Economics

A new technique can better extract correct answers from large groups of people. For a given question, people are asked two things: What they think the right answer is, and what they think popular opinion will be. The variation between the two aggregate responses indicates the correct answer.

Better wisdom from crowds

MIT scholars produce new method of harvesting correct answers from groups.

January 25, 2017

MIT Alumni Elaine Chew (left), Noam Angrist (top right), and Huma Yusuf (bottom right)

MIT in London

The city offers an ideal home for MIT alumni whose work spans disciplines and continents.

January 12, 2017

A new study estimates that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services — which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone — increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).

Study: Mobile-money services lift Kenyans out of poverty

Greater access to services raises daily spending, especially among female-headed households.

December 8, 2016

J-PAL North America Executive Director Quentin Palfrey

Experts gather at MIT to urge more innovation in health care delivery

Two-day conference explores opportunities for research, innovation, and evidence-informed policymaking to address a range of national health care challenges.

December 7, 2016

“Policymakers, NGO activists, and businesspeople in developing countries are increasingly aware of the importance of good data and rigorous evidence for designing and choosing policies and projects — and implementing them effectively,” says Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics.

MIT announces MITx MicroMasters program in development economics, with path to full master’s degree

Institute to offer its first “blended-only” master’s program, in data, economics, and development policy.

December 5, 2016

Clockwise from top left: Alix de Monts ’14, senior Anita Liu, senior Melody Liu, and senior Lisa Ho have been selected as Schwarzman Scholars.

Four MIT students named 2017 Schwarzman Scholars

Alix de Monts, Lisa Ho, Anita Liu, and Melody Liu will study for one year at Tsinghua University in China.

December 2, 2016

Members of the MITili and pK-12 Action Group convene to discuss learning and research directions.

Enhancing education from pre-K to MIT and beyond

Two new initiatives take an in-depth look at learning.

November 23, 2016

“State and local governments can serve as laboratories of innovation and test out new approaches to tackling challenging social problems,” says Mary Ann Bates, deputy director of J-PAL North America.

State and local governments invited to apply for funding, support on pressing policy challenges

Selected governments will partner with MIT's J-PAL North America to test which programs work, which work best, and why.

November 15, 2016

Top row: Sana Aiyar, Catherine Clark, Sasha Costanza-Chock. Middle row, Amy Finkelstein, Deborah Fitzgerald, Daniel Hidalgo. Bottom row: Justin Khoo, Bradford Skow, Craig Wilder

Nine SHASS faculty members awarded named professorships

Honored positions afford faculty additional support for research.

November 10, 2016

(Left to right): Heidi Williams, the Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Economics; and Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT. By scrutinizing millions of Medicare patients who have moved from one place to another, the researchers have found that patients and providers account for virtually equal shares of the diff...

Decoding the medical cost mystery

Providers and patients drive health care spending in roughly equal amounts, study shows.

November 3, 2016

First Row: (left to right) Alberto Abadie, Isaiah Andrews, Dwaipayan Banerjee, Claire Conceison. Second Row: (left to right) Drew Fudenberg, Paul Roquet, Tamar Schapiro, Ariel White.

New faculty in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

SHASS welcomes eight new faculty members for 2016.

November 2, 2016

“Contrary to the conjecture that Medicaid would get people to [move] out of the emergency room and to the primary care physician, we’re seeing a persistent increase in emergency room use,” says Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT.

Study: With Medicaid, ER visits remain high for two years

Acquiring health insurance does not lead to drop in emergency room usage.

October 19, 2016

“MIT is wonderful because in addition to [finding] an amazing home in economics, I can talk with and learn from a lot of people on the science side,” says Heidi Williams, the Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Economics.
MIT professor Heidi Williams

Making a splash in health care economics

Heidi Williams builds all-new data sets to answer questions about innovation and biomedical research.

October 18, 2016

MIT's newest Nobel laureate, Bengt Holmström

Economist Bengt Holmström’s Nobel Prize win delights MIT colleagues

Faculty members in SHASS and Sloan cite his transformative work on contract theory.

October 14, 2016

MIT Professor Bengt Holmström speaks with reporters after a press conference describing his newly-minted status as a Nobel laureate.

Scene at MIT: New Nobel laureate

October 12, 2016

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