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		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.

		Abhijit Banerjee receives the Gabarron International Award for Economics Ford International Professor Banerjee will receive the Gabarron International Award "For his outstanding contributions in the field of economics and particularly for introducing us to a different way of thinking about economics and how economics are relevant to poverty and thus making everyone a participant in "the great debate of the world". For his constant analysis of the reduction of poverty, and for his eye-opening views on micro-solutions and their contribution to the overall explanation within the poverty discussion. For his unquestioned influence in a new generation of economists who are reassessing their empirical methods and going beyond the traditional models and combining theory with field work in order to come up with micro-solutions that will have an impact in their communities." The Gabarron International Award for Economics recognizes the person, team, entity or institution whose activities in the field of economics has made a decisive contribution to improving the quality of life of a group of people, territory or society, and in whose specific work and projects outstanding social concern is an underlying objective.

		Bengt Holmstrom Awarded CME Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications Professor Bengt Holmstrom is the 2013 recipient of the CME Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications. The eighth annual CME Group-MSRI Prize recognizes individuals who contribute original concepts in mathematical, statistical or computational methods for the study of the markets' behavior and global economics. "Professor Holmstrom's research on the impact of liquidity and the role that governmental intervention can play have produced extraordinary insights into macroeconomics and the recent global financial crises," said David Eisenbud, Director of MSRI and Prize Selection Committee member. "MSRI is proud to be collaborating with CME Group in acknowledging Professor Holmstrom's innovative analysis and its contribution to the mathematics community."

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