Playing a new tune
After taking a pass on the family bagpiping tradition to try a new vocation, Andrew Sutherland has made noise as an innovative business scholar.
A data-driven approach to making better choices
In the new economics course 14.163 (Algorithms and Behavioral Science), students investigate the deployment of machine-learning tools and their potential to understand people, reduce bias, and improve society.
Characterizing social networks
A new method to measure homophily in large group interactions offers insights into how groups might interact in the future.
Study finds workers misjudge wage markets
Employees underestimate salary levels in their own industry, leading them to spend less time exploring the job market.
Study: Colon cancer screenings are more effective than previously understood
By reevaluating existing data, researchers find the procedure is even more valuable than consensus had indicated.
MIT engineering students take on the heat of Miami
A collaboration between MIT and Miami-Dade County has students working with city planning officials to understand why people wait patiently for a bus — and why they bail.
Study: Microtargeting works, just not the way people think
In politics, tailored ads make sense, but with real limits to the tailoring.
Unnatural selection
In a new book, “Risky Business,” Amy Finkelstein examines the core issue of the insurance industry: Who gets to be a customer?
Sustainable supply chains put the customer first
In his research, Josué C. Velázquez Martínez focuses on logistics sustainability and small firms in emerging markets.
Measuring the “woodwork effect” in medical insurance
Study: When adults gain access to Medicaid, they sign up their previously unenrolled kids, too — yet many more remain outside the system.
What lies beneath
In a new book, an MIT scholar examines how game-theory logic underpins many of our seemingly odd and irrational decisions.
A nudge to resume economic activity
MIT experiment finds people will respond to cues from neighbors about activities and risk preferences.
Cures for the health insurance enrollment blues
An experiment in Indonesia shows how much subsidies and in-person assistance spur people to get insurance — and how many people stop trying.
Comparing seniors who relocate long-distance shows where you live affects your longevity
Analysis of Medicare data finds location matters, not just past health behavior.
Trying to put the brakes on car ownership
Study of Beijing’s car-restriction policy underscores value of regional coordination to meet transportation and emissions goals.