International Food Policy Research Institute, "Does Aid Promote or Hinder Industrial Development? Quake Lessons from China"

* Ying Fan, University of Michigan; Jiandong Ju, University of Oklahoma; and Mo Xiao, University of Arizona, "Losing to Win: Reputation Management of Online Sellers"

* Kyle Handley, University of Michigan, and Nuno Limao, University of Maryland and NBER, "Policy Uncertainty, Trade, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence for China and the U.S." (NBER Working Paper No. 19376)

* Raymond Fisman, Columbia University and NBER, and Yongxiang Wang, University of Southern California, "The Mortality Cost of Political Connections"

* Lin Ji, Tsinghua University, and Shang-Jin Wei, "Learning from an Apparent Surprise: When Can Stronger Labor Protection Improve Productivity?"

* Jing Cai, University of Michigan, and Changcheng Song, National University of Singapore, "Do Hypothetical Experiences Affect Real Financial Decisions? Evidence from Insurance Take-Up"

* Di Guo, Kun Jiang, and Chenggang Xu, University of Hong Kong; and Byung-Yeon Kim, Seoul National University, "The Political Economy of Private Firms in China"

* Chang-Tai Hsieh, University of Chicago and NBER, and Zheng Michael Song, University of Chicago, "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/CEf13/summary.html

Behavioral Economics

The Behavioral Economics Working Group held a meeting in San Diego on October 24 and 25, 2013. Joseph Engelberg and Christopher Parsons of the University of California, San Diego organized the meeting. The following papers were discussed:

* Clifford Asness and Andrea Frazzini, AQR Capital Management; and Lasse Pedersen, Copenhagen Business School and NBER, "Quality Minus Junk"

* Martin Cherkes and Charles Jones, Columbia University; and Chester Spatt, Carnegie Mellon University and NBER, "A Solution to the Palm-3Com Spin-off Puzzles"

* Chi Liao, University of Toronto, "Risk Taking Begets Risk Taking: Evidence from Casino Openings and Investor Portfolios"

* Francesco D'Acunto, University of California, Berkeley, "Identity, Overconfidence and Investment Decisions"

* Bing Han, University of Toronto, and David Hirshleifer, University of California, Irvine, "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Norms and Undersaving"

* Lauren Cohen and Christopher Malloy, Harvard University and NBER; and Dong Lou, London School of Economics, "Playing Favorites: How Firms Prevent the Revelation of Bad News" (NBER Working Paper No. 19429)

* Mark Kamstra, York University; Lisa Kramer, University of Toronto; Maurice Levi, University of British Columbia; and Russ Wermers, University of Maryland, College Park, "Seasonal Asset Allocation: Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows"

* Harrison Hong, Princeton University and NBER; Hyun-Soo Choi, Singapore Management University; Jeffrey Kubik, Syracuse University; and Jeffrey Thompson, Federal Reserve Board, "When Real Estate is the Only Game in Town"

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/BEf13/summary.html

Economic Fluctuations and Growth

The NBER's Program on Economic Fluctuations and Growth met in Chicago on October 25, 2013. NBER Research Associates Martin Eichenbaum of Northwestern University and Erik Hurst of the University of Chicago organized the meeting. The follow-ing papers were discussed:

* Gian Luca Clementi, New York University and NBER, and Berardino Palazzo, Boston University, "Entry, Exit, Firm Dynamics, and Aggregate Fluctuations" (NBER Working Paper No. 19217)

* Yuriy Gorodnichenko, University of California, Berkeley and NBER, and Michael Weber, University of California, Berkeley, "Are Sticky Prices Costly? Evidence from the Stock Market" (NBER Working Paper No. 18860)

* Andrew Atkeson and Pierre-Olivier Weill, University of California, Los Angeles and NBER; and Andrea Eisfeldt, University of California, Los Angeles, "Measuring the Financial Soundness of U.S. Firms, 1926-2012" (NBER Working Paper No. 19204)

* Leonid Kogan, MIT and NBER; Dimitris Papanikolaou, Northwestern University and NBER; Amit Seru, University of Chicago and NBER; and Noah Stoffman, Indiana University, "Technological Innovation, Resource Allocation, and Growth" (NBER Working Paper No. 17769)

* Jesus Fernadez-Villaverde, University of Pennsylvania and NBER; Pablo Guerron-Quintana, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Keith Kuester, University of Bonn; and Juan Rubio-Ramirez, Duke University, "Fiscal Volatility Shocks and Economic Activity" (NBER Working Paper No. 17317)

* Emmanuel Farhi, Harvard University and NBER, and Ivan Werning, MIT and NBER, "Fiscal Multipliers: Liquidity Traps and Currency Unions" (NBER Working Paper No. 18381)

Summaries of these papers may be found at: http://www.nber.org/confer/2013/EFGf13/summary.html

International Finance and Macroeconomics

The NBER's Program on International Finance and Macroeconomics met in Cambridge on October 25, 2013. Research Associates Charles Engel of the University of Wisconsin and Linda Tesar of the University of Michigan organized the program. The following papers were discussed:

* Luis Catao and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti...