Social sciences

“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

“MIT is wonderful because in addition to [finding] an amazing home in economics, I can talk with and learn from a lot of people on the science side,” says Heidi Williams, the Class of 1957 Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Economics.
MIT professor Heidi Williams

Making a splash in health care economics

Heidi Williams builds all-new data sets to answer questions about innovation and biomedical research.

October 18, 2016

MIT's newest Nobel laureate, Bengt Holmström

Economist Bengt Holmström’s Nobel Prize win delights MIT colleagues

Faculty members in SHASS and Sloan cite his transformative work on contract theory.

October 14, 2016

President Barack Obama speaks with the Office of Science and Technology Policy Social and Behavioral Sciences team in the Oval Office.

White House releases report on applying behavioral science to government policy

October 13, 2016

MIT economist Bengt Holmström wins Nobel Prize

Holmström shares award with Oliver Hart for work on contract theory.

October 10, 2016

Bruno Perreau, the Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies at MIT, has been named a chevalier in the French Order of Academic Palms.

Bruno Perreau named to the French Academic Palms

Humanities scholar honored with France's highest distinction for academics.

October 5, 2016

President L. Rafael Reif speaks at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) showcase. In his remarks, Reif noted that IDSS is “a unit that can magnify individual talents through collaborations, a unit that aspires to generate groundbreaking ways to understand society’s most difficult problems and lead us to badly-needed solutions.”

How data can help change the world

At IDSS celebration, speakers explore how data can be brought to bear on global challenges.

September 26, 2016

Norvin Richards, professor of linguistics at MIT, and the cover of his new book, “Contiguity Theory,” recently published by the MIT Press.

Sound system

In new book, Norvin Richards explores how our voices shape the rules of grammar.

September 20, 2016

Four of the 72 new members of MIT's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Xi of Massachusetts

MIT chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society inducts 72 graduating seniors

June 27, 2016

“As you go up in the income distribution, life expectancy continues to increase, at every point in the income distribution,” Michael Stepner says.

New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in U.S.

In unprecedented detail, lifespan gap shown to be large and growing rapidly.

April 11, 2016

“Algorithms, Identity, and Society” was held before a capacity audience at MIT’s Bartos Theater, and sponsored by MIT’s noted program in Science, Technology, and Society.

Identity theft?

Automation helps us in many ways, but does it steal our sense of self?

April 8, 2016

Using data from social networks to understand and improve systems

Researchers in IDSS are learning how ideas evolve over networks, quantifying the influence of individuals in networks, and making better predictions.

April 7, 2016

“Relatively small shocks can become magnified and then become shocks you have to contend with [on a large scale],” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu.

How network effects hurt economies

Study reveals how woes in one industry can harm others, too.

April 6, 2016

Students selected as Burchard Scholars are some of MIT's liveliest undergraduates. They are unafraid to wrestle with new ideas.

35 exceptional MIT students named Burchard Scholars for 2016

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

January 29, 2016

"Even when you have great technology, you need some incentive for people to reduce pollution. We need to find ways to make the benefit of reducing pollution felt by the ones who are paying the cost of reducing pollution." —Ariel Zucker, MIT doctoral student in economics

Incentives matter

Working with the Tata Center, two MIT economics students are testing projects to reduce industrial pollution in India.