National Bureau Of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization “committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.” The NBER was founded in 1920 by economists Warren Weaver and Wesley Mitchell. Its first staff economist, Harold Hotelling, helped establish the fields of econometrics and operations research. The NBER’s headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The bureau is well known for providing start and end dates for recessions in the United States economy; these dates are commonly used as a determinant of when federal government economic stimulus programs should be implemented. The agency has also been criticized for its lack of transparency regarding its funding sources and methods.