In the News

Illustration by Adam Niklewicz for "Could College Be Free?"

Could College Be Free?

February 1, 2020

Harvard Magazine | In 2016, the United States spent $91 billion subsidizing access to higher education. According to David Deming, that spending isn’t as progressive or effective as it could be. Deming's proposal: redirect current spending to make public colleges tuition-free, instead of subsidizing higher education in other, roundabout ways. Deming, Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, is a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Stefanie Stantcheva

Can populist economics coexist with pro-immigrant policies?

January 15, 2020
Vox | A new study by professors Alberto Alesina and Stefanie Stantcheva of Harvard Economics finds that misperceptions about immigration are widespread, and mostly serve to reduce support for redistributive programs. The paper is part of a broader project in which Alesina and Stantcheva use large-scale online surveys to measure how voters’ support for redistributive policies are shaped by perceptions around immigration, social mobility, and other factors.
View the research
Diversity, Immigration and Redistibution ►
Immigration and Redistribution ►

Also cited: A recent paper by Inequality & Social Policy PhD alumni Charlotte Cavaillé and John Marshall in the American Political Science Review, who found that the introduction of mandatory schooling laws in Europe causally reduced opposition to immigration. Cavaillé (PhD in Government and Social Policy, 2014) is a visiting fellow at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Democratic Politics (2019-2020) and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. Marshall (PhD in Government, 2016) is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.
View the research ►

 

Van C. Tran

For Professor Van C. Tran, Former Refugee Who Went from Hostos to Harvard, Joining the Graduate Center is about Values

December 10, 2019

The Graduate Center, CUNY | In-depth profile of Van C. Tran's research, his story, and his life. Van C. Tran received his PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Harvard in 2011. He is now Associate Professor of Sociology and Deputy Director for the Center for Urban Research at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Listen to Van C. Tran interview on The Thought Project ►

Blythe George

Blythe George to be published in Vision 2020, a book of 21 innovative and evidence-based ideas to shape the 2020 policy debate

December 3, 2019

Washington Center for Equitable Growth | Blythe George, PhD candidate in Sociology & Social Policy, is a contributor to the forthcoming book, Vision 2020: Evidence for a Stronger Economy, to be released in mid-to-late January by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. The book, announced at Equitable Growth's Vision 2020 conference last month, is "a compilation of 21 innovative, evidence-based, and concrete ideas to shape the 2020 policy debate." A member of the Yurok tribe, Blythe focuses on reentry back into tribal life after incarceration.

The value of freeing ideas, not just locking them up

The value of freeing ideas, not just locking them up

November 8, 2019

The Economist | We can have both innovation and equality, say Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh in their new book, Innovation and Equality (MIT Press, 2019). Andrew Leigh PhD 2004 is a Member of the Australian House of Representatives and a former Professor of Economics at Australian National University.  Joshua Gans holds the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

The Inflation Gap

The Inflation Gap

November 5, 2019

Atlantic | A new analysis by Christopher Wimer PhD 2007, Sophie Collyer, and Xavier Jaravel suggests not only  that rising prices have been quietly taxing low-income families more heavily than rich ones, but also that, after accounting for that trend, the American poverty rate is significantly higher than the official measures suggest.

Wimer received his PhD in Sociology & Social Policy from Harvard in 2007 and is now Co-Director of the Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) at Columbia University. Xavier Jaravel received his PhD in Business Economics from Harvard in 2016 and is now Assistant Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. Jaravel's research on inflation inequality—showing that prices have risen more quickly for people at the bottom of the income distribution than for those at the top—which informs their analysis of the poverty rate, appears in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (May 2019).

View the brief: The Costs of Being Poor ►
View the research: Quarterly Journal of Economics  ►

Immigrants waiting to be transferred, Ellis Island, Oct. 30, 1912.Credit...Library of Congress

Children of Poor Immigrants Rise, Regardless of Where They Come From

October 28, 2019

The New York Times | New research linking millions of fathers and sons dating to the 1880s shows that children of poor immigrants in America have had greater success climbing the economic ladder than children of similarly poor fathers born in the United States. That pattern has been remarkably stable for more than a century. The findings, published in a working paper by a team of economic historians including Leah Platt Boustan PhD 2006, challenge several arguments central to the debate over immigration in America today.  Boustan is now Professor of Economics at Princeton University.

View the research ►

How to boost voter registration at tax time

How to boost voter registration at tax time

October 15, 2019
Brookings Institution | Vanessa Williamson PhD 2015, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, says that “ensuring that every citizen is able to vote is one of the most important tasks facing American democracy.” But more than one in five eligible voters is not registered to vote, and many states are imposing new voting and registration restrictions. What if at the same time Americans file their federal income taxes—one of the only times each year that most Americans interact directly with the federal government—they were also given the opportunity to register to... Read more about How to boost voter registration at tax time
Ruth Lopez Turley

In Texas, this Latina's research is helping close the education gap

September 17, 2019

NBC News | Interview with Ruth López Turley PhD 2001, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University.

"Almost 10 years ago, when I was promoted with tenure, I reflected on all the research I had produced up to that point... Even though I had been at some of the nation’s top research universities, none of my work changed anything for anyone, which was the whole reason I got into this line of work in the first place. I began to connect with colleagues who were working in partnerships between universities and local school districts in other cities. That’s when I came to Rice University for a fresh start and to develop this partnership research model in Houston."

Learn more about Ruth López Turley | Pursuing Educational Equity ►