In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Emeritus Richard Schmalensee writes that policies should be enacted in Massachusetts that make solar power cost-effective for all consumers. Schmalensee writes that, “public policies must place a greater emphasis on rewarding the lowest-cost sources of solar electricity.”
In an article for BloombergView, Noah Smith highlights a paper by Prof. Deborah Lucas that found that “federal lending did as much as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to stimulate demand and keep the economy from crashing.”
Reuters reporter Svea Herbst-Bayliss writes that in her remarks at MIT, Madame Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, spoke about steps that could be taken to tackle climate change. "If subsidies were removed and carbon prices set properly now and taxed that would go a long way in addressing the climate change issues the world is facing,” says Lagarde.
In an interview with Eduardo Porter of The New York Times, Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks about whether a carbon tax could be effective in the U.S. According to Porter, Knittel explains that “a properly calibrated carbon price in the United States could effectively replace all the climate-related regulations businesses hate so much.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Lydia DePillis speaks with Prof. David Autor about how a large part of the labor force has been left out of job market growth in recent years. "Our main labor market challenge is not a lack of high wage jobs; it’s rather the weak or non-existent wage growth in non-college jobs," says Autor.
The Economist reports on a new study co-authored by Prof. David Autor that examines how increased trade between China and the U.S. has impacted American workers. The researchers found that “sudden exposure to foreign competition can depress wages and employment for at least a decade.”
A new paper co-authored by Prof. Parag Pathak found that school-choice systems designed to aid low-income children have not been effective, according to The Economist. The researchers found that while parents like these programs “they often do little for their children’s test scores.”
In an interview with the BBC, Prof. Heidi Williams argues that there should be more incentives for developing cancer prevention techniques and treatments for early-stage cancers. "If you look at drugs that get approved by the FDA, they all tend to be for very late stage cancer patients,” says Williams.
The Economist highlights an MIT study that shows Massachusetts is outperforming Silicon Valley in creating life sciences startups, and credits MIT for its role in driving innovation in Kendall Square. “The Boston metropolitan area...seems to be holding its own as the world’s pre-eminent biotech hub.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Brenda Cronin writes that MIT researchers have identified a group of consumers that routinely buy products that fail. “You’ve got to think about who’s buying” the product, explains Prof. Duncan Simester. “If it’s these harbingers buying them….and if they keep buying them…then you’ve got a problem.”
MIT researchers have found that few incentives exist to encourage research on disease prevention, reports Austin Frakt for The New York Times. “R & D on cancer prevention and treatment of early-stage cancer is very socially valuable,” Profs. Heidi Williams and Ben Roin explain, “yet our work shows that society provides private firms…surprisingly few incentives.”
CNBC’s John Schoen writes that MIT researchers have identified a group of consumers that repeatedly buy unpopular products. "You might have thought this was a category-specific effect — someone who buys the wrong makeup," explains Prof. Catherine Tucker. "But the strongest effects were going across category.”
MIT researchers have found that certain consumers are more prone to buying products that end up failing, reports Peter Coy for Bloomberg Business. “It's not just that certain people try out new products that turn out to be unsuccessful,” writes Coy. “It's that they keep going back for more of them.”
Prof. David Singer weighs in on the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its target interest rate in this article for The Conversation. Singer writes that, “a less appreciated facet of liftoff is that the Fed’s balance sheet is now so large that raising interest rates is logistically and mechanically challenging.”
A study conducted by Prof. Esther Duflo found that when women were offered financial support through livestock and educational training, they were able to climb out of poverty, according to The Economist. “Seven years after the programme began their average monthly consumption was almost one-third higher than it had been after two years.”