A working paper published by MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research found that 74% of rideshare drivers earn less than the minimum wage for their state. “The report also showed a huge turnover rate among drivers, with half to 90 percent quitting after a short time,” writes Carolyn Said for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sam Levin writes for The Guardian about a new working paper published by MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research that has "raised fresh concerns about labor standards in the booming sharing economy." The study found that after incurred costs associated with driving, U.S. rideshare employees "make a median profit of $3.37 per hour before taxes."
Paul Solman of PBS Newshour speaks to Prof. Andrew Lo about getting investors to finance research into treatments for cancer and genetic diseases. “We now have the opportunity to treat disease in many, many different ways. We just don’t have enough money to explore all of the different pathways,” explains Prof. Lo.
In an article for the Financial Times, Robin Wigglesworth highlights Profs. Alberto Cavallo and Roberto Rigobon’s work with the Billion Prices Project. Wigglesworth notes that the project is an, “example of a broader trend of trawling the swelling sea of big data for clues on how companies, industries or entire economies are performing.”
Using recent analyses by Prof. Frank Levy, Eduardo Porter of The New York Times explores the notion that AI will eliminate jobs and negatively impact American politics. Prof. Daron Acemoglu suggests that with more employment options in large cities, the backlash “will be more muted than it was when trade took out the jobs of single-industry company towns.”
In an article co-written for Smithsonian, Prof. John Van Reenen writes about an analysis he and his colleagues conducted examining how socioeconomic background, race and gender can impact a child’s chances of becoming an inventor. The researchers found that, “young people’s exposure to innovators may be an important way to reduce these disparities and increase the number of inventors.”
Writing for The New York Times, Thomas Edsall highlights research by Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor examining how automation and trade impacted the 2016 presidential election. “The swing to Republicans between 2008 and 2016 is quite a bit stronger in commuting zones most affected by industrial robots,” explains Acemoglu. “You don’t see much of the impact of robots in prior presidential elections.”
In a letter to the Financial Times, graduate student Daniel Aronoff writes about what he sees as the root causes of populist discontent in America. Aronoff notes that, “Those who wish to preserve the rules-based order — and I count myself among them — need to climb out of their echo chamber, open their minds and listen.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Philip Delves Broughton spotlights Visiting Professor and MIT alumnus Jean Tirole’s new book, “Economics for the Common Good.” The book offers, “an ambitious yet accessible summary of his ideas on the proper role of economists and the value of their ideas in informing government, business and social life.”
In an article for the Financial Times about the best economics books of 2017, Martin Wolf highlights new works by Prof. Andrew Lo and Prof. Peter Temin. Wolf writes that in Temin’s “important and provocative book, [he] argues that the US is becoming a nation of rich and poor, with ever fewer households in the middle.”
Prof. David Autor has been named to the Bloomberg 50 list, which spotlights the thought leaders who defined global business in 2017. In describing why Autor was selected, Peter Coy highlights a pair of influential working papers this year in which Autor documents how the rise of superstar companies has impacted American workers.
In an op-ed for the Deseret News, graduate student Ryan Hill describes a House-passed tax bill as “devastating” to graduate students, highlighting a provision that designates tuition waivers as taxable income. “The new tax deeply undermines our nation’s commitment to basic research and technological innovation,” writes Hill.
Writing for the Financial Times, Associate Prof. Tavneet Suri explains the importance of measuring the benefits of philanthropy in sub-Saharan Africa. This data “could help resource- or skills-constrained African companies to leverage the benefits of impact measurement tools, to better understand their positive impact on poverty,” Prof. Suri explains.
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Arianne Cohen spotlights Prof. Andrew Lo’s research examining adaptive markets. Cohen explains that, “Lo’s hypothesis says people act in their own self-interest but frequently make mistakes, figure out where they’ve erred, and change their behaviors. The broader system also adapts.”
Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg News highlights a new study co-authored by Profs. David Autor, Christopher Palmer, and Parag Pathak that shows a link between crime reduction and gentrification. According to the study, in Cambridge “a sudden end to rent control in 1995 caused overall crime to fall by 16 percent, a drop driven by property crime,” explains Smialek.