National Bureau of Economic Research

In 2008, the US government launched the Secure Communities (SC) program, an information-sharing initiative that expanded the government’s ability to identify and detain individuals in violation of immigration law who were arrested for criminal offenses. The program, which was promoted as a way to improve public safety, was implemented piecemeal across counties between October 2008 and January 2013. It doubled the number of individuals transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, 90 percent of whom were Hispanic.

The SC program required that the fingerprints of individuals booked in local jails, typically sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also be forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security. This latter agency could then determine whether to initiate deportation proceedings. Over half of…

Cesarean section (C-section) is the most common surgical procedure performed in the United States. Sarah Robinson, Heather Royer, and David Silver report that C-section rates for first-time, singleton births increased from 24 percent to 32 percent between 1989 and 2017 alongside significant changes in medical practices during this period. In 2001, for example, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists began recommending C-sections for breech births. The rising rate of C-sections has sparked a debate about whether this procedure is being overused. 

In Geographic Variation in Cesarean Sections in the United States: Trends, Correlates, and Other Interesting Facts (NBER Working Paper 31871), the researchers study how cross-county differences in C-section usage correlate with infant and maternal...

Can healthcare markets deliver access, affordability, and quality? While markets for hospital and physician services both have unique challenges, generic drug pricing is often seen as a success story for market forces. After patent-related exclusivity ends, prices fall dramatically. Consumers have access to a range of highly clinically valuable products at low prices. Is this success unique or can it be replicated in other parts of the healthcare sector?

As in other healthcare markets, insurers play a crucial role in determining both prices and utilization of prescription drugs. Patients purchase pharmaceuticals from a pharmacy, either in a physical location or by mail. Like many retailers of consumer goods, pharmaceutical retailers purchase products from wholesalers and manufacturers. A unique feature in the financing of…

Over the past 25 years, labor force participation at older ages has increased dramatically. In the 12 countries that are part of the NBER’s International Social Security (ISS) project, participation among those aged 60 to 64 has risen by an average of over 20 percentage points for men and over 25 percentage points for women.

In The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior: Introduction and Summary (NBER Working Paper 31979), authors Axel Börsch-Supan and Courtney Coile report on the most recent work of the ISS project. The current analysis builds on previous project phases which showed that changes in health and education could…

Private equity (PE) firms’ business model is to acquire privately held companies, to change their strategy and operations with the goal of improving profitability and growth, and ultimately to sell the companies for a profit. The senior management team is replaced at a majority of private equity acquisitions. More than 40 percent of PE firms report that this is a key way to improve their acquisitions’ success.

In The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity (NBER Working Paper 30899), Paul Gompers, Steven Kaplan, and Vladimir Mukharlyamov compare the characteristics of CEOs installed by PE firms to the characteristics of those who become...