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		3 Questions: Amy Finkelstein on testing health care systems About 80 percent of studies of U.S. medical interventions use randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the gold standard of laboratory research. But only about 18 percent of studies of U.S. health care delivery use RCTs. That can and should change, suggests Amy Finkelstein, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT, in a Science piece co-written with MIT researcher Sarah Taubman. If so, they assert, researchers who find new ways of applying RCTs to our medical system will be able to produce compelling answers to pressing questions.

		Featured Research: Is the medical match fair? Study by Assistant Professor Nikhil Agarwal finds the demand for positions strongly influences medical residents' salaries. His study indicates that demand for a limited number of desirable residency positions can keep salaries low � and introduces a new way of assessing that demand despite incomplete data that has previously restricted analysis of the issue.

		Heidi Williams selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow Class of 1957 Career Development Assistant Professor Heidi Williams has been awarded a 2015 Sloan Research Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowships seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

		Featured Research: Quantifying Confidence Recessions are often described are periods of "weak aggregate demand" and "low confidence". Yet, it is debatable what these notions mean, or what their quantitative importance is. A paper authored by Professors George-Marios Angeletos, Fabrice Collard (University of Bern), and Harris Dellas (University of Bern) provides evidence that appears to contradict existing formalizations of the business cycle and argue that the incorporation of strategic uncertainty, and of a certain type of belief waves, helps provide a quantitatively potent account of the aforementioned notions, and the business cycle at large, without the usual reliance on nominal rigidities.

		Ivan Werning awarded 2014 Banque de France/TSE Junior Prize in Monetary Economics and Finance The 2014 Junior prize in Monetary Economics and Finance is awarded to Professors Ralph Koijen and Ivan Werning by the Banque de France and the Toulouse School of Economics. This prize, granted annually, distinguish academic researchers who have developed central concepts to improve our understanding of Monetary Economics and Finance. The aim of the prize is to foster conceptual progress that will eventually allow the design and implementation of improved policies by central banks.

		Featured Research: How to conduct cause-and-effect studies on complex social questions If you would like to produce good quantitative social-science research, try remembering these two words: "ceteris paribus." That's Latin for "other things being equal." And it's a key principle when designing studies: Find two groups of people who, other things being equal, are distinguished by one key feature. Josh Angrist, the Ford Professor of Economics, has long been one of the leading advocates of research that uses "ceteris paribus" principles. Prof. Angrist and co-author Jorn-Steffen Pischke (London School of Economics), have written a book on the subject for a general audience, "Mastering 'Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect," published this month.

		Esther Duflo awarded Infosys Social Sciences Prize The Infosys Prize 2014 in Social Sciences was awarded to Professor Esther Duflo in recognition of her pioneering and prodigious contributions to development economics, with important implications for policies pertaining to the delivery of services to the poor.

		James Poterba awarded Daniel M. Holland Medal Mitsui Professor of Economics, James Poterba, is the first MIT faculty member to receive the Daniel M. Holland Medal from the National Tax Association in honor of his outstanding contributions to the study and practice of public finance.

		David Autor elected Fellow of Econometric Society Professor David Autor has been elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society for his highly regarded contributions to Economics. The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics.

		Robert Solow wins Presidential Medal of Freedom Institute Professor Robert Solow is among 19 new winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "Robert Solow is one of the most widely respected economists of the past 60 years," the White House said of the MIT economist, who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1987. "His research in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s transformed the field, laying the groundwork for much of modern economics. He continues to influence policymakers, demonstrating how smart investments, especially in new technology, can build broad-based prosperity, and he continues to actively participate in contemporary debates about inequality and economic growth."

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