The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire University of Chicago economics community, uniting researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the...
Inspired by our namesakes, Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Milton Friedman, who believed that economics research could help improve the world, BFI works with the Chicago Economics community to turn its evidence-based research into real-world impact.
EDE is a University of Chicago Summer Institute designed to identify and support talented undergraduate students from a broad range of backgrounds interested in the study of economics.
Maria Angélica Bautista, Juan Sebastián Galán, James Robinson, Rafael F. Torres, and Ragnar Torvik
Political leaders make policy choices which are often hard to explain via institutions. We use the behavior of Colombian paramilitary groups as an environment to study non-institutional sources of variation in how public good provision and violence are combined to...
This paper measures parents’ beliefs about school and peer quality, how information about each affects school choices, and how social interactions mediate these effects. Parents underestimate school quality and overestimate peer quality. Cross-randomized school and peer quality information combined with...
Mesmin Destin, Ivan Hernandez, Ariel Kalil, Marlis Schneider, David Silverman, and Rebecca Ryan
Creating opportunities for people to achieve socioeconomic mobility is a widely shared societal goal. Paradoxically, however, achieving this goal can pose a threat to high-socioeconomic-status (SES) people as they look to maintain their privileged positions in society for both them...
The latest economic commentary from UChicago's leading scholars, fellows, and special guests. Featuring Research Briefs, Interactive Charts, Videos, Podcasts, and more.
When heterosexual couples in Germany and Sweden relocate, men’s earnings increase by 5-10%, while women’s do not change. Couples are more likely to relocate when the man, rather than the woman, is laid off. These gaps appear at least in...
Why do people hate inflation? Employers do not automatically give workers raises when inflation is high. Instead, workers have to fight for raises, leading to conflict with employers. Accounting for this conflict meaningfully changes the costs of inflation to workers.
When the Soo Line threatened to expand into the Great Northern Railway’s territory in 1905, the two companies entered a fierce competition for marketshare in which the they rapidly constructed nearly 500 miles of rail tracks and over 50 new...
Nudging energy prosumers to conserve via a home energy report reduces their energy consumption, with significant variation across seasons and times of day. This suggests that prosumers both shift their energy use away from peak hours and conserve overall.
Political leaders make policy choices which are often hard to explain via institutions. We use the behavior of Colombian paramilitary groups as an environment to study non-institutional sources of variation in how public good provision and violence are combined to...
This paper measures parents’ beliefs about school and peer quality, how information about each affects school choices, and how social interactions mediate these effects. Parents underestimate school quality and overestimate peer quality. Cross-randomized school and peer quality information combined with...
Creating opportunities for people to achieve socioeconomic mobility is a widely shared societal goal. Paradoxically, however, achieving this goal can pose a threat to high-socioeconomic-status (SES) people as they look to maintain their privileged positions in society for both them...
The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire University of Chicago economics community, uniting researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the...
Inspired by our namesakes, Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Milton Friedman, who believed that economics research could help improve the world, BFI works with the Chicago Economics community to turn its evidence-based research into real-world impact.