Economics

MIT alumni and faculty have a long history of public policy service. Kathleen Hicks PhD ’10 (left) is director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Samuel Rodarte Jr. ’13 is a legislative aide for U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano.

Shaping public policy in the nation's capital

Alumni continue an enduring tradition of MIT service.

April 12, 2017

Introducing acclaimed sociologist Arlie Hochschild to MIT, Catherine Gamon, director of the Sloan Student Life Office said, "Hochschild tries to scale an 'empathy wall' to understand her interviewees’ perspectives on the interplay of politics, business, and culture. To me this fits beautifully with MIT's desire to have an impact, and to bring heart into the equation — mind, hand, and heart."

In MIT visit, sociologist Arlie Hochschild discusses U.S. political divisions

At Mens et Manus America event, Hochschild recommends three pillars of action for finding common ground among U.S. voters.

April 10, 2017

Renato Lima de Oliveira in front of a shipyard in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Grounded in geology

PhD student Renato Lima de Oliveira examines how a country's natural resources affect its politics and policies.

April 6, 2017

Bill Aulet teaches an MIT Sloan Executive Education entrepreneurship course.

Wisdom gleaned from data and behavioral economics

In a follow-up to his popular "Disciplined Entrepreneurship," MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Bill Aulet provides new insights for entrepreneurs.

April 3, 2017

MIT graduate programs earn top marks from US News

Graduate engineering and economics programs are No. 1 in the nation; MIT Sloan is No. 4.

March 14, 2017

$“We have a fractured society,” says MIT professor Peter Temin. “The middle class is vanishing.” His new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy,” is being published this month by MIT Press.$

America’s two-track economy

Economist’s new book examines decline of the nation’s middle class.

March 13, 2017

MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2017 QS World University Rankings

MIT ranked within the top 5 for 19 of 46 subject areas.

March 8, 2017

"This initiative is something that is right at the heart of what MIT stands for," said Professor Thomas Kochan, moderator for the launch event of a new project known as Mens et Manus America. "We believe in solving important problems, contributing collectively wherever we can."

Mens et Manus America initiative launches with documentary event

Over 200 students and faculty attend kickoff as SHASS and Sloan begin an exploration of current U.S. social, political, economic challenges.

March 3, 2017

“We found that companies with high leverage around 2006 ended up laying off more people,” says Xavier Giroud, the Ford International Career Development Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new study that sheds further light on the Great Recession.

The corporate debt trap

Study: Firms that owed more also laid off more workers during the 2007-2009 recession.

March 2, 2017

"One of the principal ways historians contribute to problem-solving work at MIT and elsewhere is by helping to identify what the real problem is in the first place," says Malick Ghachem, an MIT professor of history. "When we understand and articulate the roots and sources of a problem, we have a much better chance of actually solving it."

3 Questions: How history helps us solve today's issues

Professor Malick Ghachem discusses how historians contribute to problem-solving by identifying the roots and sources of a problem.

February 28, 2017

Seven MIT researchers win 2017 Sloan Research Fellowships

Faculty from four MIT departments among 126 selected from across the U.S. and Canada.

February 21, 2017

Daron Acemoglu wins BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Prolific MIT economist honored for path-breaking work.

February 21, 2017

J-PAL North America aims to make rigorous evaluation of key questions in social policy easier for researchers with a new catalog.

Cheaper, faster randomized evaluations

J-PAL North America releases new catalog of administrative data sets to give researchers a leg up in conducting rigorous evaluations of social programs.

February 17, 2017

MIT Professor César Hidalgo and his colleagues argue that everything else being equal, the complexity of a country’s exports also correlates with its degree of economic equality: The more complex a country’s products, the greater equality it enjoys relative to similar-sized countries with similar-sized economies.

Income inequality linked to export “complexity”

The mix of products that countries export is a good predictor of income distribution, study finds.

February 16, 2017

A new study co-authored by MIT scholars shows regions of the U.S. where medical providers are most likely to offer tests and treatments, given populations with equivalent levels of underlying health. Areas with greater “diagnostic intensity,” as the researchers call it, are in red.

Measuring “diagnostic intensity”

New study maps U.S. regions where patients appear more ill than they are

February 15, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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