Quarterly Earnings

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A) Letting publicly traded US firms report earnings annually rather than quarterly would lead their executives to place more weight on long-term issues in their investments and other decisions. B) A switch from quarterly to annual earnings reports would, on net, benefit shareholders.

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement: Comparing their students’ average gains on standardized tests over the school year makes it easier to predict which teachers — all else equal — are more likely to improve their student’s long-term life outcomes.

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A) The association between health and economic growth in poor countries primarily involves faster growth generating better health, rather than the other way around. B) The decline in the fraction of people with incomes under, say, $1 per day is a good measure of whether well-being is improving amount low-income populations.

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A) Expanding health insurance to more people through the ACA’s public subsidies and Medicaid expansion will reduce total healthcare spending in the economy. B) Expanding health insurance to more people through the ACA’s public subsidies and Medicaid expansion will generate gains in the health and well-being of the newly insured that exceed the costs.

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements: A) If the federal minimum wage is raised gradually to $15-per-hour by 2020, the employment rate for low-wage US workers will be substantially lower than it would be under the status quo. B) Increasing the federal minimum wage gradually to $15-per-hour by 2020 would substantially increase aggregate output in the US economy.

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement: The median Greek citizen will be better off if there is a “yes” vote in the July 5 referendum on whether to accept the terms of the bailout package offered by Greece's creditors.