logo
Harvard's Stantcheva Wins Young Economist Award for Work on Tax Policy

Harvard's Stantcheva Wins Young Economist Award for Work on Tax Policy

Bloomberg22-04-2025
By
Updated on
Save
Harvard University Professor Stefanie Stantcheva won the 2025 John Bates Clark Medal young economist award for her work on the impact of taxes and subsidies on private decisions.
'One of Stantcheva's most important contributions addresses the effects of tax policy on innovation,' the American Economic Association's Committee on Honors and Awards said in a statement on its website. 'Until recently, little was known about the extent to which tax policy affects the behavior of individual innovators.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

OpenAI's chief research scientist shares the book that inspired him when he was unsure about his career path
OpenAI's chief research scientist shares the book that inspired him when he was unsure about his career path

Business Insider

time15 hours ago

  • Business Insider

OpenAI's chief research scientist shares the book that inspired him when he was unsure about his career path

OpenAI chief research scientist, Jakub Pachocki, didn't always know he'd be on the front lines of artificial intelligence development. In OpenAI's latest podcast episode, published Friday, Pachocki said he didn't know what he wanted to do with his career as a teenager in high school. He recalled one book that inspired him during those searchful, formative years: "Hackers and Painters" by Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham. "My dad gave me this book when I was, I think I was like 15, I was pretty unsure of what I wanted to do," Pachocki said. "It was a Polish version of a book by some author I didn't know called 'Hackers and Painters.'" "I found that pretty inspiring," he added. Pachocki joined OpenAI in 2017. He has overseen the development of GPT-4 and replaced OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever as chief scientist in May 2024. "Hackers and Painters" contains a collection of essays from Graham, including one based on a guest lecture he gave at Harvard University about the similarities between hacking and painting. "What hackers and painters have in common is that they're both makers," Graham wrote. "Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. They're not doing research per se, though if in the course of trying to make good things they discover some new technique, so much the better." Having one of the key figures at Sam Altman 's company inspired by Graham is a bit of a full-circle moment. Graham published "Hackers and Painters" in 2004, about a year before the investor co-founded Y Combinator and met 19-year-old Stanford dropout Altman. Altman's startup at the time, Loopt, would be one of the first batch of companies backed by the startup accelerator. In 2009, Graham added Altman to his list of five of the "most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years." Five years later, he chose Altman to take his position as Y Combinator's president. "It's actually very hilarious thinking about it now," Pachocki said. "I didn't really connect the dots."

Boomer homeowners aren't as well off as you may think
Boomer homeowners aren't as well off as you may think

Business Insider

time3 days ago

  • Business Insider

Boomer homeowners aren't as well off as you may think

Over a third of older households were cost-burdened in 2023. As the population of Americans 80 and older mushrooms, their housing woes are intensifying. While renters are struggling the most, homeowners are also facing rising costs. If you're a millennial or Gen Zer with a penchant for scrolling Zillow, you've probably found yourself envying the boomer homeowners whose home values have ballooned to prices you could never afford. But many aging households — both renters and homeowners — are struggling with rising housing costs. As the number of older Americans, particularly those in their 80s and older, grows, their housing woes are intensifying. About a third of 65-and-older households were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing, according to a new report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. More than half of those were severely cost-burdened, spending more than 50% of their income on housing. Household incomes tend to decline as people enter their 80s, when many lose their partners and have to support themselves on a single income. That can make what's often their biggest monthly expense — housing costs — even more difficult to manage. With the oldest baby boomers on the cusp of turning 80, this dynamic is expected to put a lot of additional pressure on accessible housing, long-term care, and other services older people rely on. "We're on the precipice of a pretty big shift in demand," said Jennifer Molinsky, the director of Harvard University's Housing and Aging Society Program. "The share of older adults 65-plus is going to tilt older, and I think a higher share will have cost burdens." Older renters are worse off than homeowners. A majority of them — 58% — were cost-burdened in 2023, most of them severely, the Harvard report found. But homeowners are also increasingly struggling. A growing share of older homeowners — 31% of those in their 80s, as of 2022 — are still saddled with mortgages, and 43% of them are cost-burdened. That's more than twice the share of those without mortgages, the report found. But even those who own their homes outright are still dealing with other ballooning housing costs, including insurance premiums, property taxes, utilities, and home repairs. Love Business Insider? Log into Google and make us a preferred source. The number of older households financially strained by their housing has grown from just over 10 million in 2019 to more than 12.4 million in 2023. Meanwhile, home prices have soared over the last several years, mortgage interest rates are stubbornly high, and smaller, more affordable homes that could be suitable for aging empty-nesters looking to downsize are a shrinking slice of the pie. Just 9% of new homes built in 2023 were under 1,400 square feet. This dynamic is undermining a long American tradition: treating homes as retirement nest eggs. Many homeowners bank on selling their home, downsizing, and living off their sale profits in their older age. But the housing shortage also means that even many homeowners sitting on valuable home equity who want to cash in are having trouble finding somewhere to go. "There just aren't that many smaller condos or apartments that are less expensive that you're going to be able to make that trade off and stay in your community," Molinsky said.

Student Loan Update: Major Change Likely To Impact Career Decisions
Student Loan Update: Major Change Likely To Impact Career Decisions

Newsweek

time4 days ago

  • Newsweek

Student Loan Update: Major Change Likely To Impact Career Decisions

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A provision in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill has barred federal student loans for degree programs whose graduates did not meet new earnings thresholds. It also has imposed new lifetime borrowing caps for graduate and professional students, a move that analysts and educators said could change which fields students choose to pursue. Why It Matters Federal student loans have been a primary financing channel for millions of students, and tightening eligibility based on post-graduation earnings could narrow program access and influence career paths. Nearly 6,000 institutions provide federal loans and 30 percent to 40 percent of undergraduates borrow federally each year, representing roughly 7 million students who rely on federal loans, according to Forbes. Graduates, faculty, and family gather in front of the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard on May 28, 2025, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Graduates, faculty, and family gather in front of the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard on May 28, 2025, at Harvard University in Cambridge, To Know The law, signed last month, requires undergraduate programs to show graduates' median earnings exceeded state median earnings for 24- to 35-year-olds with a high school diploma, and it required graduate and certificate programs to exceed the state median earnings for bachelor's degree holders in the state. "Sounds reasonable, right? Here's the problem: It completely ignores the market reality that many essential careers pay poorly not because they lack value, but because they're undercompensated," Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of told Newsweek. "This creates a feedback loop. Fewer people can afford to study education or social work, so we get teacher shortages, which will drive up demand, which eventually increases wages. But only after years of crisis." The legislation also sets new borrowing caps for graduate students, including a $100,000 lifetime cap for graduate loans and a $200,000 lifetime cap for professional degree borrowers, and it phased out Grad PLUS for new borrowers starting July 1, 2026. Early childhood education leaders warned that the earnings threshold could shut off loan access for many early-childhood programs and deter prospective teachers amid staffing shortages in child care, according to PBS NewsHour. Medical and other professional students also face an elevated risk of funding gaps because many graduate professional degrees already exceeded the new federal caps. CNBC reported that average medical school costs often exceed federal caps, leading to a potential deterrent effect for future doctors. "We're essentially telling 22-year-olds to optimize for immediate earnings rather than long-term career satisfaction or societal contribution. That's a recipe for a workforce full of regrets," Ryan said. "The unintended consequence? Students from wealthy families can still pursue these careers without federal loans, while working-class kids get funneled exclusively into STEM and business. We're not making education more efficient, we're making it more elitist." Academic research also shows that student debt shaped career choices in fields with lower and more variable pay. A 2023 peer‑reviewed analysis found that "student loan debt reduces the probability of arts graduates working in related fields by over 25 percent and working as artists by over 30 percent." What People Are Saying Drew Powers, the founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group, told Newsweek: "There is a long-held belief that any degree in any major will set you on the path of financial success, and over the past 30 years we have seen that is no longer true. However, that does not mean a broad subject education is not valuable, nor does it mean holders of that diploma cannot pay back their loans. But student loans have become hyper-politicized, and a liberal education diploma holder has become the scapegoat." Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of told Newsweek: "This earnings threshold rule sounds good on paper, but it's creating a two-tiered education system where only 'profitable' degrees get federal backing. We're about to price out teachers, social workers, and counselors. you know, the very people we desperately need." Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek: "This is the problem when businesspeople run the government: Value gets measured purely in profit and cost, not in how an industry pushes the economy forward. I don't think this will rock the overall job market—people chasing higher pay will flock to the industries making the most money right now. The bigger concern? Industries at the top today can become tomorrow's laggards in just a few years." What Happens Next Implementation steps and timelines will determine immediate effects. Grad PLUS is scheduled to be phased out for new borrowers starting July 1, 2026, and the new caps and earnings-based loan eligibility are also set to take effect for future enrollment periods. "We'll have to wait and see what the actual effects are, but it does feel as if this policy risks steering students toward higher-paying fields at the expense of broader educational diversity and purpose, which has pros and cons," Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store