Latest Insights

Research Briefs·May 14, 2025

Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index: A New Employment Series for the US, Canada, and the UK

In partnership with Intuit, the authors created the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index, a new data source covering monthly small business employment and hiring in the United States, Canada, and the U.K.
Research Briefs·May 13, 2025

Interactive Research Brief: Measuring the Characteristics and Employment Dynamics of U.S. Inventors

Innovation is a key driver of economic growth, and understanding the conditions that lead people to invent new technologies can help reduce inequality between groups as well as help spur growth overall. This project aims to facilitate such efforts using...
Podcasts episode·May 13, 2025

Between a Chip and a Hard Place: The Economics of Security and Sovereignty in Taiwan

What does Taiwan’s precarious position reveal about global power, economic leverage, and the unraveling of diplomatic norms? In this episode, economist Chang-Tai Hsieh returns to unpack Taiwan’s tangled political history, its deep economic entanglement with China, and the global stakes...
Research Briefs·May 8, 2025

The Effect of Medicaid on Crime: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

Random access to Medicaid health insurance coverage does not reduce the likelihood of criminal charges or convictions.

Latest Frontier Research

BFI Working Paper·May 13, 2025

Saved by Medicaid: New Evidence on Health Insurance and Mortality from the Universe of Low-Income Adults

We examine the causal effect of health insurance on mortality using the universe of low-income adults, a dataset of 37 million individuals identified by linking the 2010 Census to administrative tax data. Our methodology leverages state-level variation in the timing...
BFI Working Paper·May 13, 2025

Meaning at Work

We evaluate a firm’s unusual, worker-centered, solution to the agency problem: enabling employees to reduce the cost of effort rather than pushing them with performance rewards. We randomize the roll-out of the firm’s “Discover Your Purpose” intervention among 2,976 white-collar...
BFI Working Paper·May 12, 2025

Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks

Curricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. We examine textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools,...

Past Events

May 15
Becker Brown Bag·May 15, 2025, 12:00 PM·Harper Center, Room C09

BFI Student Lunch Series – The Economics of Biodiversity Losses

May 13
Academic Conferences·May 13, 2025, 8:30 AM·David Rubenstein Forum |6th Floor 1201 E 60th St, Chicago, IL, 60637

2025 Education Finance Conference

by Michael Dinerstein, Dmitri Koustas, Lesley Turner, and Constantine Yannelis
May 12
Workshops·May 12, 2025, 12:00 PM·Charles M. Harper Center | Room C03

Spring 2025 Behavioral Economics Seminar Series

by Leonardo Bursztyn and Alex Imas
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Upcoming Events

May 15
Becker Brown Bag·May 15, 2025, 12:00 PM·Harper Center, Room C09

BFI Student Lunch Series – The Economics of Biodiversity Losses

May 16
Workshops·May 16, 2025, 12:30 PM·Saieh Hall for Economics, Rm 021 , 5757 S. University, Chicago, IL, United States, 60637

Development Lunch Workshop – Spring 2025

Organizers: Fiona Burlig, Joshua Dean, and Erin M. Kelly
May 16
Event·May 16, 2025, 5:00 PM·Charles M. Harper Center, Room C05 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637

2025 Undergraduate Spring Panel: The US Trade Policy: Global Village? Small Yard, Tall Fence?

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About BFI

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About the Becker Friedman Institute

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...
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Our Legacy

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.

Our Team

University of Chicago faculty members and other accomplished economists set the goals and direction of the Institute.
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