The purpose of this essay is to discuss two approaches to inference, and how "human capital" can provide a way to combine them. The first approach, ubiquitous in economics, is based upon the Rubin/Holland potential outcomes model and relies upon randomized treatment to measure the causal effect...

The purpose of this essay is to discuss two approaches to inference, and how "human capital" can provide a way to combine them. The first approach, ubiquitous in economics, is based upon the Rubin/Holland potential outcomes model and relies upon randomized treatment to measure the causal effect...

As a result of the BoJ's large-scale asset purchases, the consolidated Japanese government borrows mostly at the floating rate from households and invests in longer-duration risky assets to earn an extra 3% of GDP. We quantify the impact of Japan's low-rate policies on its government and...

Many environmental hazards produce health effects that take years to arise, but quasi-experimental studies typically measure outcomes and treatment over short time periods. We develop a new approach to overcome this challenge and use it to gauge the effect of exposure to air pollution on US life...