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Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy

The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy’s faculty, research fellows, and students are committed to achieving a deeper understanding of the barriers we face to greater equality and access to opportunities for all. Through rigorous research, quantitative and qualitative in nature, we offer policy solutions that have the potential to reduce or eliminate barriers and improve people’s lives. 

Spotlight

 

Apprenticeships multiply pathways to education and jobs

New research from the Project on Workforce studies the CareerWise Colorado apprenticeship program and finds that 64% of participants transitioned to employment, postsecondary education, or both, offering multiple pathways for youth and a high return on investment for employers. 

Read the HKS Q&A
 

New Research on Gender Gaps in Paid Sick Leave

Shift Project research published in Health Affairs on sick leave coverage for service sector workers finds that there is limited access to paid sick leave and women are less likely than men to have access. However, in states that mandate paid sick leave for workers, the gender gap is eliminated.

Read the article
 

Marcella Alsan Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Marcella Alsan was chosen for her scholarly insights on understanding the origins of medical mistrust and the role it plays in understanding health disparities. Nomination to the National Academy of Medicine is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the medical and public health fields.

Read the Announcement
Explore more spotlighted content

A crowd sits in a room watching three panelists speak.Launching the Reimagining the Economy project

Reimagining the Economy, led by Gordon Hanson and Dani Rodrik, aims to produce scholarship that reshapes narratives about how we achieve inclusive prosperity.

 

A graphic that says Policy Works with a symbol of a microphone.Announcing the Policy Works Podcast

The Reimagining the Economy project's new Policy Works podcast features conversations with agents and enablers of economic development. Four episodes are out now.

 

A close-up of a man's face.PolicyCast Episode: Hourly Workers Have it Worse Than We Thought

Danny Schneider, co-director of the Shift Project, discussed how data shows that hourly workers have experienced deteriorating working conditions despite being lauded as heroes during the pandemic.

Programs and Initiatives

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.

Program in Criminal Justice

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.

Stone Program

The 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.

Project on Workforce

The 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.

Shift Project

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.

Reimagining the Economy

Other Programs and Initiatives

Explore all of the programs, projects, and initiatives at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy.

Other Initiatives

News

Dynamic Scheduling Fails Companies and Workers

Bloomberg, December 8, 2022

Behind the data, a teacher who left his students transformed

Harvard Gazette, December 8, 2022

The business of clinical trials is booming. Private equity has taken notice

Fortune, December 2, 2022

Apprenticeships multiply the pathways to education, jobs, or both, new Harvard report finds

Harvard Kennedy School, December 1, 2022

A New Effort to Help Places Mired in Poverty

New York Times, November 18, 2022

Read more news >

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