Marking the 100th anniversary of the NBER’s founding, affiliated researchers chronicled major chapters in the organization’s evolution at this year’s annual meeting of the American Economic Association. Research Associate Claudia Goldin of Harvard University described how the NBER became an incubator of the notion that investment in the capacities of human beings played a significant role in capital formation, and now is understood to play a role in many sub-fields of economics.

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Tracking the evolution of capital stock is a critical input to a nation's economic history, as capital stock is widely recognized as a crucial determinant of productivity and living standards. The late University of North Carolina economist Robert E. Gallman gathered extensive data on US capital stock and its relationship to long-run economic performance from the end of the colonial period to the turn of the 20th century, providing a foundation for understanding the country's becoming a global economic leader. But he did not publish the material supporting his findings during his lifetime. In a new NBER book from the University of Chicago Press, Paul W. Rhode of the University of Michigan completes Gallman's project.