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Economics
A Q&A on economic outlook
National & World Affairs
By: Colleen Walsh/
November 21, 2012
A nudge toward better outcomes
On Nov. 7, fresh from spending election night in Chicago, Cass Sunstein, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, gave an audience there a peek at how the Obama administration has applied behavioral economics to regulatory decisions.
The American middle class has been battered by the loss of well-paying jobs for the 70 percent of the workforce without a college degree and failed by would-be protectors in government and private institutions, said panelists in a Harvard forum on April 27.
Business as a force for change
Business can be an engine for solving social problems — especially poverty — said Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in a talk at Harvard Business School.
After more than a decade away, Professor Eric Maskin returned to the Economics Department this semester to a warm reception — and with a Nobel Prize in tow.
Economics Articles
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In a paper published last year, Harvard professors David Laibson and Brigitte Madrian argued that employers should design investment menus for their employees that facilitate good choices, “rather than assuming that giving people every option under the sun will lead to the right decision." The report, co-authored with James Choi of Yale, was recently honored with the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award.
A panel discusses “The Growing Challenge of Inequality,” an issue easily described and summarized, but difficult to solve, the speakers said, given the political and economic climate that currently dominates the United States.
Eurozone’s ongoing problems create a ripple effect in developing nations, says World Bank president.
Parts of the U.S. economy have been recovering for more than a year, but American jobs haven’t yet returned along with renewed profits. Harvard experts offer insights into what large-scale unemployment means for the nation, and what policymakers and others can do to fix a balky system.
Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang touts onetime Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s “one country, two systems” philosophy for his area’s economic fortitude.
Occupy Wall Street, the inspiration for hundreds of similar economic protests, is “an angry work in progress” that drew experts’ attention during two programs at Harvard.
Alumni win Nobel Prize for economics
Two alumni of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who received their Ph.D.s from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, won the Nobel Prize for economics Oct. 10, 2011 for their work on change and the macroeconomy.
Sorting immigration facts, fiction
A conference on “The Futures of Immigration: Scholars and Journalists in Dialogue” brought together academics and working reporters to hash out immigration topics such as the law, economics, and the future impact of the new arrivals’ children on U.S. labor markets and culture.
True cost of medical malpractice
The debates over health care reform may soon become more informed. A new study undertaken by a group of researchers, including Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Professor Amitabh Chandra, provides a detailed snapshot of U.S. medical malpractice claims, awards, and frequency by specialty.
A team of researchers at Harvard and in London has created a model of bank failure aimed at helping economies avoid crashes. Their work highlights a fundamental dilemma for regulators: Improving the safety of individual banks may make the financial system as a whole more dangerous.
Gita Gopinath, Harvard’s newest tenured professor of economics, uses complex mathematics to model the financial world, but she also hunts for clues in real-world data.
Economist Marc Melitz improves models of international trade by viewing broad trends in tandem with the behavior of individual corporations.
Financial reforms just enacted, said FDIC chair Sheila Bair, will put risk where it belongs, and usher in a new era of stability, efficiency, and consumer protection.
In a two-day conference a group of Harvard scholars joined leaders in the private and public sectors to explore gender gaps in societal, political, and economic realms, as well as the means of developing policy, corporate practices, and leadership strategies to foster gender diversity.
The World Economic Forum came to Harvard in an effort to engage the academic community, particularly its students, in the pressing issues of the day, from the international monetary system to trade to the population explosion.
Harvard panel examines fiscal problems of the past two years, and what it will take to restore the economy to health.
Harvard authorities across many fields offer their ideas on how to get the nation’s lagging economy back on track.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s prescription for a shaken world economy: Coordinate action, and write a global economic constitution that reflects morality while acknowledging business needs.
Study finds that bank foreclosures reduce a house’s price by an average of 27 percent, and nearby homes see their prices cut by an average of 1 percent.
Forge ahead, and build your brand
In a panel discussion celebrating the Harvard Extension School’s centennial, three speakers discuss the moribund economy, offering advice that job seekers plunge ahead and reinvent themselves to prosper in the changed marketplace.
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