New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes about the growing influence of MIT economists in policy positions and in policy discourse. “M.I.T.-trained economists, especially Ph.D.s from the 1970s, play an outsized role at policy institutions and in policy discussion across the Western world,” Krugman explains.
According to The Economist, a new paper from Prof. Daron Acemoglu compared growth rates and levels of political freedom, and found that countries undergoing a democratic transition grow faster than their autocratic counterparts. Acemoglu found that permanent democratization, “leads to an increase in GDP per person of about 20% in the subsequent 25 years.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Chris Jacobs writes about a study co-authored by Prof. Amy Finkelstein that examines the utility and efficiency of Medicaid coverage. The study “found that beneficiaries valued Medicaid at 20 cents to 40 cents on the dollar,” writes Jacobs.
Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Zweig writes about anti-poverty research, highlighting an MIT study that showed intervention methods can be effective at alleviating poverty. Prof. Esther Duflo says that, “We are trying to promote a culture of learning that will permeate governments and NGOs and businesses to such an extent that it will become par for the course.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Zumbrun writes about a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that found that cell-phone records can indicate if a person has been laid off. The researchers found that “people’s social lives and mobility contracted following a layoff.”
Nobel laureate John Nash, who taught at MIT from 1951 until 1959, died Saturday at age 86, writes Erica Goode for The New York Times. “John’s remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists,” says Christopher L. Eisgruber, the president of Princeton.
Tina Rosenberg writes for The New York Times about a study by J-PAL researchers examining the effectiveness of a poverty intervention program. Researchers found that participants in the program, “ate more, were more certain about access to food, held more assets, had more income and savings, spent more time working, and enjoyed better mental and physical health.”
A new study by MIT researchers has found that anti-poverty intervention methods can be effective, reports Carolyn Johnson for The Boston Globe. Interventions resulted in “fewer skipped meals, more income from livestock and farming, and a durable, though small, increase in how much they consume each day.”
Professor Esther Duflo has been awarded Spain's Princess of Asturias social science prize for her work studying poverty in developing countries, the Associated Press reports. The organizers of the prize said that Duflo has “profoundly changed strategies for education, health and employment in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Daron Acemoğlu argues that reform rollbacks in Turkey have caused the country to lose ground on economic progress. Acemoğlu explains that, “modest improvements in economic and political institutions can trigger rapid productivity growth.”
In a piece for The Huffington Post, Jon Hartley writes about The Billion Prices Project, an initiative started by Profs. Roberto Rigobon and Alberto Cavallo to measure daily inflation. “The BPP daily inflation indices cover more than 70 countries and use daily price fluctuations of over five million items sold in over 300 online retailers,” Hartley explains.
Prof. Nikhil Agarwal has found that a lack of positions at prestigious institutions leads to low salaries among medical residents, reports Angela Chen for The Wall Street Journal. Agarwal found that, "applicants are willing to pay an 'implicit tuition'...to have a prestigious and high-demand residency."
In the first of a series of conversations, Professor Emeritus Robert Solow speaks with Paul Solman of PBS NewsHour about the past week’s economics news. Solow and Solman discuss recent fluctuations in the stock market, Federal Reserve interest rates and the response to the Greek debt crisis.
For his work developing pricing models, Prof. Stephen Ross has been awarded the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics, Reuters reports. The Center for Financial Studies, which awards the prize, said that, "Ross’s models have changed and advanced economic practice profoundly.”
In an article for The New York Times, Paul Krugman examines how MIT-educated economists came to assume such a prominent position in policy-making today. “Analytically, empirically, the MIT style has had an astonishing triumph,” writes Krugman.