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“You could think of the cricket pitch as a microcosm of caste issues in India,” says Matt Lowe (bottom, second from right), a PhD candidate leading a study in India to see if the popular game of cricket can help bridge caste divides.

When castes collide

PhD student Matt Lowe uses cricket tournaments to explore caste interactions in rural India and whether the popular sport can help bridge class divides.

July 20, 2017

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O'Sullivan is pondering decarbonization, decentralization, and the smart electric grid of the future.

3 Questions: The future of the electric utility

MIT Energy Initiative Director of Research Francis O’Sullivan reflects on current trends in the utility industry, as well as potential solutions to current challenges.

July 14, 2017

“We find that patients who go to hospitals that rely more on skilled nursing facilities after discharge, as opposed to getting them healthy enough to return home, are substantially less likely to survive over the following year,” says Professor Joseph Doyle.

Hospitals that spend more on emergency care yield better outcomes

Study: Investing more in inpatient care relative to longer-term nursing facilities reduces mortality rates.

July 9, 2017

By comparing 1.6 million pairs of photos taken seven years apart, researchers have now used a new computer vision system to quantify the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods in five American cities, in an attempt to identify factors that predict urban change. Pictured are two street views, with the old photograph on the left and the new photograph on the right.

Why do some neighborhoods improve?

Density of highly educated residents, rather than income or housing costs, predicts revitalization.

July 6, 2017

"Eliminating high-occupancy vehicle restrictions led to substantially worse traffic," says economics professor Ben Olken. "That’s not shocking, but the magnitudes are just enormous."

A simple solution for terrible traffic

Study: Without HOV policies, urban traffic gets much, much worse.

July 6, 2017

A new study engaged preschool children in math games intended to help them grasp concepts of number and geometry, and in social games intended to help them cooperate and learn together.

Study: Preschoolers learn from math games — to a point

Games found to improve conceptual math skills, but gains may not carry over to primary school.

July 6, 2017

“We try to understand how the rules [for firms] should be written in a way that provides members incentives to do research and work hard, and doesn’t yield disproportionate power to an individual,” says economist Alessandro Bonatti.

Modeling innovation

Economist Alessandro Bonatti’s theoretical studies illuminate the behavior of firms and prices.

July 5, 2017

Baltimore, Maryland, is one of three local governments selected to work with J-PAL North America to evaluate solutions to homelessness, recidivism, and other policy challenges.

J-PAL North America partners with local governments to tackle homelessness and reduce incarceration

Selected cities and counties will receive funding and technical support from J-PAL to test innovative strategies in the fight against poverty.

June 30, 2017

“I was happy I didn’t get accepted into an engineering-only school, because I have two left hands and I’m way more interested in social sciences,” PhD student Aicha Ben Dhia says.

Investigating the trap of unemployment

PhD student Aicha Ben Dhia studies France’s labor market from the perspective of local job-seekers.

June 29, 2017

“One of the most frequent questions that we get at J-PAL is a version of, ‘So a program worked in one place. Is it likely to work in my context?’” says Mary Ann Bates, the deputy executive director of J-PAL North America.

How J-PAL thinks globally and acts locally

Can an antipoverty program work in different settings? A new report presents a user’s guide to a tough issue.

June 28, 2017

“Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future,” by Andrew McAfee (top) and Erik Brynjolfsson, published by W.W. Norton.

Q&A: Running a company in an era of “crazy technological progress”

New book by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson surveys tech’s challenges for business.

June 27, 2017

A new study by an MIT-based team of economists has developed a novel way of evaluating Value-Added Models (VAMs), which assess teachers and schools.

Testing the metrics

MIT researchers refine yardstick for measuring schools and teachers.

June 14, 2017

QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2017-18

Ranked at the top for the sixth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 of 46 disciplines.

June 8, 2017

Solar panels cover the roof of the CII-Godrej Green Business Center in Hyderabad, India.

MIT Technology and Policy Program’s Best Thesis for 2017 maps out a clean energy future for India

Award-winning paper by Arun Singh shows how one of the world’s fastest-growing economies can expand its energy consumption while limiting emissions.

June 7, 2017

"We can’t only care about global-scale climate change; we also need to consider the local quality of life because these two things are closely related. If you want to know more about China’s future, you need to understand its local life," says Siqi Zheng, faculty director of the Samuel Tak Lee MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab.

3Q: Siqi Zheng on air quality and urban development in China

Author of “Blue Skies over Beijing” links Chinese air quality and urban development.

May 19, 2017