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		MIT economist, Jerry A. Hausman, elected to the British Academy The British Academy, UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences, honors Jerry Allen Hausman for his distinguished work in the field of economics. Professor Hausman is one of one of 76 scholars to be elected to the British Academy in 2018.

		Featured Research: Abhijit Banerjee studies Raskin, a social support program in Indonesia Raskin, or Rice for the Poor, is a social support program set up in the 1990s by the Indonesian goverment to provide rice to the country's most vulnerable families. Despite spending $1.5 billion a year, less than half of the rice was reaching the intended recipients. This is because many local officials were distributing rice to residents not on the poverty rolls or arbitrarily changing the subsidy price themselves. Banerjee and colleagues, including Ben Olken, another faculty member at MIT, began testing possible ways to fix the program in 2012. They sent postcards to the intended beneficiaries of Raskin in more than 500 villages that stated exactly what they were entitled to, which eliminated the village leaders' monopoly on information and resulting corruption.

		Featured Research: Amy Finkelstein studies Medicare spending on end-of-life care A new paper co-authored by Prof. Finkelstein, "Predictive modeling of U.S. healthcare spending in late life," challenges the widely held belief that a large portion of Medicare spending goes towards end-of-life care. The study found that although Medicare spending is concentrated among people who die, there is very little Medicare spending on patients whose death within the year is highly likely. Prof. Finkelstein says, "I do hope we stop pointing to end-of-life spending as an obvious problem. That's not to say there aren't problems in the U.S. health care system, but this is not a symptom of them."

		MIT establishes Jerry A. Hausman Graduate Fellowship in Economics Former students and friends of longtime Economics Department faculty member Jerry Hausman have joined to honor his immense contributions to the Department and to the profession with the creation of the Jerry A. Hausman Graduate Fellowship. Hausman, the John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics Post-tenure, has served for over four decades on the MIT faculty, training generations of students in econometrics, public finance, and applied microeconomics. His research accolades include the AEA's John Bates Clark Medal, the Frisch Medal, and the AEA Distinguished Fellow award, to highlight but a few. The first Jerry A. Hausman Graduate Fellow will be named in September 2018.

		Prof. Emeritus Robert Solow speaks on the future of work at MIT Work of the Future forum Professor of Economics, Emeritus Robert Solow participated in a panel discussion as an adviser to MIT's Work of the Future initiative on June 5, 2018.

		Alberto Abadie develops new econometric tools to study policy questions Professor of Economics Alberto Abadie uses his synthetic control method to study the effects of policy changes when a control group is otherwise not available. This methodology is typical of his approach to his work as an econometrician, creating new statistical models and methods with an eye on policy questions.

		Daron Acemoglu speaks on alleviating the impact of automation on displaced workers Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics Daron Acemoglu spoke on the impact of automation on human laborers at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Next conference on June 5, 2018. He demonstrated that automation has not improved wages or productivity in recent years because of the kinds of technology being developed, but are displacing workers. In order to offset the disruption that the technologies bring, he recommends that changes such as overhauling the education system be implemented to better prepare the workers of tomorrow.

		Featured Research: John Van Reenen studies the creation and use of technology Creating new technologies is one thing; using them well is another. This, over the last decade, has turned out to be a new vein of Van Reenen research. Along with several colleagues, including his former student, Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom, Van Reenen has closely scrutinized how firms use innovations, while driving toward a still-larger question: Does management matter?

		Amy Finkelstein elected to National Academy of Sciences John and Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics Amy Finkelstein was elected to the National Academy of Sciences on May 1, 2018, in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The National Academy of Sciences is a non-profit organization established by Congress to provide independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology.

		Featured Research: MIT economist Dave Donaldson explores how railroads helped India trade and grow Before 1870, India barely had railroads. It didn�t have many canals either, and only a small percentage of the population lived along the three main rivers. So when goods needed to be transported, people used steer, which could pull freight about 20 miles per day. But the British, India�s colonial rulers, started building rail lines, and then built some more. By 1930, there were more than 40,000 miles of railroads in India, and goods could be shipped about 400 miles a day. The result? As MIT economist David Donaldson shows in a newly published study on the economic impact of building infrastructure, railroads fostered commerce that raised real agricultural income by 16 percent. �It shows that in the places where the railroad arrived in India, living standards improved,� says Donaldson, a professor in MIT�s Department of Economics.

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