MIT and Harvard startup GiveDirectly, “identifies poor people and villages, usually in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and distributes cash to them directly, usually via cellphone payment, instead of donations like food and livestock,” reports Dylan Matthews for Vox.
This summer’s heat waves and droughts have brought forth a series of issues including disruption of crop production, further inflation, and electrical issues, reports Colin Lodewick for Fortune. “I think it’s too early to quantify, but I have no doubt that these extreme events are contributing to high prices,” says Sergey Paltsev, deputy director of MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. “In the future, if we don’t change the course of action, it’s going to be worse.”
Prof. Joshua Angrist speaks with CNBC about how his research on schooling and education has helped shaped government policy. “We don’t make specific policy recommendations, but we do encourage policy makers to look at the evidence,” says Angrist. “Whenever there is something on the public docket that is related to education policy, we always encourage both voters and politicians to look at the evidence.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu notes that “the decline in popular support for democracy is greater in the United States than elsewhere, especially among the young,” reports Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times. Acemoglu explains that “one way to address the discontent with contemporary democracy among so many voters on the right would be to implement traditional center-left economic policies, including many supported by the Biden administration,” writes Edsall.
A new proposed economic bill could provide “game-changing” incentives for the nuclear energy industry, reports Jennifer McDermott and Mary Katherine Wildeman for the Associated Press. The bill “is really substantial,” says Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno. “This should move the needle in terms of making these technologies economically viable right off the bat.”
Researchers at MIT have found that “for every nine adults who gained access to Medicaid in Oregon due to a special due to a special enrollment lottery, one previously eligible child was added to the rolls as well,” reports Dennis Thompson for U.S. News & World Report. The lottery “enabled us to look at the questions of what happens to children of adults who win the lottery, compared to children of adults who don’t win the lottery,” says Prof. Amy Finkelstein.
Prof. Anna Stansbury speaks with Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast about her research on the labor market and worker power. “In my work, when I'm trying to measure worker power," says Stansbury, "I'm trying to say, ‘What would a given worker be paid in a kind of market situation without that power? And then how do different factors give that worker the ability to share in the profits of the firm?’"
Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with Andy Uhler of Marketplace about gasoline process and the crack spread, the difference between the cost of oil and the cost to refine it. “Increases in the crack spread that we’ve seen recently has been just supply and demand,” said Knittel.
Prof. James Poterba speaks with Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein about his work with the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee in determining if a recession is underway in the U.S. “By far, the most important thing to try to convey is that the committee is not trying to do real-time dating of whether we’re in a recession,” said Poterba. “There’s often enormous amount of interest in that question and what many people are hoping for, but the committee’s task is to create a consistent historical record of the turning points — the peaks and the troughs in the U.S. economy.”
Institute Prof. Emeritus Peter Diamond speaks with Boston Globe reporter Scot Lehigh about the Fed’s attempts to control inflation. “My message to the Fed would be, yes, we need to cool the economy, but we need to go slowly in doing so, and see how this plays out, because we shouldn’t have confidence in our predictions,” says Diamond.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH Boston Public Radio co-hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about the future of inflation and the potential strategies of the Federal Reverse Bank.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Bloomberg Washington Correspondent Joe Mathieu about Affordable Care Act funding and the future of healthcare. It’s both about making these premiums more affordable for the lowest income people and giving middle-income people access to this important government program, says Gruber.
Forbes contributor Laurence Kotlikoff spotlights the work of Institute Prof. Peter Diamond. Diamond’s work, notes Kotlikoff, clarified “that there are many levels of employment at which supply equals demand, including many that are very low.”
A new analysis by Prof. Anna Stansbury and University of Michigan graduate student Richard Schultz finds that two thirds of U.S.-born PhD graduates in economics have a parent with a graduate degree, reports Andrew Van Dam for The Washington Post. Stansbury notes that she worries some of the terminology used in courses like Econ 101 “like ‘unskilled’ or ‘low ability’ to describe people who are in low-paid jobs or with little formal education, is offensive. And I can see that this would be disproportionately so to people who are coming from backgrounds where these words are describing family members and friends.”
Siblings Gia Schneider ‘99 and Abe Schneider SM ‘03 co-founded Natel, a company dedicated to developing sustainable, climate-resilient hydropower, reports Amy Gunia for TIME. “The siblings hope that what they’re doing can help demonstrate a more sustainable approach to renewable energy – proving that companies shouldn’t have to choose between what’s good for the environment and what works economically,” writes Gunia.