Economics

Writing for Forbes, Research Scientist Christian Catalini, founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, discusses the future of the crypto industry. “Crypto isn’t above the fundamental laws of economics. Like any startup, crypto projects need to target genuine utility first, then use tokens to speed up adoption or address market failures in their ecosystem,” writes Catalini. “In short, while economists may be eager to play engineer, their ideas shine most when a project already has some traction.” 

Prof. David Autor speaks with Rogé Karma from The Atlantic about the role of tariffs in the American manufacturing industry. “Letting free trade rip is an easy policy,” says Autor. “Putting up giant tariffs is an easy policy. Figuring out some middle path is hard. Deciding what sectors to invest in and protect is hard. Doing the work to build new industries is hard. But this is how great nations lead.” 

Six MIT faculty members – Prof. Emerita Lotte Bailyn, Prof. Gareth McKinley, Prof. Nasser Rabbat, Prof. Susan Silbey, Prof. Anne Whiston Spirn, and Prof. Catherine Wolfram – have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, reports Sarah Mesdjian for The Boston Globe. “The academy aims to honor accomplished leaders in a wide array of fields and ‘cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people,’” explains Mesdjian. 

Writing for Financial Times, Prof. Daron Acemoglu discusses the issues behind monopolies ahead of an EU ruling on Google’s advertising technology. “For too long, Silicon Valley has dictated the rules of the internet, shaping markets to serve its own interests while competition dwindles and inequality soars,” writes Acemoglu. “By setting course to break up Google’s advertising monopoly, Europe can show that democratic institutions, not monopolies, should shape our digital future.” 

Prof. David Autor speaks with Financial Times reporter Martin Wolf about the impact of AI on the workforce. “I think [AI] will be quite important, it will be pervasive, it will be transformative in some activities, but I don’t think in general, it’s going to cause an economic implosion of work anytime in the near future,” explains Autor. 

Speaking with Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart, Prof. Sendhil Mullainathan makes the case that people have a choice about what kind of technology AI becomes. “People imagine that AI is going to automate things, but they don’t appreciate that automation is just one path. There’s nothing intrinsic about machine learning or AI that puts us on that path. The other path is really the path of augmentation,” says Mullainathan. “Whether we end up building things that replace us, or things that enhance our capacities, that is something that we can influence.”

Prof. Simon Johnson joins CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the potential impact of U.S. tariffs on the global economy. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Lauren Weber spotlights a paper by Prof. David Autor that finds import tariffs have had little effect on job creation and preservation in the U.S., particularly in parts of the country with tariff-protected industries. Autor and his colleagues found “manufacturing employment didn’t increase, though it also didn't fall (other research found that U.S. companies had a hard time selling more products abroad, which may help explain why manufacturers didn't add jobs),” Weber explains. “Worse than that, retaliatory tariffs from trading partners led to job losses, especially in agriculture.”

Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Catherine Wolfram and Columbia Prof. Glenn Hubbard make the case that to help end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. should “impose sanctions on any company or individual – in any country – involved in a Russian oil and gas sale.” They write: “Ideally, the policy would pressure Russia into negotiations, where its removal could be part of a deal. If not, the United States would still collect billions annually, which could help fund Mr. Trump’s proposed tax cuts.” 

Lee Selwyn PhD '69 speaks with WVCB reporter Ben Simmoneau about how gas companies in Massachusetts promised consumers discounts on their March and April bills, following soaring energy costs this winter. 

Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Marketplace reporter Elizabeth Trovall about looming labor shortages within the caregiving industry and elder care. “We have no plan for credibly meeting that massive change in the long-term care needs of our population,” says Gruber. 

Prof. Jeffrey Harris speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about how a recession could impact Medicare. "A recession could impact many critical decisions of federal lawmakers, private insurers, healthcare providers, and patients,” says Harris. “The U.S. Congress may decide to let stand the Medicare physician payment cut that became effective on January 1 of this year. Reduced physician payments under conventional Medicare may cause doctors, hospitals and other providers to shift their resources toward the care of younger, commercially insured patients."

Prof. David Autor speaks with Financial Times reporter Tom Davis about the impact of dataism – the belief that through gathering increasing amounts of information businesses can make the right decisions and create value - and automation in business management. “You can think of automation as a machine that takes a job’s inputs and does it for the worker,” says Autor. “[And] augmentation as a technology that increases the variety of things that people can do, the quality of things people can do, or their productivity”.

MIT has been named among the top-performing intuitions in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, reports The Economic Times. MIT ranks “first in 12 subjects, maintaining its stronghold in fields like engineering, technology, and computer science,” explains Economic Times. 

Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH All Things Considered news anchor Judie Yuill to address recession concerns. “I think the important takeaway I have is that the real risks for our nation are not really short term, they’re long term,” explains Gruber. “We are a knowledge, investment and innovation-based economy. That’s what made America great for 80 years. The base of that innovation — the base of this knowledge economy — is our world-leading universities. If we start cutting them, we’re going to pay a long-run price in terms of our ability to grow as a nation.”