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News Archive

Items 1-10 out of 117 displayed.

		Q&A: David Autor on inequality among the "99 percent" Today's wealth gap does not just exist between the richest 1 percent of the population and everyone else; there have been growing inequalities among the less-wealthy 99 percent of people, too. In an article published today in Science, MIT economist David Autor contends that much of our present inequality stems from disparities in education. This has evolved in two directions: From 1980 to 2012, inflation-adjusted, full-time earnings of college-educated males increased anywhere from 20 percent to 56 percent, depending on whether they also acquired graduate degrees. Conversely, real earnings of high school graduates fell 11 percent, and earnings of high school dropouts fell 22 percent.
		Morris Adelman, MIT economics faculty member for more than six decades, dies at 96 Morris Adelman, an MIT economics faculty member for more than six decades, passed away on May 8 at the age of 96.
		Daron Acemoglu elected to the National Academy of Sciences Professor Daron Acemoglu, has been named to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, an honor recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Other new members include Institute colleagues, Professor Emery Brown (Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience), Professor Alan Grossman (Biology) and Professor Timothy Grove (Earth and Planetary Sciences). Including these four, 77 MIT faculty members now hold NAS membership. The four MIT professors were among 84 members and 21 foreign associates from 15 countries elected to the NAS this year. NAS membership is one of the highest honors afforded to scientists and engineers.
		Featured Research: How a health care plan quickly lowered infant mortality A study conducted by Professors Robert Townsend and Jon Gruber and Harvard Professor Nathaniel Hendren (Ph.D. '12)finds that a policy change in Thailand's health care system has quickly led to significantly lower infant mortality rates among less-wealthy citizens. The researchers found that Thailand's "30 Baht" program, which increased access to hospitals, led to a 13 percent drop in infant mortality in about a year. That change seems largely attributable to fewer infant deaths in rural areas, where previously the poor might never have entered hospitals to seek care.
		Featured Research: Thomas Piketty presents, defends work on inequality The eighth speaker at the Macroeconomics Seminar this semester, Piketty presented his work and faced an array of questions about his assumptions and conclusions. Piketty’s book, the unexpected bestseller "Capital in the 21st Century," contends that if the rate of return on accumulated capital significantly exceeds overall growth rates, it will lead to a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of those who already have significant assets.
		Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo Awarded 2014 Albert O. Hirschman Prize The 2014 Albert O. Hirschman Prize recognizes the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT and Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo for their commitment to the idea of producing new social scientific knowledge and so expanding frontiers of discovery while also confronting deep practical and ethical issues. Professors Banerjee and Duflo are receiving the Hirschman Prize not only for creating and building J-PAL but also for their own significant contributions to both research and practice.
		IPA Lecture: Obamacare: Past, Present, and Future Professor Jon Gruber weighs in on health plan's status as legislation becomes reality.
		Featured Research: Having Medicaid increases emergency room visits Adults who are covered by Medicaid use emergency rooms 40 percent more than those in similar circumstances who do not have health insurance, according to a unique new study, co-authored by Ford Professor Amy Finkelstein, that sheds empirical light on the inner workings of health care in the U.S.
		3 Questions with Benjamin Olken How is climate change going to affect our economic activity in the future? Many researchers have dug into this subject empirically in recent years, including economists Michael Greenstone and Benjamin Olken of MIT. Now Olken, along with economists Melissa Dell of Harvard University and Benjamin Jones of Northwestern University, has co-authored a lengthy review article for the Journal of Economic Literature, surveying this research and suggesting areas needing further study. Olken sat down with MIT News recently to discuss the climate-economy connection.
		Ivan Werning elected Fellow of Econometric Society Professor Ivan Werning has been elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society for influential and pioneering contributions in macroeconomics, public finance, and more. The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics.

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