Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at University of Chicago — Frontier Research, Global Impact.

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2024 Price Theory Summer Camp

In its fourteenth year, the Price Theory Summer Camp introduces PhD students from outside UChicago to price theory, which emphasizes the application of basic economic tools to problems.

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2024 Expanding Diversity in Economics Summer Institute

In its fourth year, undergraduates worldwide will learn from UChicago faculty, distinguished guests, and Brookings Institution policy leaders.

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Latest Insights

The latest economic commentary from UChicago's leading scholars, fellows, and special guests. Featuring Research Briefs, Interactive Charts, Videos, Podcasts, and more.

Banking on Trust: Supervisory Transparency and Depositors’ Actions

Following news of regulatory penalties on some banks, depositors withdraw money from both offending and proximate nonoffending branches, with more withdrawals from nonoffending branches in regions where trust in public institutions is lower.

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The Uncertainties of Climate Change

How can we incentivize the private and public sectors to develop and deploy solutions to climate change, while accounting for uncertainties? This episode of The Pie covers a panel discussion among professors David Keith of the Department of the Geophysical...

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Using Cellphone Data to Observe Religious Worship in the United States

Using Cellphone Data to Observe Religious Worship in the United States What do location data from roughly 2.1 million cellphones say about religiosity in the United States? In this episode of The Pie, Devin Pope, Professor of Economics and Behavioral...

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Location Sorting and Endogenous Amenities: Evidence from Amsterdam

Different demographic groups tend to prefer different types of amenities, and businesses respond by expanding amenities in neighborhoods with greater demand. This pattern reinforces residential sorting, with ambiguous effects on inequality.

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Latest Frontier Research

The BFI Working Paper Series disseminates current research in economics to encourage comments and discussion.

Labor Market Matching, Wages, and Amenities

This paper develops the nonparametric identification of models with production complementarities, worker-firm specific disutility of labor and search frictions. Mobility in the model is subject to preference shocks, and we assume that firms can write wage contracts. We develop a...

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Lessons from the Biggest Business Tax Cut in US History

We assess the business provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the biggest corporate tax cut in US history. We draw five lessons. First, corporate tax revenue fell by 40 percent due to the lower rate and more...

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Identifying Agglomeration Shadows: Long-run Evidence from Ancient Ports

We examine “agglomeration shadows” that emerge around large cities, which discourage some economic activities in nearby areas. Identifying agglomeration shadows is complicated, however, by endogenous city formation and “wave interference” that we show in simulations. We use the locations of...

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