Why does social policy matter?
Through data-driven research, hands-on training, and collaborative public engagement, the Malcolm Wiener Center advances policy initiatives that empower people to solve the most urgent social challenges and questions of our times.
Spotlight
Getting Rid of Bias in Schools
As part of "The Case for Equity" video series, Michela Carlana sheds light on how awareness about one's own personal biases may help mitigate the effects stereotypes can have when working with students.
Recent Insights
HKS Class Day Awards
Each year during the HKS Class Day Awards Ceremony, the Malcolm Wiener Center awards prizes for exceptional student research. This years winners: Jane Ruan MPP 2025 (Manuel C. Carballo Memorial Prize); Yuchen Dai MPP 2025 and Wanjun Zhao MPP 2025 (Susan C. Eaton Memorial Prize); Melissa Hernández Jasso (Frederick Fischer Memorial Prize); and Emily Gonçalves MPP 2025 and Caren Royce Marasigan Yap MPP 2025 (William Julius Wilson Research Award).
Faculty Focus
Desmond Ang
Desmond Ang is an applied economist and Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Ang, who received his PhD in economics from the University of California, San Diego, brings an economist’s eye to issues of race, inequality, and justice. His research examines the educational consequences of police violence, the long-run effects of federal oversight under the Voting Rights Act, and the role of media on racial prejudice.
Publications, Events, and News
Questions We Explore
The Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management
The Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management draws from rigorous research as well as insights from practitioners and people from impacted communities to inform the development of fairer and more just criminal legal system policies, practices, and procedures.
The Stone Program
The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality and Social Policy unites faculty, students, and researchers from across Harvard University and beyond to address the causes and consequences of wealth inequalities in different populations around the world.
Reimagining the Economy
The Reimagining the Economy project explores local labor market, industrial, and development policies, combined with practitioner insights, to produce multidisciplinary scholarship to reshape narratives about how we achieve inclusive prosperity.
Shift Project
The Shift Project, a joint project at Harvard Kennedy School and UCSF, examines the nature and consequences of precarious employment in the service sector with a focus on how policymakers and firms can improve job quality.
Project on Workforce
The Project on Workforce is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project with Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education charting the course for a post-secondary system of the future that creates more and better pathways to economic mobility.
Health Inequality Lab
The Health Inequality Lab is a research group based at the Harvard Kennedy School dedicated to studying the economics of health inequality in the United States and around the world.
Depoliticizing Public Health
Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto (former mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico), Rochelle Walensky (former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director), and Asa Hutchinson (former Governor of Arkansas) discussed how to reach across partisan divides and establish effective public health policies as part of the HKS Candid & Constructive Conversations series. HKS faculty affiliate and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor of public health policy Sara Bleich moderated the discussion.