Creating a game plan for transition to a sustainable economy
Jeffrey Hollender enumerates the many reasons he’s feeling bleak these days.
Nobel-winning economist Paul A. Samuelson dies at age 94
In a career that spanned seven decades, he transformed his field, influenced millions of students and turned MIT into an economics powerhouse
How to encourage big ideas
A new study suggests certain types of funding — which provide more freedom and focus less on near-term results — lead to more innovative and influential research.
The real thing?
MIT business professor Renee Richardson Gosline shows that people are often unsure about telling authentic luxury goods from fakes — until they see who’s using them.
Good food nation
MIT researchers think America's obesity epidemic can be reversed via ‘foodsheds,’ in which healthier, more affordable food is produced and consumed regionally.
“Diagnosing” the U.S. health care system: in Soundings Magazine
The U.S. health system has been ranked second in the world in expenditures — and 38th in the world for performance. What's going on?
The math gap
MIT economists find a new reason to think that environment, not innate ability, determines how well girls do in math class
3 Questions: Jeffrey Harris on why we still don't have an HIV vaccine
The MIT economist blames inadequate incentives for the failure to develop a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS. He argues governments should help industry create an HIV vaccine by sharing risk.
Data points of light
MIT’s undergraduates fight poverty one statistic at a time, thanks to coordination between the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.
Charter schools, studied
MIT economists are trying to learn how and why some Boston charter schools were able to produce stunning results. What they discover could serve as a lesson for America’s struggling public schools.
All wired up
MIT's Erik Brynjolfsson explains how technology really helps the economy — even as the restructuring it is spurring causes pain.
Two from MIT elected to the Institute of Medicine
Professor of Economics Amy Finkelstein and Tyler Jacks, director of the Koch Institute, join arm of the National Academies of Science.