New York Times reporters Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui highlight Prof. David Autor’s new research that shows cities do not offer workers without college educations the same economic opportunities that they did in the past. Autor found that the declining urban wage premium has been caused by the “disappearance of ‘middle-skill jobs’ in production but also in clerical, administrative and sales work.”
New York Times columnist David Leonhardt highlights Prof. Emeritus Olivier Blanchard’s address to the American Economic Association, in which he argued that governments are overly concerned with debt. “Blanchard’s case revolves around the fact that economic growth rates in modern times are usually higher than interest rates. This pattern means that governments can often repay their debts more easily than people expect,” Leonhardt explains.
Prof. Emeritus and Nobel laureate Peter Diamond speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti of On Point about U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to increase the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent. “That will raise a lot of money that we could [use to] address some of our shortfalls and that will help us prepare for the large costs coming from climate change,” says Diamond of the proposal.
The Economist spotlights Prof. David Autor and graduate student Juliette Fournier’s research examining the economic prospects for Americans without college degrees. Autor and Fournier found that, “the earnings of workers without a college education have scarcely risen in 50 years, after adjusting for inflation; for men they have fallen. This stagnation coincided with tectonic changes in American employment.”
At the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, Prof. David Autor presented new research showing that middle-skill jobs for Americans without college degrees are becoming increasingly rare in dense areas, reports Jeanna Smialek and Peter Coy for Bloomberg News. “It’s not clear where the land of opportunity is for non-college adults,” says Autor.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Zweig examines the investment strategies of former Institute Prof. Paul Samuelson, including his purchases of Berkshire Hathaway stock in the early 1970s. Zweig notes, “In an interview this week, [Warren] Buffett says Prof. Samuelson believed the same thing he does: that markets are 'generally very efficient but not perfectly efficient.'”
In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Jonathan Gruber argues that a recent ruling by a federal judge in Texas that the Affordable Care Acts is unconstitutional puts the health of people around the country at risk and threatens our democracy. “If the courts overturn this outcome, it is an attack on the very process of representative government in the US,” writes Gruber.
Prof. David Autor speaks with Brendan Greeley, host of the Financial Times “Alphachat” podcast, about how trade and automation impact the economy and labor market. Autor emphasizes that the U.S. needs to “invest in people,” adding, “if you want to share the gains broadly...you need to find a way to bring people along.”
New York Times reporter Brad Plumer writes that a study by MIT researchers examines what forces contributed to the declining cost of solar panels. “We can cut emissions more quickly if we’re strategic about how we design energy policies and invest in R&D,” explains Prof. Jessika Trancik. “And one way to do that is to learn from past successes and figure out exactly why they happened.”
Writing for Ars Technica, Megan Geuss examines a new MIT study that finds, “government and private R&D spending contributed the most to cost-per-watt declines for solar panels since 1980. This spending spurred the low-level efficiency improvements that were important for the solar industry on a technical level.”
Financial Times reporter Ed Crooks highlights a new study by MIT researchers identifying the key factors leading to the declining cost of solar power. The study highlights “the critical role played by government policy to help grow markets around the world.”
Vox reporter David Roberts writes about a new study by MIT researchers examining what factors contributed to bringing down the cost of solar panels. Roberts writes that the researchers found “policies that create incentives for private investors to develop and deploy solar panels are responsible for well over half of the decline in solar PV costs.”
The Wall Street Journal highlights a working paper co-authored by graduate student Charles Rafkin that shows how Americans with the lowest levels of education face a number of disadvantages. Rafkin and his co-author write that, “death rates for the least educated have dramatically diverged from death rates of other groups, in virtually all middle-age race and gender groups.”
Prof. Simon Johnson reviews Adam Tooze’s new book, “Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World” for The Washington Post. Johnson writes that the book, “is an impressive narrative history, weaving together events from around the world with a light touch and a great deal of helpful explanation.”
Forbes contributor Howard Gleckman highlights a study by Prof. Amy Finkelstein that shows only five percent of Medicare spending goes toward end-of-life costs. Gleckman writes that the study supports the argument that “using spending in the last year of life as a proxy for futile care is deeply flawed—because we are very bad at predicting who is going to die and who is not.”