Picks from The Latest NBER Research (2011-11-14)

Substitution and Stigma: Evidence on Religious Competition from the Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal
by Daniel M. Hungerman  -  http://papers.nber.org/papers/W17589

Abstract:

This paper considers substituting one charitable activity for another in the context of religious practice.  I examine the impact of the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal on both Catholic and non-Catholic religiosity.  I find that the scandal led to a 2-million-member fall in the Catholic population that was compensated by an increase in non-Catholic participation and by an increase in non-affiliation. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the scandal generated over 3 billion dollars in donations to non-Catholic faiths.  Those substituting out of Catholicism frequently chose highly dissimilar
alternatives; for example, Baptist churches gained significantly from the scandal while the Episcopal Church did not. These results challenge several theories of religious participation and suggest that regulatory policies or other shocks specific to one religious group could have important spillover effects on other religious groups.

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Trade Prices and the Global Trade Collapse of 2008-2009
by Gita Gopinath, Oleg Itskhoki, Brent Neiman  http://papers.nber.org/papers/W17594

Abstract:

We document the behavior of trade prices during the Great Trade Collapse of 2008-2009 using transaction-level data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  First, we find that differentiated manufactures exhibited marked stability in their trade prices during the large decline in their trade volumes.  Prices of non-differentiated manufactures, by contrast, declined sharply. Second, while the trade collapse was much steeper among differentiated durable manufacturers than among non-durables, prices in both categories barely changed.  Third, despite this lack of movement in average price levels, the frequency and magnitude of price adjustments at the product level noticeably changed with the
onset of the crisis.


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Gold Sterilization and the Recession of 1937-38
by Douglas A. Irwin http://papers.nber.org/papers/W17595

Abstract:

The Recession of 1937-38 is often cited as illustrating the dangers of withdrawing fiscal and monetary stimulus too early in a weak recovery.  Yet our understanding of this severe downturn is incomplete:  existing studies find that changes in fiscal policy were small in comparison to the magnitude of the downturn and that higher reserve requirements were not binding on banks.  This paper focuses on a neglected change in monetary policy, the sterilization of gold inflows during 1937, and finds that it exerted a powerful contractionary force during this period.  The transmission of this monetary shock to the real economy appears to have worked through lower asset (equity) prices and higher interest rates.