This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research

Volume Title: The New Realities of the Business Cyde

Volume Author/Editor: NBER

Volume Publisher: NBER

Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/unkn73-3

Publication Date: 1973

Chapter Title: Conference Programs

Chapter Author: Various

Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c4181

Chapter pages in book: (p. 126 - 131) III

Conference Programs

CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN INCOME AND WEALTH

The proceedings of the November 1971 confer- Wisconsin, and Marilyn Manser, State Univer- ence on Measurement of Economic and Social sity of New York, Buffalo Performance are now at the printer; those on Consumption Characteristics bf Housing—Dale Personal Distributions of Income and Wealth W. Jorgenson and Rafael Weston, Harvard are being edited. University A conference on Household Production and Direct Estimates of Performance Characteristics Consumption, under the chairmanship of Nestor of Automobiles—Zvi Griliches, Harvard UniV- E. Terleckyj, will be held on November 30 to versity, and Makoto Ohta December 1,1973,in Washintgon, D.C. The Estimates of Efficiency of Consumption in the following papers are expected to be delivered: Short and Long Run—Robert 1. Michael, Na- tional Bureau of Economic Research Correlation between Health and Schooling— Risk Measurement and Safety Standardsin Michael Grossman, National Bureau of Eco- Consumer Products — Vartkes Broussalian, nomic Research National Bureau of Standards Household Production and the Demand for The Concept and Measurement of Product Qual- Children—Robert J. Willis, City University of ity—E. Scott Maynes, University of Minnesota New York and National Bureau of Economic Research Future conferences are being organized on Estimating the Demand Curve for Day Care Distribution of Economic Well-Being, Price Be- Services—James J. Heckman, Columbia Uni- havior, and Economics of Urban Spatial Struc- versity and National Bureau of Economic Re- ture. search Members of the Executive Committee are Non-Pecuniary Dimensions of Wages—Sherwin Frank de Leeuw (chairman), Robert E. Gallman, Rosen, University of Rochester and National Terry Gigantes, Martin L. Marimont, Geoffrey H. Bureau of Economic Research, and Richard Moore, Joel Popkin, James D. Smith, Eugene Thaler, University of Rochester Smolensky, Nestor E.Terleckyj, Beatrice N. Identifying Distinct Goods—Testing for Exist- Vaccara, and Mildred E. Courtney (secretary). ence of Distinct Components in the Food Mildred E. Courtney Budget—Laurits R. Christensen, University of

UNIVERSITIES-NATIONAL BUREAU COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH

A conference on the Economics of the Environ- cluded Otto Davis and Allen Kneese. ment, co-sponsored with Resources for the The conference volume, International Mobility Future, was held November 10 to 11, 1972, at and Movement of Capital, Fritz Machlup, Walter the Center for Continuing Education, University S.Salarit, and Lone Tarshis, co-editors, was of Chicago. Edwin S. Mills was chairman of the published in November 1972. The proceedings Conference Planning Committee, which also in- of the conference on Secular Inflation, JUrg

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Niehans editor, were published as a supplement North Carolina Stanford to the February issue of the Journey of Money, Northwestern Texas Credit and Banking. The papers from the con- Ohio State Toronto ference on Education as an Industry are in the Pennsylvania Vanderbilt hands of the editorial committee. Pittsburgh Virginia The Universities—National Bureau Committee Princeton Washington (Seattle) for Economic Research, at its annual meeting Purdue Washington (St. Louis) held in conjunction with the on Queens Wisconsin on the Rochester Yale subjects for two future conferences. One will be on the Role of Health Insurance Health Other members of the Committee, elected as Services Sector, with Richard M: Rosett as members at large for a 4-year term, July 1, chairman of the Planning Committee, to be held 1970 to June 30, 1974, are Daniel Creamer, May 30, 31, and June 1, 1974. The other con- S. A, Goldberg, George Jaszi, Rudolf R. Rhom- ference will be on the Economic Analysis of berg, Walter S.Salant,Julius Shiskin, and PoliticalBehavior, with Melvin as George J. Stigler. Robert E. Lipsey is the repre- chairman of the Planning Committee. The Com- sentative from the National Bureau of Economic mittee also selected three topics to be consid- Research. ered for future conferences: Economic Deter- The members of the Executive Committee are minants and Effects of Population Gtowth, the Carl F. Christ (chairman), Walter S. Salant (vice Economics of Energy, and the Labor Market for chairman), Moses Abramovitz, James M. Hen- Low-Income Workers. derson, Robert E. Lipsey, Dudley G. Luckett, and The Committee accepted Purdue University David C. Smith. Robert P. Shay is secretary. as a new member, There are now thirty-nine The conference program is assisted by a universities, together with the National Bureau, grant from the National Science Foundation. represented on the Committee. The participating Universities interested in membership on the universities are: Universities—NationalBureauCommitteefor Economic Research should get in touch with Brown Indiana the chairman of the Committee. The criterion Buffalo Iowa State for acceptance of a university as a member of California, Berkeley Johns Hopkins the Committee is the extent and quality of eco- California, Los Massachusetts Institute nomic research carried on at that university. Angeles of Technology Universities wishing to be informed about pro- Carnegie-Mel Ion McGill posals for future Universities—National Bureau Chicago Michigan Committee research conferences, and about the Columbia Michigan State availability of conference papers before publi- Cornell Minnesota cation, should communicate with the secretary Duke New School of the Committee. Harvard for Social Research Illinois New York Robert P. Shay

CONFERENCE ON THE COMPUTER IN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH

In 1972 the activities of the conference series going basis. The first annual meeting of the expanded greatly. The conference and work- conference membership was held, a constitu- shop series dealing with research in the U.S. tion was written and adopted by the mem- was established on a more permanent and on- bership,and anExecutive Committee was

127 established. The members of the Executive Rod rigo Botero Committee are: Fedesarrollo (Colombia) Alejandro Foxley Elected Members Universidad Catolica (Chile) Charlotte Boschan Eduardo Garcia National Bureau of Economic Research Universidad Catolica (Chile) Gregory Chow Jorge Katz Princeton University Instituto Torcuato di Tella (Argentina) Ivan Fellegi Affonso Celso Pastore Statistics Canada instituto de Pesquisad Economicas (Brazil) Charles Holt J. Dagnino Pastore The Urban Institute Fundacion de Investigaciones Economicas Joel Popkin Latinoamericanas (Argentina) Bureau of Labor Statistics Saul Trejo Richard Ruggles Secretaria de a Presidencia (Mexico) Yale University and National Bureau of M. lshaq Nadiri Economic Research National Bureau of Economic Research James Smith David Kresge Pennsylvania State University National Bureau of Economic Research Harold Watts University of Wisconsin The first workshop of this series was held in Arnold Zellner February in Caracas, and a second workshop University of Chicago is planned for the summer of 1973. A full ac- count of the activities of this workshop series is Appointed Members provided by David Kresge in his report below. M. lshaq Nadiri M. lshaq Nadiri New York University and National Bureau of Economic Research Alexander Morton The Computer in Economic National Bureau of Economic Research and Social Research in the United States David Kresge, Sanford Berg, and Donald Far- The Executive Committee held its first two meet- rar were appointed observers to the Executive ings during 1972 and drew up a program of Committee. Richard Ruggles was elected chair- future workshops and conferences. A list of man of the Executive Committee for 1973. these workshops, together with the names of The conferences that were held during 1972 their respective chairmen, follows this report. and the list of the workshops authorized and Three full-scale conferences were held during planned for 1973 and 1974 are reported below the year. The first of these was the conference by Alexander Morton. on Prices and Consumer Expenditures, organ- The Latin American Workshop series also ized and chaired by Joel Pop kin, Assistant Com- made a very good start. An Executive Commit- missioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This tee composed of Latin American economists conference was concerned with both the theory was formed and held its first meeting in Buenos and practice of measuring prices and consumer Aires in June 1972. The members of the com- expenditures, and the use of these statistics. mittee are: Approximately sixty persons attended this two- Edmon Bacha day conference, held April 6 and 7, 1972, in Facultad de Economia (Brazil) Washington, D.C. Antonio Barrera The second conference, a two-day workshop Fundacion para Ia Educacion el Desarrollo on Stochastic Control Theory and Economic (Colombia) Systems, was held May 5 and 6, 1972, at Prince-

128 ton. The workshop was by the view Topics in Planning Stage that "the development of stochastic dynamic Analysis of Panel Time Series Data economics, using tools related to optimal sto- Herbert Fames and Zvi Griliches chastic control, had reached such a point that Fall 1973 it would be useful to bring together research Concepts of Price Indices and Models of Con- workers from both the economics and control sumer Behavior professions to report on current research work, Joel Popkin, Lester Taylor, and Gary Fromm to exchange ideas, and to evaluate the pros- late 1973 or early 1974 pects for future developments." About forty Data Analysis economists and twenty-five controltheorists Paul Holland and David Hoaglin attended the workshop. The nine papers that Use of Computer Networks in Economic Re- were presented at the conference are found in search the fourth issue of the NBER's Annals of Eco- Mark Eisner, Sanford Berg, and Charles Holt nomic and Social Measurement. Data Documentation The third conference focused on the Current CharlotteBoschan,NancyRuggles,and Population Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau. James Beresford Its purpose was to discuss the organization and Experimental Data and Their Analysis content of this data set, associated problems of Harold Watts accessibility and exportability, and possible im- Income Maintenance provements that might be made to expedite its James Schulz, Nelson McClung, and William use by the research community. Approximately B rai na rd eightyeconomists and governmentprofes- sionals attended this two-day conference, held Other Suggested Topics September 20 and 21, 1972, at Pennsylvania Industrial and Financial Data State University. IRS Data The program of future workshops to be spon- James Smith sored by the conference, which follows, sug- Time Budget Studies gests that the pace of activity of the conference F. Thomas Juster will be accelerating in the years ahead. Computer Programs Designed for Wide-Scale Use Charles Holt List of CESR Conferences and Workshops Alexander L. Morton Approved Topics Research and the 1970 Public Use Sample Richard and Cynthia Taeuber Latin American Computer March 23, 24, 1973, Atlanta Workshops Consumer Prices and Expenditures A Latin American Computer Workshop series Joel Popkin, Robert Ferber, and Malcolm has been started to investigate some of the is- Cohen sues raised at the conference held in 1971 in May 3, 4, Williamsburg, Virginia, Cuernavaca,Mexico. These workshops are and sponsored by the National Bureau through a Matching and Merging of Data Sets grant provided by the IBM World Trade Corpo- Benjamin Okner ration. The first organizational meeting of the May 4,5,1973, Williamsburg, Virginia Executive Committee of the workshop series Macro-Simulation Models was held in Buenos Aires on June 28 to 30, James Brown and Jerome Miliman 1972. In organizing that meeting, the Bureau FaIl 1973 was assisted by FIEL (Fundacion de lnvestiga- Control Theory ciones Economicas Latinoamericanas) and by Gregory Chow and Michael Athans the di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires.It was June 7, 8, 9, University of Chicago decided at the meeting that a workshop series

129 should be designed to bring together groups The first workshop was held in Caracas, Ven- of the most talented, quantitatively oriented re- ezuela, on February 28 to March 2, 1973. The searchers in Latin America to discuss their find- topic was macroeconomic policy models and ings and methodology with other persons ac- the workshop was organized by Saul Trejo. He tively engaged insimilar research. A major was assisted in making the arrangements by purpose of the workshops would be to facilitate the Central Bank of Venezuela, which also pro- the exchange of information and expertise con- vided the meeting site for the workshop. In all, cerning the appropriate uses and limitations of the several sessions had some twelve to fifteen computer technology and modern empirical re- participants, including some from the Central search methodology. Each workshop would Bank and the universities in Caracas. In the have the following general characteristics: workshop eight research reports covering a range of monetary, fiscal, and foreign exchange —it would deal with a single area of quanti- policies were discussed. Most of the discussion tative economic research; centered on the impact of monetary policy and —it would involve a relatively small group of the appropriate design of domestic and inter- individuals who have technical expertise national monetary policies for the Latin Ameri- in the field and who are engaged in similar can economies. A report was also given by research; Edwin Kuh on the status and capabilities of the —it would involveintensive,but informal, TROLL system as a research tool for estimating discussions of both the substance and large-scale models of Latin American econo- methodology of the research being pre- rnies in the future. sented. The second workshop of the series will be It was felt that workshops could be scheduled organized by Affonso Pastore next summer. It in the near future in the areas of macroeco- will deal with patterns of employment in Latin nomic models for policy planning and labor America and is scheduled to meet in Brasilia. force, employment, and labor absorption. Other In order to be in closer contact with the Latin topics that were suggested for consideration American researchers, M. Ishaq Nadiri, as the for future workshops included technology trans- Bureau'srepresentative,participatedinthe fer, multinational corporations, income distribu- ECIEL conference, which was held in Quito, tion,inflation,agriculture, transportation, and Ecuador, last January 15 to 19, 1973. monetary policy. David Kresge

CONFERENCE ON ECONOMETRICS AND MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS

The conference, which was created by a grant mans and Harold T. Shapiro, University of from the National Science Foundation in 1970, Michigan is designed to stimulate research on recent top- Comparison of Econometric Models—Lawrence ics in mathematical economics and economet- R. Klein, University of Pennsylvania rics. During 1972 the ten existing seminars of Decision Rules and Uncertainty—Daniel L. Mc- the conference met fifteen times at universities Fadden, University of California, Berkeley throughout the country, and two new seminars Decentralized Economic Planning and Program- were formed. The seminars and their leaders ming—Roy Radner, University of California, are: Berkeley Distributed Lags and Time Series Analysis— General Equilibrium Models—Kenneth J. Arrow, Christopher Sims, University of Minnesota Harvard University Optimal Economic Growth—Joseph E. Stiglitz, Evaluation of Econometric Models—Saul Hy- Yale University

130 Bayesian InferenceinEconometrics—Arnold Public Sector, Lester Thurow, Massachusetts Zellner, University of Chicago Institute of Technology) Quantitative Studies in Industrial Organization— George J. Stigler and Lester G. Telser, Uni- Seminar sessions focus on specific issues, versity of Chicago and papers are frequently circulated in advance. Monetary and Fiscal Analysis—William C. Brai- More than fifty working papers have now been nard, Yale University, and Franco Modigli- presented in the seminars, and a number of ani, Massachusetts Institute of Technology these have subsequently been published or Analysis of Panel Microdata—James N. Morgan, presented at professional meetings. Also, grad- University of Michigan uate students at the host university are often Public Economics and Nonmarket Decisions— invited to attend seminar sessions. The confer- Martin McGuire and Mancur Olson, University ence thus provides a new and apparently quite of Maryland (formerly Studies in the Micro successful forum for research. Gary Fromm

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