MIT Sloan School of Management

Graduate student Tse Yang Lim and his colleagues used federal data on use and death of opioid use and overdose in the United States to build a model that “successfully replicated how certain factors and interventions affect use, treatment, relapse and overdose deaths over 20 years,” reports Sara Reardon for Nature. “Lim hopes that the model will help policymakers and other scientists think about the big picture rather than just how a particular community or demographic is affected,” writes Reardon.

Financial Times reporter Jemima Kelly spotlights Prof. Basima Tewfi’s research on imposter syndrome. Tewfik’s study finds that those who have “imposter workplace thoughts” tend to “have an advantage over their colleagues when it comes to social skills, teamwork and the support of others.”

A new paper from Prof. Roberto Rigobon, research associate Florian Berg, and research affiliate Julian Kolbel explores what causes aggregate confusion among ESG rating agencies, reports Robin Wigglesworth for the Financial Times. The paper “highlights just how tricky it is to come up with an objective, rigorous ESG investing framework,” writes Wigglesworth.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank spotlights postdoctoral research associate Brian Guay’s research examining why “Republicans share between 200 percent and 500 percent more fake news (fabrications published by sites masquerading as news outlets) than Democrats.” Guay explains that “the issue primarily seems to be a supply issue. There’s just way more fake news on the right than the left.”

Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee speaks with Innovator News reporter Jennifer L. Schenker about his upcoming book, “The Geek Way,” which explores how tech companies found the best way to operate their businesses. “If you want your company to be a tech company, then you will be competing against geeks,” says McAfee. “These are people who look at things differently, go deep on a problem, get obsessed with it and fiercely work at it until they think they find a good solution.”

Janie Mines MBA ’98 speaks with WRDW about her academic and professional accomplishments, and her book “No Coincidences: Reflections of the First Black Female Graduate of the United States Naval Academy.” Of the numerous awards and distinctions she has received, Mines noted that they provided her the opportunity “to come out and tell people just how valued they are and how we should respect one another and spend less time judging and more time appreciating and learning from one another,” says Mines. 

India New England News speaks with MIT MBA alumna Dipali Trivedi about her work as a co-founder and mentor, as well as the importance of encouraging women to pursue leadership roles in the companies they have founded. “I enjoy bringing innovation to a complex domain with the help of next generation technology,” says Trivedi. “Seeing your idea materialized and used by thousands of people is an amazing experience, I enjoy solving challenges of launching new venture ground-up.”

Prof. Catherine Elizabeth Tucker speaks with BBC host Ed Butler about her research on effective online advertising. “It turns out that all too often it is not working as well as we were led to believe,” says Tucker.

The Boston Globe honored a number of MIT faculty and alumni in their Tech Power Players 50, a list of the “most influential – and interesting – people in the Massachusetts technology scene.” MIT honorees include Professor Yet-Ming Chiang, Senior Lecturer Brian Halligan, Professor Tom Leighton, Professor Silvio Micali, Katie Rae (CEO and managing partner for The Engine), and Professor Daniela Rus (director of CSAIL and deputy dean of research for the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing). 

A new study co-authored by Prof. Pierre Azoulay finds that immigrants are 80% more likely to start businesses than people born in the U.S., reports Yasmin Amer for WBUR. "[Immigrants] create more firms pretty much in every size bucket," says Azoulay. "They create more small firms, they create more medium sized firms. They create more firms that will grow up to be very large."

MIT President L. Rafael Reif and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry discussed the urgency of addressing climate change during the Climate Grand Challenges Showcase event, reports Chris Lisinski for the State House News Service. “Climate change has been called a ‘super wicked’ problem. In Boston, that might sound like a local way of saying ‘really hard,’ but this phrase is actually a technical term,” Reif said. “It describes any enormously complex societal problem that has no single right answer and no clear finish line as well as multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities and no central authority empowered to solve it.”

Professor Thomas Malone, director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, speaks with Steven Zeitchik at The Washington Post about our changing understanding of the traditional office setting. “There are many jobs where physical presence is required, of course,” says Malone. “But where it isn’t, I just can’t see any reason we’ll be returning to a traditional office.”

Bloomberg reporter Yalman Onaran writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that Black homeowners pay more over the life of a home loan, hurting their ability to save for retirement. “The biggest reason for the gap is the risk-based pricing found in most U.S. mortgages, which disadvantage Black borrowers because they tend to make smaller down payments and have lower credit scores,” writes Onaran.

A new study by MIT researchers examines the environmental impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Steven Reinberg for HealthDay. "If the pandemic leads to a persistent global recession, there is a real threat to the adoption of clean technology, which could outweigh any 'silver lining' in environmental benefits," says Prof. Jing Li.

Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Yasheng Huang examines how the U.S.-China trade war is influencing public perceptions in China. “Maximum-pressure tactics have delivered no meaningful results — other than undermining the good will of the Chinese public and its liberals toward America,” writes Huang. “The United States should de-escalate tensions and help China come back to the negotiating table.”