School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences

Jeff Guo of The Washington Post reports on Prof. David Autor’s research examining the academic achievement gap between boys and girls. “It’s well known that young women have surpassed young men in schooling but what struck us was that these gaps vary so much across race and socioeconomic status,” says Autor.

Salon reporter Allegra Kirkland reports on a study co-authored by MIT Professor Chris Warshaw that examined the political leanings of cities across America. The researchers found that “ideology has tangible effects on policy at the municipal level,” Kirkland writes. 

Professor M. Taylor Fravel speaks with Edward Wong of The New York Times about the controversial new maps released by the Chinese military that display disputed regions with India as Chinese. Fravel argues the maps “get undue attention, as they almost always reaffirm existing claims rather than depict new ones.”

Writing for The Washington Post, Hunter Schwartz reports on new findings concerning municipal governments from Professor Chris Warshaw. Schwartz writes that the study found, “Even cities with governments designed to be less partisan, with institutions like nonpartisan elections and professional managers instead of elected mayors, are in line with residents’ political beliefs.”

The Economist highlights a new study by Prof. Chris Warshaw that analyzed how accurately the policies of local leaders reflect their constituents’ views. “They found that the most ideologically liberal cities end up spending twice per capita as much as the most conservative cities, have higher taxes and less regressive tax systems,” The Economist reports. 

Sam Sturgis of CityLab examines a new study by MIT Professor Chris Warshaw that shows that municipal governments, regardless of their structure, tend to mirror the ideological preferences of their electorate. The researchers, “aggregated a collection of nationwide survey results to determine the political leanings of 1,600 U.S. cities and towns,” Sturgis writes.