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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (Ed.) Periodical Part NBER Reporter Online, Volume 2006 NBER Reporter Online Provided in Cooperation with: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, Mass. Suggested Citation: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (Ed.) (2006) : NBER Reporter Online, Volume 2006, NBER Reporter Online, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/61989 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu NBER Reporter NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH Reporter OnLine at: www.nber.org/reporter SUMMER 2006 Program Report IN THIS ISSUE Program Report: Industrial Organization 1 Industrial Organization Research Summaries: Europe 8 Consumer Demand for Health Insurance 10 Nancy L. Rose* International…Production and Distribution 13 Historical…U.S. Trade Policy 16 NBER Profile 19 Conferences 20 Bureau News 3 The NBER’s Program on Industrial Organization (IO) celebrates its Current Working Papers 66 fifteenth anniversary this year. Researchers in the IO program explore a wide range of topics within the field. Rather than attempting to skim the full scope of program activity, this report highlights work in three broad areas: regulation and antitrust policy; pricing behavior by firms; and auc- tions markets. Discussion of the substantial body of research on technol- ogy and technical change is deferred to reports of the Productivity Program and the NBER Project on Industrial Technology and Productivity. Those interested in learning more about the IO program may visit the NBER website for links to the full set of Industrial Organization Working Papers: http://www.nber.org/programs/io/io.html Regulatory and Antitrust Policy NBER Service Brings When markets deviate from competitive ideals, assessing the desirabil- You New Data for Free ity of government intervention requires a careful assessment of the costs of market failures relative to the benefits of imperfect regulation. The rec- A new, free NBER email ser- ognition that even imperfect markets may be preferable to regulated out- vice gives you daily email links to comes accompanied a dramatic transformation in the nature and extent all U.S. government data releases, of government intervention across a broad range of markets over the past including unemployment, trade, thirty years. Many industries long subject to price and entry regulation in interest rates, GDP, etc. We keep track of your preferences and the United States — among them airlines, trucking, railroads, and bank- email you the requested links ing — were deregulated. Telecommunications and electric utilities have when they are released. To sign been vertically disintegrated and structurally competitive segments were up for any or all of the govern- opened to market-based outcomes. Privatization of state-owned enter- ment releases, visit www.nber.org/ releases and register your choices. * Rose directs the NBER’s Program on Industrial Organization and is a Professor of Economics at MIT. In this article, the numbers in parentheses refer to NBER Working Papers. NBER Reporter Summer 2006 prises outside the United States has substan- tially increased reliance on market outcomes in NBER Reporter many sectors, although regulators in some cases have replaced government managers in provid- ing oversight. Where government intervention has been maintained, various forms of incen- tive-based regulation increasingly have replaced The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit research orga- state ownership or traditional cost-of-service nization founded in 920 and devoted to objective quantitative analysis of the rate determination. American economy. Its officers and board of directors are: IO program members are among the lead- President and Chief Executive Officer — Martin Feldstein ing scholars of antitrust and regulatory policy, Vice President for Administration and Budget — Susan Colligan and many have been directly involved in the Controller — Kelly Horak design or implementation of reforms through BOARD OF DIRECTORS their government service, advice to regulatory Chairman — Elizabeth E. Bailey agencies, or consulting to affected firms. In the Vice Chairman — John S. Clarkeson face of continuing policy debates over regula- Treasurer — Robert Mednick tory reform, highlighted more than a decade ago DIRECTORS AT LARGE by Paul Joskow and Roger Noll in the NBER’s Peter Aldrich Jessica P. Einhorn John Lipsky 994 American Economic Policy in the 1980s, Elizabeth E. Bailey Martin Feldstein Laurence H. Meyer the NBER recently sponsored a research proj- John Herron Biggs Jacob A. Frenkel Michael H. Moskow Andrew Brimmer Judith M. Gueron Alicia Munnell ect designed to leverage this expertise. Project John S. Clarkeson Robert S. Hamada Rudolph A. Oswald participants were asked to identify key issues Don R. Conlan George Hatsopoulos Robert T. Parry in economic regulation, assess the impact of Kathleen B. Cooper Karen N. Horn Marina v. N. Whitman George Eads Judy Lewent Martin B. Zimmerman regulatory reforms across a variety of indus- tries, and evaluate significant contemporary DIRECTORS BY UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENT concerns about these reforms. Two dozen schol- ars assembled for a September 2005 conference George Akerlof, California, Berkeley Joel Mokyr, Northwestern Jagdish W. Bhagwati, Columbia Andrew Postlewaite, Pennsylvania in Cambridge to discuss the results of this proj- Michael J. Brennan, California, Los Angeles Craig Swan, Minnesota ect, to be assembled in an NBER volume on Glen G. Cain, Wisconsin Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton “Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Ray C. Fair, Yale Nathan Rosenberg, Stanford Franklin Fisher, MIT David B. Yoffie, Harvard Have We Learned?” This project complements Saul H. Hymans, Michigan Arnold Zellner, Chicago a substantial body of primary research by NBER Marjorie B. McElroy, Duke associates on regulatory and antitrust policy. A DIRECTORS BY APPOINTMENT OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS selection of research from the conference and from NBER working papers is described below. Richard B. Berner, National Association for Business Economics Gail Fosler, The Conference Board Richard C. Green, American Finance Association Economic Regulation Dr. Arthur Kennickell, American Statistical Association and Its Reform Thea Lee, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations Robert Mednick, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Electricity Restructuring: Competition and Angelo Melino, Canadian Economics Association Incentive Regulation Jeffrey M. Perloff, American Agricultural Economics Association John J. Siegfried, American Economic Association William W. Lewis, Committee for Economic Development NBER researchers continue in the van- Gavin Wright, Economic History Association guard of research, market design, and imple- The NBER depends on funding from individuals, corporations, and private foun- mentation of electricity restructuring. Much dations to maintain its independence and its flexibility in choosing its research of the empirical work to date has focused on activities. Inquiries concerning contributions may be addressed to Martin Feldstein, President & CEO, NBER 050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, restructured generation markets, in which prices MA 0238-5398. All contributions to the NBER are tax deductible. generally are determined through a competi- tive bidding process. Frank Wolak2 describes The Reporter is issued for informational purposes and has not been reviewed by the Board of Directors of the NBER. It is not copyrighted and can be freely repro- the evolutionary nature of the restructuring duced with appropriate attribution of source. Please provide the NBER’s Public process, emphasizing the tension between an Information Department with copies of anything reproduced. imperfectly competitive market and an imper- Requests for subscriptions, changes of address, and cancellations should be sent fect regulatory process in providing incentives to Reporter, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 050 Massachusetts for least-cost supply at various stages of the Avenue, Cambridge, MA 0238-5398. Please include the current mailing label. production process. In one of the first empiri- 2 NBER Reporter Summer 2006 cal analyses of restructuring supply-side wholesale electricity prices. Borenstein