all Department of Economics stories

Four from Harvard win Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering

404132862 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:02:46 -0400

Four Harvard researchers have been named among the winners nationwide of this year’s Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). They are Roland G. Fryer Jr., Patrick J. Wolfe, Robert J. Wood, and Nonie K. Lesaux.

The announcement came today from the White House.

Bringing hard science to economics

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:01:58 -0400

Guido W. Imbens, now in his first year as a professor of economics at Harvard, was still in high school in the Netherlands when he decided to study economics. For a bright, energetic boy who had always excelled at mathematics, there was nothing dismal about the so-called "dismal science."

At Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Imbens studied econometrics, an academically rigorous combination of mathematical economics and statistics. The tools of econometrics are used to test economic theories using data, and to measure economic variables that are important for public policy.

Compared with classical mathematics, said Imbens, econometrics "appealed to me. It seemed more policy-relevant, more connected to the real world."

Charter schools get high grades

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:35:27 -0400

For many parents, educators, and policy-makers in the United States, charter schools - innovative public schools that are free from much bureaucratic oversight but must "compete" for students in order to retain their charters - have held out enormous promise as a public alternative to failing traditional schools. So when the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation's second-largest teachers' union, published a study in August 2004 that found students at charter schools performing worse than their peers at traditional public schools, more than a few hopes were dashed.

Changing behavior: Easier than we thought?

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:33:18 -0400

At a Harvard-convened social science research conference on Nov. 14, 2003, research from the fields of economics, social psychology, and public health showed how psychological changes could affect sexual health, retirement savings, marketing, and sustainable public health in developing nations. "These interventions are by and large noncoercive and tend to be very effective," said David Laibson, professor of economics at Harvard and conference organizer. "The question we want to ask is, Are these psychologically styled interventions important elements to be added to our arsenal of policy interventions?" The answer turned out to be a qualified "yes." For example, James Choi, a graduate student in Harvard's department of economics, presented research on retirement savings. In a study co-authored by Laibson, he proposed an "active decision" model to enrollment in a company's 401(k) plan that proved a practical alternative to effective but paternalistic default options. Choi and his colleagues studied a company that, for a certain time period, required employees to make an active decision regarding their retirement savings: They were told that they must actively choose either to enroll in or decline the company's 401(k) plan. The researchers found that the active decision model not only boosted employee participation rates over a model in which the default is nonenrollment, it also increased the average rate of savings.

Patents have negative impact on access to HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:22:49 -0400

Researchers Joan-Ramon Borrell and Jayashree Watal collected sales data for HIV/AIDS drugs in a sample of 34 low- and middle-income countries between 1995 and 1999 to assess the impact of patents on unsubsidized access to a new drug therapy. Their main finding is that patent rights do have a negative effect on unsubsidized access to HIV/AIDS drugs. Between 1995 and 1999, switching all HIV/AIDS drugs from a patent system to a no patent system would have actually increased access to therapy at least by 30 percent. However, they also found that the negative impact of patents on access differs strongly over time, and across countries with different income levels. Patents hurt access most in the early period from the date the drug is launched in the United States, and in the countries of their sample with the relatively higher per capita income levels.