Writing for The New York Times, Thomas Edsall highlights research by Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor examining how automation and trade impacted the 2016 presidential election. “The swing to Republicans between 2008 and 2016 is quite a bit stronger in commuting zones most affected by industrial robots,” explains Acemoglu. “You don’t see much of the impact of robots in prior presidential elections.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart examines the disbanding of the election integrity commission and possible next steps for improving voting security. “The two most important issues right now are replacing the nation’s aging voting machines and making the information systems surrounding elections more secure and resilient in the face of mounting threats."
In light of President Trump’s recent trip to China, research fellow Audrey Jiajia Li writes in The Boston Globe about the similarities he shares with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “President Trump actually shares more values with President Xi than many observers might have predicted. And the affinity between the two men may very well result in a thaw in diplomatic relations, particularly on the economic front.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen writes about how to improve the bipartisan health care bill. Pozen writes that measures such as broadening the use of tax-advantaged accounts and encouraging the growth of interstate sales of health care policies should, “ensure the bill has a smoother journey through the legislative process.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, President L. Rafael Reif expresses support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “As the president of one of America’s leading technical universities — an institution built on intellectual excellence, a meritocratic openness to talent, and a long tradition of national service — I believe repealing DACA would be a mistake.”
In this New York Times opinion piece, Prof. Emeritus Noam Chomsky discusses the current state of American politics with George Yancy, a professor of philosophy at Emory University. Speaking about the weightiest issues facing humanity, Chomsky explained that in his view, “The most important issues to address are the truly existential threats we face: climate change and nuclear war.”
In an article for HuffPost, Michael Shammas highlights Senior Lecturer Jason Jay’s new book, “Breaking Through Gridlock: The Power of Conversation in a Polarized World.” Shammas explains that the book outlines a path to, “improve our ability to hold productive conversations.”
MIT professor and former U.S. Sec. of Energy, Ernest Moniz, contributed this op-ed in The Hill, voicing his concerns about what President Trump's proposed budget means for U.S. energy security and low-carbon innovation. The administration's stance, he says, is "at odds with the preponderance of scientific evidence and the positions of almost all other nations of the world."
Politico Pro reporter Alex Guillén writes that David Goldston, director of government affairs for the National Resources Defense Council, has been selected to lead MIT’s Washington Office.
WBUR’s Asma Khalid highlights how MIT researchers have developed a tool that allows people to see the social media world of other users. Grad student Martin Saveski explains that the project was aimed at connecting people with differing viewpoints, noting that beyond politics there are “many other things that we may have in common.”
Prof. Adam Berinsky writes for The Washington Post about his research investigating how to counter political rumors. “Just as important as how a rumor is debunked is who does the debunking,” he writes. “Politicians who support good public policy by speaking against their partisan interests…are considered credible sources by citizens from across the ideological spectrum.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer examines how an overhaul of the H-1B visa program could impact the American job market. Singer writes that “restricting visas for highly skilled foreign workers could prompt high-tech firms in the United States to shift operations overseas in search of skilled labor.”
In an article for The New York Times about why people believe false information, Amanda Taub and Brendan Nyhan highlight a study by Prof. Adam Berinsky that examines political myths. Berinsky found that “a surprising co-partisan source (a Republican member of Congress) was the most effective in reducing belief in the ‘death panel’ myth about the Affordable Care Act.”
Dan Kennedy of WGBH News writes about a new study from researchers at the MIT Center for Civic Media and Harvard that examined social-media sharing patterns among conservative and liberal individuals.
Saqib Shah writes for FOX News that researchers from the Media Lab’s Electome project are launching an interactive tool “that compares tweets shared by the White House with a sampling of those shared by the public.”