Research Opportunities in Economics: Suggestions for the Coming Decade

Abstract

The remarkable events in the global economy in the last two years have drawn new attention to the central role that economic institutions and economic policies play in determining the well-being of virtually all participants in modern industrial societies, even those who livelihoods are far removed from the financial sector that was the epicenter of the global economic crisis. The global financial crisis suggests a number of critical research opportunities for the next decade.

While they have attracted less media attention, recent developments in energy markets, in environmental policy, in information technology, and in the availability of data on the economic activity of households are also opening new research vistas for economics. This short research prospectus begins by summarizing key research issues that have been raised by the global financial crisis, and then moves on to issues that are associated with energy and environmental policy and to the wealth of new data being created by the rise of electronic commerce and internet search.