New Research

China is aiming to become a technological innovation powerhouse by 2050, with Premier Li Keqiang recently announcing an increase in R&D investments by 7 percent for the next five years. But greater R&D investment is no guarantee of success. New research by Kjetil Storesletten and co-authors examines the effects of R&D investments by Chinese firms on aggregate productivity and growth.

Building on a body of research that establishes a clear connection between increases in productivity and the use of professional managers to create business strategies and monitor production, Hannes Malmberg explores how developing economies struggle to grow because of peculiarities in the development of the market for professional salaried managers. Read about his research into "The Missing Middle Managers."

In the US, the bachelor’s attainment rate of high socioeconomic status White youth is much higher than that of Hispanic, Black, and low-socioeconomic status youth. This is true even among students with high academic ability scorers. For high-scorers, how much of these gaps in bachelor’s attainment can be explained by differences in subjective beliefs about own academic ability? Doctoral student Sergio Barrera used his own experience as a first-generation college student to inform his job market paper, "Is College Worth It For Me? Beliefs, Access to Funding, and Inequality in Higher Education."