The real value of the US dollar has fluctuated widely during the global financial crisis and its aftermath. Beginning in early 2008 through early 2009, the dollar strengthened against most currencies but weakened considerably in the intervening months. We propose a decomposi tion of the forces driving the real exchange rate into a long run real interest rate component and a residual risk premium component. If real interest rates in the United States rise rela tive to its partners, the value of the dollar should strengthen. Likewise, if the level risk premium on foreign interest-bearing assets rises, the dol lar should also strengthen. We find that little of the recent movements in the dollar are directly attributable to the real interest component, sug gesting that most of the movements are due to the residual risk premium component. There is a large and diverse literature that affords a role to real interest differentials and to risk premiums in determining the real value of a currency. Our approach is almost purely definitional. The only assumptions we rely on are those of stationarity?of the real exchange rate and the US-foreign real interest differen tial. Specifically, let qt denote the log of the real exchange rate, defined as the foreign con sumer price level (converted into dollar terms

The current members of the Committee on Economic Statistics are Matthew Shapiro, University of Michigan (chair); Katharine Abraham, University of Maryland; Robert Feenstra, University of California–Davis; Dennis Fixler, Bureau of Economic Analysis; David Johnson, Census Bureau; Barbara Fraumeni, University of Southern Maine; Jonathan Parker, Northwestern University; Charles Schultze, Brookings Institution; Jack Triplett. The committee met by teleconference in January and September 2009. Katharine Abraham stepped down as chair of the Committee on Statistics early in 2009 in order to chair the newly established American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations. The Committee on Statistics is exceedingly grateful for her thoughtful and effective leadership during her tenure as chair. In January 2007, the Executive Committee voted to give the Committee standing authority to organize three sessions each year for inclusion on the program of the Association’s annual meeting. At its April 2008 meeting, the Executive Committee voted to allow the Committee to designate one session each year for publication in the annual Papers and Proceedings volume. For the January 2010 meeting, the Committee circulated a call for papers on the measurement of intangibles, trade in services, and other economic measurement topics. The following three sessions are included in the program of the January 2010 meeting: “Measuring Intangible Capital,” “Measuring Labor and Wage Dynamics with Administrative Data,” and “Measuring Cognition and Linking it to Economic Outcomes.” Details of the sessions are given in the Table. The call for papers for the 2011 session solicits submissions related to the statistical issues arising from the financial crisis and potential changes in financial regulations, markets, and institutions in addition to any topics related to economic statistics. American Economic Association Committee on Statistics (AEAStat)

Blonigen and Haynes (2002) calculated that pass-through of antidumping duty estimates to U.S. pricing of 200% would be required to eliminate potential antidumping duties. However, this calculation was based on an error in interpretation of U.S. antidumping practice, that antidumping duties themselves are subtracted in an antidumping calculation. In fact there is no such subtraction, and a pass-through of 100% theoretically suffices to eliminate potential antidumping duties

This paper investigates the impact of tax changes on economic activity. We use the narrative record, such as presidential speeches and Congressional reports, to identify the size, timing, and principal motivation for all major postwar tax policy actions. This analysis allows us to separate legislated changes into those taken for reasons related to prospective economic conditions and those taken for more exogenous reasons. The behavior of output following these more exogenous changes indicates that tax increases are highly contractionary. The effects are strongly significant, highly robust, and much larger than those obtained using broader measures of tax changes.

Ethanol Policy Effects on U.S. Natural Gas Prices and Quantities by Jarrett Whistance, Wyatt W. Thompson and Seth D. Meyer. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 178-82 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Gaps in educational performance between whites and racial minorities are not present at early ages but do emerge early in the schooling years and increase over time (Roland Fryer and Steve Levitt 2006, forthcoming). James Heckman (2007) assembles evidence from both the bio logical and social sciences which highlights the dynamic complementarity of the learning pro cess?the notion that early learning is vital for learning later on. A recent literature in econom ics finds evidence that the returns to early invest ments in children yield high returns to society (Heckman and Dimitriy Masterov 2007). That educational gaps exist and worsen over time is troubling as educational attainment is associated with a host of socioeconomic outcomes such as health, earnings, and wealth (David Cutler and Adriana Lleras-Muney 2008). At the same time, gaps in educational performance and outcomes are but one dimension of racial inequality. One area of research has been with respect to racial health disparities, which unlike educational dis parities appear at very early ages and increase over time (Linda Dynan (2009) provides a lit erature review). Little work, however, directly analyzes how health disparities in children may impact other outcomes.1 The fact that health out comes may lead to socioeconomic differences which themselves may lead to further health and

Learning to Cope: Voluntary Financial Education and Loan Performance during a Housing Crisis by Sumit Agarwal, Gene Amromin, Itzhak Ben-David, Souphala Chomsisengphet and Douglas D. Evanoff. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 495-500 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Inputs and Impacts in Charter Schools: KIPP Lynn by Joshua D. Angrist, Susan M. Dynarski, Thomas J. Kane, Parag A. Pathak and Christopher R. Walters. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 239-43 of American Economic Review, May 2010

Can Mentoring Help Female Assistant Professors? Interim Results from a Randomized Trial by Francine D. Blau, Janet M. Currie, Rachel T. A. Croson and Donna K. Ginther. Published in volume 100, issue 2, pages 348-52 of American Economic Review, May 2010