In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Fotini Christia and graduate student Tugba Bozcaga analyze whether Turkish referendum rallies held in Europe influenced election results. The researchers found that rallies did not influence the election outcome, and that "deep-seated cleavages between Turks and Kurds, as well as divisions within Turks…ultimately determined the outcome of the referendum.”
Prof. Abhijit Banerjee and Prof. Vipin Narang were highlighted as part of Open Magazine’s list featuring some of the leading thinkers on India. Banerjee was spotlighted for his research on alleviating poverty in India, and Narang for his work examining India’s nuclear doctrine.
Politico Pro reporter Alex Guillén writes that David Goldston, director of government affairs for the National Resources Defense Council, has been selected to lead MIT’s Washington Office.
Prof. M. Taylor Fravel speaks with Guardian reporter Tom Phillips about how the U.S. decision to conduct missile strikes in Syria during a visit by China’s president could impact relations between the two countries. “China will be upset that strikes occurred in the middle of Xi’s first meeting with Trump,” Fravel explains.
Prof. Vipin Narang speaks with New York Times reporter Max Fisher about a potential shift in India’s nuclear weapons doctrine to allow for pre-emptive nuclear strikes. “There is increasing evidence that India will not allow Pakistan to go first,” Narang told a gathering of international government officials and policy experts in Washington D.C.
Prof. Adam Berinsky writes for The Washington Post about his research investigating how to counter political rumors. “Just as important as how a rumor is debunked is who does the debunking,” he writes. “Politicians who support good public policy by speaking against their partisan interests…are considered credible sources by citizens from across the ideological spectrum.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer examines how an overhaul of the H-1B visa program could impact the American job market. Singer writes that “restricting visas for highly skilled foreign workers could prompt high-tech firms in the United States to shift operations overseas in search of skilled labor.”
In an article for The New York Times about why people believe false information, Amanda Taub and Brendan Nyhan highlight a study by Prof. Adam Berinsky that examines political myths. Berinsky found that “a surprising co-partisan source (a Republican member of Congress) was the most effective in reducing belief in the ‘death panel’ myth about the Affordable Care Act.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer writes that by limiting the Federal Reserve’s independence, Congress could hurt the U.S. economy. “Keeping the Fed independent and actively engaged in international coordination is the best way to maintain a stable and internationally competitive financial system in the 21st century,” he explains.
In an article for USA Today, research associate James Walsh writes about the Trump administration’s executive order on immigration. Walsh writes that he believes the order will “make international cooperation more difficult, increase animosity towards the United States, and strengthen the hands of ISIS to recruit followers and make the case that the US is anti-Islam.”
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, Prof. Arnold Barnett proposes that electoral votes be awarded based off of a candidate’s share of each states’ popular vote. Barnett writes that this reform would be a “compromise between the electoral college and the national popular vote, each of which has a clear tendency to favor one of the two major political parties.”
Prof. Charles Stewart explains in The Washington Post that ballot recounts help to determine the accuracy of the initial vote count method in an election. Prof. Steward predicts that the Wisconsin recount will uncover “only small discrepancies between the election night totals” and will show that scanners are more accurate than humans at counting votes.
A study co-authored by Prof. David Autor shows that voters living in regions of the country that saw an increase in Chinese imports were more receptive to President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-free trade message, writes Bob Davis for The Wall Street Journal. The researchers found “import competition from China damaged local economies and undermined employment and wages.”
Prof. Fotini Christia and grad students Elizabeth Dekeyser and Dean Knox write for The Washington Post about how they surveyed religious Shiites from Iran and Iraq concerning their views on religion, politics and more. The authors write that the survey, which was conducted during an annual pilgrimage, “presents a unique template for surveying hard-to-reach populations in an increasingly mobile world.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart explains that provisional ballots could delay this year’s election results. “We should be prepared for the possibility that provisional ballots take us into extra innings. This won’t be a sign that the system is ‘rigged,’ but that it’s working as designed,” Stewart explains.