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While Eckstein defends the independence and diversity of NBER, many observers have noted with some skepticism Feldstein's influence in guiding and shaping the bureau: critics have claimed the bureau has developed into a Harvard-dominated research center. Though the University's presence in the NBER is inescapably obvious, proponents maintain the bureau has full independence...
Wesly Clair Mitchell, a professor at Columbia and the first president of the NBER, chartered the bureau in 1920 as an organization "devoted to objective quantitative analysis of the American economy." That quantitative analysis included the compilation of statistics on the business cycle and labor supply. The bureau began amassing information like flow of fund accounts and national income accounts for the government to use in fiscal planning...
After Mitchell's tenure, John R. Meyer, president of the bureau from 1967 to 1977, extended the range of the NBER's research from simply empirical studies to areas that include more social concerns such as the economy of the family and income distribution. But the federal government itself now produces the statistics the bureau pioneered. And under Feldstein, who took office in spring of 1977, "The nature of the bureau has changed to more theory instead of statistics and number games," Takatoshi Ito, a research assistant, says...
...resource studies, along with a tremendous turnover in personnel, have given the bureau new vitality. "The bureau has always been a great institution, and periodically it needs renewal," he says. "Now, it has been renewed." Eckstein adds that a factual and empirical focus is not subject ot renewal; the NBER's first president began the bureau in a rebellion against the theoretical thrust of economics at that time. But because it is impossible to dictate what research will improve the performance of the U.S. economy, Eckstein says research must be done without prior expectations. "Goal-oriented research has traditionally been...
Robert W. Fogel, Burbank Professor of Political Economy, heads an NBER program concerned with long-term trends in the development of the American economy. One of his studies deals with the economics of change in human stature through the years. He says he is finding that the rate of change reflects the wealth of the community. "It's a very good index of inequality of income. We're using it to investigate patterns by which different income and wealth existed and the circumstances under which they disappear and diminish," Fogel explains. He adds that a number of researchers felt there...