Bloomberg View | Discusses recent paper by Edward L. Glaeser and Charles G. Nathanson, "An Extrapolative Model of House-Price Dynamics," forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics. Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard. Nathanson is Assistant Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management.
​​​​​​​View the research... Read more about A Better Theory to Explain Financial Bubbles

The New York Times | Nathaniel Hendren, Assistant Professor of Economics, and Robert Manduca, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy, are among a team of researchers from Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley who have released an important new study of economic mobility in the U.S., which finds that only half of Americans in their thirties earn more than their parents did at the same age. A few decades ago, nearly all did.

The team was led by economist Raj Chetty of Stanford and Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard, principal investigators for the Equality of Opportunity project, in collaboration with sociologist David Grusky of Stanford. The study incorporates results from an independent working paper by Inequality & Social Policy doctoral fellow Robert Manduca titled “Opportunity No More: Declining Absolute Mobility in the United States, 1940-2010.”
View the new study (PDF)
Learn more: Equality of Opportunity project

Wired | Quotes Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, who participated in a forum convened by US representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) this week on the Electoral College.

FiveThirtyEight | Explores the role of inequality in a new study of economic mobility by Raj Chetty, David Grusky, Maximilian Hell, Nathaniel Hendren (Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard), Robert Manduca (Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy, Harvard), and Jimmy Narang.

"But inequality was a much bigger driver [than economic growth]. The researchers analyzed a scenario in which growth followed its real-world path, but that growth was distributed more equally. In that scenario, the rate of mobility would rise to 80 percent, wiping out more than two-thirds of the 40-year decline.

Ultimately, Hendren said, restoring mobility will require both. 'You need growth, and you need it to be broad-based,' Hendren said."

Washington Post | Coverage of new study by Raj Chetty, David Grusky, Maximilian Hell, Nathaniel Hendren (Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard), Robert Manduca (Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy, Harvard), and Jimmy Narang.

"Previously, Chetty's team studied a different measure of mobility: the ability of children to move up or down America's income ladder as they grow up, when compared to other Americans. The new research attempts, for the first time, to quantify so-called "absolute mobility," which people often associate with the American Dream: the odds of a child earning more as an adult than his or her parents earned at the same age.

"The researchers say rising concentration of income among the richest Americans explains 70 percent of what has been a steady decline in absolute mobility from the baby boom generation to millennials, while a slowdown in economic growth explains just 30 percent...

"If you don’t have that kind of widespread economic growth across the income distribution, it’s tough to grow up and earn more than your parents,” Hendren said. “This is a distinct reason to focus on inequality."

Bloomberg | Features research by David Deming (Ph.D. '10), Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market." 
View the research (updated Aug 2016)

Quartz | Covrage of recently-published paper by David Evans (Ph.D. '05), a senior economist at the World Bank, and Anna Popova of Stanford Unversity.

The New York Times | Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics, comments on new study on U.S. economic inequality by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. Also cited, the work of Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, and Katz on the race between education and technology as a driver of inequality.

FiveThirtyEight | Quotes and cites research by Bernard Fraga (Ph.D. '13), Assistant Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington. Fraga's article, "Redistricting and the Causal Impact of Race on Voter Turnout," appears in the Journal of Politics (Oct 2015). 
​​​​​​​View the research

The New York Times | Quoted: Amitabh Chandra, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy.

Fusion | Quotes David Hureau (Ph.D. '16), Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany.

The Trace | Cites David Hureau (Ph.D. '16), Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany and an affiliate of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. Hureau, whose research focuses on the relationship between violent crime and social inequality, has studied the market for illegal guns.

Wall Street Journal | Cites Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy: “The amendment process is extremely difficult,” said Keyssar...who added that it nearly happened in 1969 when the House approved a proposal to reform the electoral process only to have it killed the next year by a Senate filibuster led by North Carolina Democrat Sam Ervin.

Vox | Features perspective from Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies.

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities | Matthew Desmond talked housing policy with William Julius Wilson as the closing plenary speaker at the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities State Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. The three-day conference brought together policy experts, state leaders, and advocates to discuss policies to promote equity and prosperity.

Vox | Cites Daniel Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government: "Carpenter, who wrote a history of the FDA, has called the bill the "19th Century Frauds Act." He continued: "The clauses on using purely observational data for drug approval and what amounts to anecdotal evidence for devices are deeply anti-scientific and would undermine the credibility of the American market for drugs and medical devices...This act would seriously undermine that credibility, and by extension the market as a whole."

Institutional Investor | "A trio of finance and economics professors [Antoinette Scholar (MIT), Sendhil Mullainathan (Harvard), and Markus Noeth (University of Hamburg)] concluded in a paper published in 2012 that retail investors really do need fiduciaries to shield them from poor financial advice. They finally got some protection in the Department of Labor’s so-called fiduciary rule, set to take effect in April 2017 — but the future of that rule now hangs in the balance, just as these researchers have produced fresh findings reinforcing their original conclusions."

Investment News | The practice boosts employees' savings rates, but it may also be financed in some cases by increases in consumer debt, according to new research in a forthcoming report by John Beshears (Harvard Business School), David Laibson (Dept of Economics), Brigitte Madrian (Harvard Kennedy School).

Harvard Gazette | Faculty from Harvard's Government Department—including Danielle Allen, Jennifer Hochschild, Claudine Gay—gathered for a post-election panel, "Trump's America: What's Next?," which explored what a Trump administration portends for voting rights, foreign policy, economics, and American democracy.

Vox | "There’s a growing body of research in political science and political psychology suggesting that even very mild messages or cues that touch on race can alter political opinions." Highlights work by Ryan D. Enos, Associate Professor of Government, who "sent pairs of native Spanish-speaking Latino men to ride commuter trains in Boston, surveyed their fellow riders' political views both before and after, and also surveyed riders on trains not used in the experiment as a control.

"'The results were clear,' Enos wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. 'After coming into contact, for just minutes each day, with two more Latinos than they would otherwise see or interact with, the riders, who were mostly white and liberal, were sharply more opposed to allowing more immigrants into the country and favored returning the children of illegal immigrants to their parents’ home country. It was a stark shift from their pre-experiment interviews, during which they expressed more neutral attitudes.'

"Dwell on that. Merely being in the presence of Latino people changed liberal voters’ attitudes on immigration. That’s among the most subtle cues imaginable. And this is a study conducted in the field, among real people, not in a lab."
View the research 

Awardee | Roland Fryer.
Awarded by the American Economics Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge."

Awardee | Roland Fryer

Russell Sage Foundation | Christopher Jencks, William Julius Wilson 

Harvard Gazette | Roland Fryer

Awardees | Alix S. Winter (Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy) and Matthew Clair (Ph.D. student in Sociology)... Read more about Alix Winter and Matthew Clair recipients of Law and Society paper award

Midwest Political Science Association | Sarah Glatte, Malcolm Wiener Center Visiting Ph.D. fellow from Oxford University (spring 2014).

Awardee | Theda Skocpol

Awardee | Laura Tach (Ph.D. '10). The William T. Grant Scholars program selects 4-6 promising early-career researchers each year in the social, behavioral, and health sciences and supports their professional development with five-year research awards.

Awardee | Adam S. Travis, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy... Read more about Adam Travis awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Awardee | Anthony A. Jack, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology... Read more about Anthony A. Jack recognized with Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising

Awardees | Jennifer Hochschild and Vesla Weaver (Ph.D. '07, now Yale University)

Awardees | Alexandra Killewald and Fabian Pfeffer (University of Michigan) are the recipients of a Russell Sage Foundation grant, jointly funded with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to assess the strength and pattern of multigenerational wealth associations, and explore the role of intergenerational transfers, home ownership and marriage in wealth mobility across generations.

Awardee | Anthony A. Jack, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology... Read more about Anthony A. Jack receives Eastern Sociological Society's Charles V. Willie Award

Awardee | David Deming, faculty member and alum (Ph.D. '10)... Read more about Early Career Award in Education Finance and Policy

Awardee | Daniel Honig, Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy... Read more about Dan Honig a winner in Global Development Network competition for top new ideas in development assistance

Awardee | Bernard L. Fraga (Ph.D. '13)... Read more about MPSA Lucius Barker Award for best paper in race or ethnicity and politics

Awardee | Christopher Muller (Ph.D. '14)

Awardee | Aurélie Ouss (Ph.D. '13)... Read more about Economics of crime prize

Foreign Affairs | By Douglas W. Elmendorf. "The development and passage of the ACHA is a case study in how not to make public policy," writes Elmendorf. Douglas Elmendorf is Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy. He served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office from January 2009 through March 2015.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis | Robert Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, joined the inaugural conference of the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute, where he spoke in the opening panel on segregation and inequality. Putnam and Harvard economist Lawrence Katz both serve on the Institute's Board of Advisors.

Why Opportunity and Inclusion Matter to America's Economic Strength
Lael Brainard of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors delivered the keynote address, highlighting issues of employment, household financial health, the geography of opportunity, and affordable housing. She also drew attention to insights generated by the Boston Fed's Workng Cities Challenge.
View text of remarks
 

Earlier this spring Governor Brainard delivered the 2017 Malcolm Wiener Lecture in International Political Economy in the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.

Harvard Kennedy School PolicyCast | Professor David Deming (PhD '10) sits down with PolicyCast host Matt Cadwallader to talk about his new Harvard Kennedy School course, The Causes and Consequences of Inequality (SUP-206). If traditional jobs like manufacturing aren’t coming back, how can the economy adapt? How can the American education system better prepare the next generation for the needs of the modern economy? Deming's research grapples with these questions.

Harvard Gazette | This past fall, Harvard President Drew Faust convened a University-wide task force to examine ways to help Harvard thrive as a place where all members of its increasingly diverse community feel that they truly belong. The task force is co-chaired by James Bryant Conant University Professor Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; Harvard Kennedy School Academic Dean Archon Fung, the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship; and Vice President for Campus Services Meredith Weenick.

The task force’s co-chairs recently sat down with the Harvard Gazette to discuss this report, their first year, and what’s next for this important work.

U.S. Congress Joint Economic Commitee | Professors Robert D. Putnam and Mario L. Small (PhD '01), joined by Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute and Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, testified before the Joint Economic Committee on the potential role for social capital in addressing U.S. economic and social challenges.

Robert Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, focused on two generational concerns: why social capital matters in narrowing the opportunity gap among today's children, and what a boomer generation "aging alone" portends for U.S. eldercare costs in the years ahead.
Read Robert Putnam testimony

Mario Small, Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology, discussed the evidence that "early education and childcare programs may be an especially effective venue to help low-income parents generate social capital,"..." that this social capital is beneficial, and that there is reason to believe that targeted interventions may help such programs maximize these benefits."
Read Mario Small testimony

Gov Innovator Podcast | Andy Feldman (PhD '07) interviews Carrie Conaway (AM '01), Chief Strategy and Research Officer for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Conaway was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences. Feldman is currently a visiting fellow with the Center for Children and Families at the Brookings Institution.

The 74 | Professor David Deming (PhD '10) on the lasting benefits of Head Start, school accountability, and integration. Deming is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The New York Times Magazine
By Matthew Desmond, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences.
 

Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Russell Sage Foundation | By Christopher Wimer (Ph.D. '07)

Congressional testimony| Testimony of  Scott Winship (Ph.D. '09) before Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | By Alicia Sasser Modestino (Ph.D. '01), Daniel Shoag (Ph.D. '11), and Joshua Ballance

Usable Knowledge (HGSE) | Interview with Ron Ferguson

The Journalist's Resource | Katherine Levine Einstein (Ph.D. '12)

Global Development Network | By Dan Honig, Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy. Award-winning essay of GDN Next Horizons Essay Competition.

Congressional Testimony | Testimony of Justin Wolfers (Ph.D. '01) before Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth | By Elisabeth Jacobs

Scholars Strategy Network | By Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol

Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Matthew M. Chingos and Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Scholars Strategy Network | By Theda Skocpol

Poverty and Race Research Action Council | By Eva Rosen (Ph.D. '14)

Brookings Institution—The Brown Center Chalkboard | By Martin R. West (Faculty, Ph.D. '06)

Journalist's Resource | William Julius Wilson, Robert Sampson

Washington Center for Equitable Growth | By Elisabeth Jacobs

Boston University Initiative on Cities | By Katherine Levine Einstein (Ph.D. '12) and David M. Glick

Scholars Strategy Network | by Judith Scott-Clayton (Ph.D. '09)

Scholars Strategy Network | By Jackelyn Hwang, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy.

Journalist's Resource | Joshua Goodman