Said and Done | In the Media | February 2016
 

 

A section of Said and Done
Full February 2016 edition
 

 


ECONOMICS | HEALTHCARE AND PHARMACEUTICAL PRICES
Even talking about reducing drug prices can reduce drug prices | Sara Ellison
Research by MIT economist Sara Fisher Ellison is cited by this New York Times article on drug pricing rhetoric in the presidential campaign. Ellison and her colleague “found evidence that pharmaceutical companies reduce growth in drug prices in response to political pressure.”
Story at the New York Times
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Who ultimately will have the upper hand: machines or humans? | David Mindell
The Washington Post discusses STS Professor David Mindell’s new book, Our Robots, Our Selves: “Mindell clearly demonstrates that the efforts of people and robots can be complementary and inextricably entangled, and can evolve together.”
Story at The Washington Post | Related Story: Robots and Us
 


 


HEALTH ECONOMICS
Are we fighting cancer the right way? | Heidi Williams
Heidi Williams is an assistant economics professor at MIT. "If you look at drugs that get approved by the FDA, they all tend to be for very late stage cancer patients — patients that are very close to the end of their life, who live one month longer than they would have." Williams proposes policies that would spur more preventative and early-stage cancer treatments.
Story at BBC News


ECONOMICS | LABOR, TRADE, AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
What would it mean to 'Beat China' on Trade? | David Autor
A new working paper from the economists David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson argues that trade with China is having persistent, negative effects on parts of the American labor market.
Story at The New York Times
 

ECONOMICS | GENDER GAP IN EDUCATION
The serious reason boys do worse than girls | David Autor, Melanie Wassermann
Jeff Guo at The Washington Post explores the Gender gap in educational success, citing recent research co-authored by MIT economists David Autor and Melanie Wasserman. “In their preliminary research, they have found that … Girls from disadvantaged backgrounds are much more likely to succeed than boys raised under the same circumstances.”
Story at The Washington Post
 

MUSIC
MIT honors David Bowie with an orchestral tribute concert
Presented by MIT Music and Theater Arts in collaboration with Orange Mountain Music and Richard Guérin. "The concert — organized and conducted by MIT Professor of Music Evan Ziporyn, with proceeds benefiting MIT cancer research — was an excellent wake: heartfelt, celebratory, just freewheeling enough."

Reviews:  The Boston Music Intelligencer  |  The Boston Globe  |  Nick Johnston

Video of Let's Dance  |  Audio of full concert  |  Interview: Evan Ziporyn on Bowie
 


                                                                                              photograph by Nick Johnston

"The encore, a rendition of 'Let's Dance' reminded us all of the joy that Bowie brought into the world."


 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Does using mobile phones as alarm clocks lead to anxiety-ridden days? | Sherry Turkle
An article at the Washington Post on the effects of digital technology on levels of stress cites research by MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle. “Turkle writes about what she calls ‘disconnection anxiety,’ noting that when people set their technology aside, they often become anxious.”
Story

 

ECONOMICS | HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
Lower-cost nonprofit insurer continues to struggle | Jonathan Gruber
Detailing the difficulty that smaller, nonprofit insurance companies continue to face, this Boston Globe article quotes MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who was influential to the design of the Affordable Care Act.
Story
 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Reclaim Conversation , My New Year's Resolution | Sherry Turkle
At the Huffington Post, blogger Ricardo Vice Santos takes up the cause of better conversation in 2016, inspired by MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle.
Story at Huffington Post


ECONOMICS | HEALTHCARE AND PAIN MANAGEMENT
Kilby finds Rx monitoring saves 1K lives a year in the US
But not, alas, pain free.

 

POLITICAL SCIENCE | ELECTIONS
Could 'liberal' newspaper endorsements actually hurt John Kasich?
A 2013 study by MIT professor Christopher Warshaw and Dartmouth professor Kyle Dropp found that “voters are more likely to support a candidate that receives an endorsement from a like-minded group, while political endorsements from groups individuals dislike makes them less likely to support a candidate.”
Article at Boston.com