Social sciences

MIT graduate programs earn top marks from US News

Graduate engineering and economics programs are No. 1 in the nation; MIT Sloan is No. 4.

March 14, 2017

$“We have a fractured society,” says MIT professor Peter Temin. “The middle class is vanishing.” His new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy,” is being published this month by MIT Press.$

America’s two-track economy

Economist’s new book examines decline of the nation’s middle class.

March 13, 2017

Planned in secret over a year and a half to mark David Pesetsky's 60th birthday, a surprise celebration featured panel discussions on two linguistics topics of keen interest to Pesetsky — case and wh-questions — and was rounded out with poster sessions and a celebratory dinner.

David Pesetsky honored by MIT Linguistics colleagues and alumni

Surprise gathering and "Festschrift" salute Pesetsky's research, influence, and teaching in linguistics.

March 6, 2017

The power of perceptions

Study shows how information sources affect voters.

February 28, 2017

J-PAL North America aims to make rigorous evaluation of key questions in social policy easier for researchers with a new catalog.

Cheaper, faster randomized evaluations

J-PAL North America releases new catalog of administrative data sets to give researchers a leg up in conducting rigorous evaluations of social programs.

February 17, 2017

A new study co-authored by MIT scholars shows regions of the U.S. where medical providers are most likely to offer tests and treatments, given populations with equivalent levels of underlying health. Areas with greater “diagnostic intensity,” as the researchers call it, are in red.

Measuring “diagnostic intensity”

New study maps U.S. regions where patients appear more ill than they are

February 15, 2017

Christian Soura, director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, speaks at MIT.

Government leaders gather at MIT to advance evidence-based policymaking

State and local policymakers joined with leading researchers to share experiences overcoming challenges to evaluating government programs.

February 9, 2017

Researchers are testing behavioral science strategies to nudge high-risk individuals away from crime.

Testing strategies for preventing violence and crime

J-PAL North America funds randomized studies to evaluate crime-prevention programs.

January 31, 2017

A new technique can better extract correct answers from large groups of people. For a given question, people are asked two things: What they think the right answer is, and what they think popular opinion will be. The variation between the two aggregate responses indicates the correct answer.

Better wisdom from crowds

MIT scholars produce new method of harvesting correct answers from groups.

January 25, 2017

"Students selected as Burchard Scholars are some of MIT's liveliest undergraduates," says Margery Resnick, professor of literature and director of the Burchard program. "They are unafraid to wrestle with new ideas."

35 exceptional MIT students are named Burchard Scholars for 2017

Sophomores and juniors who excel in the HASS and STEM fields are honored.

December 20, 2016

J-PAL North America Executive Director Quentin Palfrey

Experts gather at MIT to urge more innovation in health care delivery

Two-day conference explores opportunities for research, innovation, and evidence-informed policymaking to address a range of national health care challenges.

December 7, 2016

Mongolian anthropologist Manduhai Buyandelger’s career path took shape when she received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the U.S. This allowed her to start graduate school at Harvard, where scholars such as Nicola di Cosmo and Michael Herzfeld took note of her remarkable linguistic range — Buyandelger could then do research in traditional and contemporary Mongolian, Russian, English, and a...

Steppe by steppe

Mongolian anthropologist Manduhai Buyandelger studies a society in transition.

November 30, 2016

“State and local governments can serve as laboratories of innovation and test out new approaches to tackling challenging social problems,” says Mary Ann Bates, deputy director of J-PAL North America.

State and local governments invited to apply for funding, support on pressing policy challenges

Selected governments will partner with MIT's J-PAL North America to test which programs work, which work best, and why.

November 15, 2016

The term “wild,” is receiving renewed attention from academics and popular authors alike. MIT historian Harriet Ritvo notes that even those who are critical of the term employ it frequently, and that most of us remain uncertain of the word's conceptual parameters.

3Q: Historian Harriet Ritvo on what it means to be "wild"

Scientists, social scientists, and humanists heed the call of the wild at MIT workshop.

November 4, 2016

“Contrary to the conjecture that Medicaid would get people to [move] out of the emergency room and to the primary care physician, we’re seeing a persistent increase in emergency room use,” says Amy Finkelstein, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT.

Study: With Medicaid, ER visits remain high for two years

Acquiring health insurance does not lead to drop in emergency room usage.

October 19, 2016

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