Inventors who sought patents for more than 11,000 innovations were ordered to keep their inventions and patent applications secret as part of the United States’ war effort in the 1940s. A study featured in the July edition of The NBER Digest finds that this effectively kept information from the enemy, but also slowed the march of follow-on innovation. Also summarized in this issue of the free, monthly Digest: an examination of the effects of wartime patent secrecy regulations, a report on the impact of more lighting in high-crime areas, an investigation into why some talented IT workers accept lower wages, and a look at how much car buyers care about fuel efficiency, and an analysis of the impacts of cancelling student debt, and an examination of high- and low-debt countries’ responses to financial crises.

Researchers affiliated with the NBER’s Economic Fluctuations and Growth Program have extensively analyzed the last global financial crisis and policy responses to it, in work reviewed by the program’s directors in the new issue of The NBER Reporter. They also summarize program affiliates’ work on other current, major macroeconomic issues. Also in this issue of the Reporter, researchers write about their work on labor market effects of the business cycle, social challenges posed by China’s aging population, the efficacy of the sustainable investing proposition, and the economics of Fair Trade.