Wall Street Journal | Research suggests policy makers could make retirement accounts even more restrictive without reducing their appeal. Discusses findings of an experimental study by John Beshears (Harvard Business School), James J. Choi (Yale), Christopher Harris (University of Cambridge), David Laibson (Harvard Economics), Brigitte C. Madrian (Harvard Kennedy School), and Jung Sakong (University of Chicago).
View the research

The New York Times | The Upshot talks with Harvard economist Claudia Goldin on her recent study with Lawrence Katz, "Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations." Also highlights Goldin's work with Joshua Mitchell (Ph.D. '11), a senior economist at the U.S. Census Bureau, which appears in the current issue of Journal of Economics Perspectives.

"Nearly 30 percent of women 65 to 69 are working, up from 15 percent in the late 1980s, one of the analyses, by the Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, found. Eighteen percent of women 70 to 74 work, up from 8 percent.

"This rejection of retirement is more common among women with higher education and savings, though not confined to them. Those who are not working are more likely to have poor health and low savings, and to be dependent on Social Security and sometimes disability benefits, Ms. Goldin said.

Of those still working, Ms. Goldin said, 'They’re in occupations in which they really have an identity.' She added, 'Women have more education, they’re in jobs that are more fulfilling, and they stay with them.'” 
View the research (by Goldin and Katz)
View JEP article (by Goldin and Mitchell)

The New York Times | "Suppose there were a way to pump up the economy, reduce inequality, and put an end to destructive housing bubbles like the one that contributed to the Great Recession." Discusses recent paper by economists Edward Glaeser of Harvard and Joe Gyourko at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which reviews the basic economics and functioning of the U.S. housing market "to better understand the impacts on home prices, household wealth, and the spatial distribution of people across markets."

Also cites research by Daniel Shoag (Ph.D. '11), Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, and Peter Ganong of the University of Chicago, on the role of housing prices in limiting the ability of low-income workers to migrate to higher-wage areas, thereby contributing income inequality.

The Atlantic—CityLab | Features new research by Michael Hankinson, Ph.D. candidate in Government & Social Policy, on the politics of affordable housing.

Harvard Kennedy School Magazine
By Robert Kuttner
There are economists who teach the well-known postulate that free trade improves global well-being. There are other social scientists and popular critics who contend that laissez-faire trade can be bad for equality, for social stability, and even for economic efficiency, just as pure laissez-faire is not optimal at home.

And then there is Dani Rodrik.

Rodrik, the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Kennedy School, is close to a unique specimen in the field of economics. He is a respectful critic of some of the most cherished suppositions of his profession, notably in his books and articles expressing qualms about globalization. But Rodrik does it as a superb technical economist, with humility, precision, wit, intellectual curiosity, and an astonishing range of reading across disciplines. Continue reading»

Quartz | Discusses research by David Deming (Ph.D. '10), a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Education, who finds that the labor market  in recent decades "increasingly rewards social skills", with "employment and wage growth particularly strong for jobs requiring high levels of both cognitive skill and social skill." Also cites a recent brief from The Hamilton Project, "Seven Facts on Noncognitive Skills from Education to the Labor Market," which draws on Deming's work.
View the research

Harvard Kennedy School Magazine | At Harvard Kennedy School, cities are a focus for research and an opportunity to experiment with new and better ways of governing. Features the work of Jeffrey Liebman, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy and director of the Government Peformance Lab, and of Quinton Mayne, Associate Professor of Public Policy, whose research "has found that where local governments can shape welfare policies, such as in education or social services, citizens are much less likely to be politically disaffected."

The New York Times | Thomas B. Edsall reviews an extensive body of social science evidence, including the work of Raj Chetty of Stanford University and Harvard's Nathaniel Hendren, Assistant Professor of Economics.

MIT News | Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard and co-scientific director of JPAL-North America, spoke on leveraging housing vouchers as a ladder to economic mobility for low-income families. 

The conference, held at MIT, brought together state and local policymakers with leading researchers to discuss "how governments and researchers have partnered to use evidence from randomized evaluations to reduce crime and violence, improve maternal and child health, and promote housing mobility."

OZY | Quoted: Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. 

“[The Tea Party] was never about small government; it was about small government for the elites who latched on,” says Theda Skocpol, a Harvard professor and co-author of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. “For the grassroots back then, it was about making sure the government didn’t spend on the wrong people. Rarely did anyone criticize Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits — the big-ticket items.” The biggest common theme, she says: “cracking down on immigration.”

Harvard Gazette | Radcliffe Day 2017, on May 26, will honor PBS journalists Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. Harvard's Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, will participate in the morning panel, "(Un)truths and Their Consequences," joined by A’Lelia Bundles '74, E. J. Dionne ’73, and Peggy Noonan. For more information about the day's events, which will be webcast live, see Radcliffe Day 2017.

The New York Times | Quoted: Daniel Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government.

Bloomberg | Discusses new study by David Autor (MIT), David Dorn (University of Zurich), Lawrence Katz (Harvard), Christina Patterson (MIT), and John Van Reenen (MIT), which examines the relationship between market concentration and labor's falling share in GDP. This work is forthcoming in American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings.
View the research

Quartz | Political protests in the first days of the Trump administration generate new interest in a study by Daniel Shoag (Ph.D.'11), Associate Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and colleagues Andreas Madestam (Stockholm University), Stan Veuger (American Enterprise Institute), and David Yanagizawa-Drott (University of Zurich). The study, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in November 2013, seeks to determine whether protests actually cause political change, or whether they are "merely symptoms of underlying shifts in policy preferences."
View the research

Also cited: Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson's book, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Oxford University Press, 2012). Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Governmant and Sociology at Harvard. Vanessa S. Williamson (Ph.D. '15) is  a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.

The Atlantic | Features insights of Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee  Professor of Economics. Cites her research, joint with Marianne Bertrand (University of Chicago) and Lawerence Katz (Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics), published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (2010), which examined the dynamics of the gender gap for young professionals in the financial and corporate sectors. Also cites Goldin and Katz study, "The Cost of Workplace Flexibility for High-Powered Professionals," published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2011).

The New York Times | Cites research from a coming book by Ryan Enos, Associate Professor of Government at Harvard. Also cites Daniel Hopkins (Ph.D. '07), Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and Robert Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard. 

Enos provides the details of his analysis in a short research note, "Changes in Hispanic Population and Voting in the 2016 Presidential Election."
View research note

The Atlantic | Discusses new study by David Autor (MIT), David Dorn (University of Zurich), Lawrence Katz (Harvard), Christina Patterson (MIT), and John Van Reenen (MIT), which examines the relationship between market concentration and labor's falling share in GDP. This work is forthcoming in American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings.
View the research

MIT News | J-PAL North America, a research center at MIT, has announced that it has awarded grants to fund randomized evaluations focused on employing behavioral science insights to prevent crime and violence. One of the two grants, awarded to Anuj Shah, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science at Chicago Booth, and Aurélie Ouss (Ph.D. '13), a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, "will evaluate whether an app designed to lead at-risk youth to participate in safe activities can help them avoid dangerous default situations and behaviors."

Harvard Gazette | With travel to U.S. banned from some nations, Harvard moves to support members of its international community. President Drew Faust's letter to the Harvard community and responses from across the University, including that of Dean Douglas Elmendorf of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Bloomberg | Highlights new study by Harvard economist Amanda Pallais and Alexandre Mas of Princeton, "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements." Also discusses work of Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, on jobs that may allow greater flexibility in hours without sacrificing pay.

Awardee | Ariel R. White (Ph.D. '16) has been awarded the Harvard Government Department's 2016 Robert Noxon Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science for her dissertation titled, "Voter Behavior in the Wake of Punitive Politics." White joins the MIT faculty as Assistant Professor of Political Science in the fall.

Awardee | Robert Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, has been awarded the 2016 Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award by the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) for his 2000 book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community...The Wildavsky Award recognizes a work, published 10-20 years earlier, that continues to influence the study of public policy. 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | In prepared remarks, CFPB Director Richard Cordray welcomes new members Brigitte Madrian (Harvard) and Ian Ayres (Yale) to CFPB's Academic Research Council and highlights the importance of consumer finance as an area of economics and policy. Madrian is the Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at Harvard Kennedy School.

Harvard Graduate School of Education | Associate Professor David Deming (Ph.D. '10) has been promoted to full professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Deming is an economist interested in educational inequality and the impact of education policies on long-term outcomes.

“David’s scholarship addresses fundamentally important questions in exceptionally innovative ways. The rigor and relevance of his work — on subjects ranging from the long-term benefits of the Head Start program, the value of degrees from for-profit colleges, and the effects of racial segregation on academic achievement and life outcomes — make his findings absolutely essential reading for academics and policymakers alike,” said Dean James Ryan.

Awardee | Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, is the winner of the 2016 IZA Prize in Labor Economics, awarded by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn. The prize is awarded for outstanding academic achievement in labor economics, intended to stimulate research that seeks "answers to the important labor market policy questions of our time." Read a profile of Claudia Goldin in the The University of Chicago Magazine, where Goldin earned her Ph.D., and Goldin's interview in Econ Focus, magazine of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (Q4:2014). Learn more about Goldin's latest work at her Harvard Economics homepage.

Awardee | Ann Owens (Ph.D. '12), Assistant Professor of Sociology and Spatial Sciences at University of Southern California, has been named a 2016 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, a fellowship that supports early career scholars working in critical areas of education research.

Owens will investigate whether and how both school and neighborhood inequalities contribute to the educational attainment gap between high- and low-income youth.The gap between high- and low-income young adults' educational attainment has grown over the past few decades while racial gaps have stabilized. Identifying possible explanations for the economic attainment gap, including neighborhood, district, and school economic segregation, is thus critical for reducing inequality for future generations.
... Read more about Ann Owens named a 2016 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow

Awardee | Asad L. Asad, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology, is one of three Harvard University doctoral students selected to be a Graduate Student Fellow in the 2016-2017 class of Radcliffe Fellows at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Asad will spend the year completing his dissertation, Living in the Shadows? Reconsidering How Immigrants Experience Enforcement Policy, with a Radcliffe Institute Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Learn more about Asad's work at his homepage.

Awardee | Jal Mehta (Ph.D. '06), Associate Professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has been selected to be the Evelyn Green Davis Fellow in the 2016-2017 class of fellows at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. These Radcliffe Fellows—scholars, scientists, and artists—come from six continents and across Harvard to pursue an individual project in an interdisciplinary setting. Mehta will be working on a book, The Chastened Dream: Social Science, Social Policy, and Social Progress across the Twentieth Century.

Awardee | Abena Subira Mackall, doctoral candidate in Education, has been awarded the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Travel Award to present her dissertation research at the 2017 annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The 2017 meeting theme is "Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity." Read more about Mackall's research at her homepage.

Harvard Gazette | Edward L. Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, is one of five recipients of this year's Star Family Challenge grant, awarded annually to "high-risk, high-return research efforts." Glaeser and colleagues are working to extend a machine-learning algorithm based on street-level images  that they developed in Boston and New York to aid in the collection of urban data in developing countries. 

Selwyn College - University of Cambridge| Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, drew a standing room-only audience of more than 300 and a huge ovation for her 2016 Ramsay Murray Lecture on "The Obama Impact", delivered at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. 
View video ▶ 

... Read more about Theda Skocpol delivers 2016 Ramsay Murray Lecture

Awardee | Matthew Desmond, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Science, is the 2016 recipient of the Human Security Award, which recognizes an individual "whose actions have made a dramatic difference in helping protect and empower the world’s most vulnerable groups and communities." The award is sponsored by the UC Irvine Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation, Center for Unconventional Security, and School of Social Ecology.

Awardee | Mary C. Waters, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology, has been selected to give the 2016 Henry and Bryna David Lecture at the National Academy of Sciences. The Henry and Bryna David Endowment awards innovative research in the behavioral and social sciences by selecting a leading expert and researcher to write an article in their field to be presented at the National Academy of Sciences and published in Issues in Science and Technology.  The lecture will be webcast live May 3, 2016, at 5 pm.

Waters first presented this work, "The War on Crime and the War on Immigrants: New Forms of Legal Exclusion and Discrimination in the U.S.," in the Inequality & Social Policy Seminar Series, March 7, 2016.

Awardee | Richard B. Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics, is one of four recipients of the American Economics Association Distinguished Fellow award for lifetime distinguished research contributions. 

"Richard Freeman is an enormously innovative labor economist who has made pioneering contributions to virtually every aspect of the field including the market for highly educated labor, the economics of discrimination and poverty, the economics of trade unionism, comparative labor market institutions and empirical methodology. Freeman’s analyses have been notably expansive, eye opening, revealing, policy-relevant and often provocative, no more so than on trade unionism and the role of employee ownership." More ►

Awardee | Abena Subira Mackall, an Ed.D. candidate in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is one of four Harvard doctoral students to receive a Julius B. Richmond Fellowship from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Mackall’s dissertation research lies at the intersection of education systems and juvenile and criminal justice systems, exploring the lived experience of juvenile probation and how adjudicated youth sentenced to probation interpret and understand this experience within the social context of their daily lives and development.

Awardee | Kelley Fong, Ph.D. student in Sociology and Social Policy, is one of four Harvard doctoral students selected to receive a Julius B. Richmond Fellowship from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child for the 2016-2017  academic year.

Fong’s research examines patterns of distrust and disconnection among low-income parents, asking how and why parents disengage from services and systems aimed at supporting their children’s health, well-being, and development.

Awardee | Sendhil Mullainathan, Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics, is one of 213 new members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious learned societies whose members some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, business, and philanthropic leaders. Read more about the University's eight new members in the Harvard Gazette.

Awardee | Anthony Abraham Jack, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology, has been awarded a citation of distinction as an Emerging Diversity Scholar from the National Center for Institutional Diversity, based at the University of Michigan.

Awardee | Vesla M. Weaver (Ph.D. '07, now Yale University) is one of 33 recipients of a prestigious Andrew Carnegie fellowship, awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for the advancement of research in the humanities and social sciences. Weaver is Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Yale, and founding director of its Center for the Study of Inequality.

From Yale News: "Weaver’s proposal for the Carnegie fellowship, titled “The Faces of American Democracy,” will examine the relationship between poor citizens and communities and government in the United States. The project will provide the first systematic study of how Americans in different communities experience government activity across a number of areas, including schools, social welfare agencies, police and probation agencies, civil ordinances, the housing authority, and child protective services."

Jeffrey Liebman, Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy, has been appointed by Senate Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to the federal Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, which was enacted into law in March 2016. The law establishes a 15-member commission to study how best to expand and coordinate the use of federal administrative data to evaluate the effectiveness of federal programs. (See American Statistical Association community website for list of appointees to date).

See also: Urban Institute, "Everything you need to know about the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking."

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