BFI Working Paper·Feb 18, 2026

Trading Goods for Lives: NAFTA’s Mortality Impacts and Implications

We estimate the mortality impact of local labor market exposure to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as well as to other local area shocks, and provide a parsimonious empirical explanation for differently-signed mortality estimates across different sources...

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BFI Working Paper·Feb 17, 2026

Dynamic Complementarity

Dynamic complementarity is the concept that past investments that lead to higher stocks of skill at one age promote the growth of skills from investment at that age. We define and provide evidence on dynamic complementarity using unique Chinese data...

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About the Becker Friedman Institute

The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) serves as a hub for cutting-edge analysis and research across the entire University of Chicago economics community, uniting researchers from the Booth School of Business, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the...

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Our Legacy

Inspired by our namesakes, Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Milton Friedman, who believed that economics research could help improve the world, BFI works with the Chicago Economics community to turn its evidence-based research into real-world impact.

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Our Team

University of Chicago faculty members and other accomplished economists set the goals and direction of the Institute.

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