Harvard Kennedy School faculty disseminate their research in working publications and papers that contribute to public knowledge and fuel policy innovation. This list features recent faculty publications, including journal articles, books, edited volumes, research papers, and public testimony.
Faculty Publications
Jencks, Christopher. "Why the Very Poor Have Become Poorer." Review of $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer. The New York Review of Books, 63.10, June 9, 2016: 15-17.
Ellwood, David. "Creating Mobility from Poverty." The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, August 2016.
Sen, Maya. "The Political Legacy of American Slavery." The Journal of Politics 78.3 (July 2016): 621-641.
Shoag, Daniel, and Nicholas Carollo. "The Causal Effect of Place: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP16-022, June 2016.
Truesdale, Beth C., and Christopher Jencks. "Income Inequality and Health: Strong Theories, Weaker Evidence." Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research 5.5 (2016): 30-37.
Chauvin, Juan Pablo, Edward Glaeser, Yueran Ma, and Kristina Tobio. "What Is Different about Urbanization in Rich and Poor Countries? Cities in Brazil, China, India and the United States." Journal of Urban Economics (19 May 2016).
Putnam, Robert D. "Social Networks and Geography: Comments on “How Does Geography Affect Equality of Opportunity”." The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2.2 (May 2016): 159–177.
Sen, Maya, and Omar Wasow. "Race as a ‘Bundle of Sticks’: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics." Annual Review of Political Science 19 (May 2016).
Ferguson, Ronald. "Aiming Higher Together: Strategizing Better Educational Outcomes for Boys and Young Men of Color." Urban Institute Research Report, May 2016.
Field, Erica, Seema Jayachandran, Rohini Pande, and Natalia Rigol. "Friendship at Work: Can Peer Effects Catalyze Female Entrepreneurship." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 8.2 (May 2016): 125-153.
Unkovic, Cait, Maya Sen, and Kevin M. Quinn. "Does Encouragement Matter in Improving Gender Imbalances in Technical Fields? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial." PloS One 11.4 (April 2016).
Alatas, Vivi, Ririn Purnamasari, Matthew Wai-Poi, Abhijit Banerjee, Benjamin A. Olken, and Rema Hanna. "Self-Targeting: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia." Journal of Political Economy 124.2 (April 2016): 371-427.
Western, Bruce, Deirdre Bloome, Benjamin Sosnaud, and Laura M. Tach. "Trends in Income Insecurity Among U.S. Children, 1984–2010." Demography 53.2 (April 2016): 419-447.
Borjas, George. "Does Welfare Reduce Poverty?" Research in Economics 70.1 (March 2016): 143-157.
Putnam, Robert D. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Simon & Schuster, 2016.
Wilson, William Julius. "Urban Poverty, Race, and Space." The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty. Ed. Brady, David, and Linda M. Burton. Oxford University Press, 2016, 394-413.
Arceo, Eva, Rema Hanna, and Paulina Oliva. "Does the Effect of Pollution on Infant Mortality Differ Between Developing and Developed Countries? Evidence from Mexico City." The Economic Journal 126.591 (March 2016): 257-280.
Truesdale, Beth C., and Christopher Jencks. "The Health Effects of Income Inequality: Averages and Disparities." Annual Review of Public Health 37 (March 2016): 413-430.
McCarthy, Timothy Patrick. "When the Past is Present: What Slave Narratives Teach Us about Our Greatest Human Desire." Salon. January 18, 2016.
Hanna, Rema, and Benjamin Olken. "Strengthening Safety Nets for the Poor." Jakarta Post, January 12, 2016.
Banerjee, Abhijit, Rema Hanna, Jordan C. Kyle, Benjamin A. Olken, and Sudarno Sumarto. "Contracting Out the Last-Mile of Service Delivery: Subsidized Food Distribution in Indonesia." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP16-001, January 2016.
Hanna, Rema, and Benjamin Olken. "Cash Transfers to Indonesia's Poor Don't Discourage Work." Jakarta Globe, October 31, 2015.
Putnam, Robert D. "A Candid Conversation about Schools, Culture, and the Widening Opportunity Gap in America with Professor Robert D. Putnam." About Campus 20.4 (September 2015): 3-7.
Naik, Nikhil, Scott Duke Kominers, Ramesh Raskar, Edward L. Glaeser, and César A. Hidalgo. "Do People Shape Cities, or Do Cities Shape People? The Co- Evolution of Physical, Social, and Economic Change in Five Major U.S. Cities." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-061, October 2015.
Avery, Christopher, and Parag A. Pathak. "The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-053, September 2015.
Wilson, William Julius. "Cashless Society." Review of $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer. New York Times, September 2, 2015: 14-14.
Clark, William C. "London: A Multi-Century Struggle for Sustainable Development in an Urban Environment." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-047, August 2015.
Pritchett, Lant, and Martina Viarengo. "Does Public Sector Control Reduce Variance in School Quality?" Education Economics 23.5 (August 2015): 557-576.
Barnhardt, Sharon, Erica Field, and Rohini Pande. "Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP15-043, August 2015.
Vanek, Joann, Martha Chen, and Govindan Raveendran. "A Guide to Obtaining Data on Types of Informal Workers in Official Statistics." WIEGO Statistical Brief No. 8, May 2015.
Wilson, William Julius. "New Perspectives on the Declining Significance of Race: A Rejoinder." Ethnic & Racial Studies 38.8 (June 2015): 1278-1284.
Jencks, Christopher. "Did We Lose the War on Poverty?—II." Review of Legacies of the War on Poverty, ed. Martha J. Bailey and Sheldon Danziger. New York Review of Books, 62.7, April 23, 2015: 37-39.
Jencks, Christopher. "The War on Poverty: Was It Lost?" Review of Legacies of the War on Poverty, ed. Martha J. Bailey and Sheldon Danziger. New York Review of Books, 62.6, April 2015: 82-85.
McLanahan, Sara, and Christopher Jencks. "Was Moynihan Right?" Education Next 15.2 (Spring 2015): 16-22.
Putnam, Robert D. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Wilson, William Julius. "The Travails of Urban Field Research." Review of On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, by Alice Goffman, and This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South, by Zandria F. Robinson. Contemporary Sociology, 43.6, November 2014: 824-828.
Hausmann, Ricardo. "Gender Gap Report 2014." World Economic Forum, November 2014.
Jencks, Christopher. "On America's Front Lines." Review of On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, by Alice Goffman. The New York Review of Books, 61.15, October 9, 2014: 34-36.
Wilson, William Julius. "Marginality, Ethnicity and Penality: A Response to Loïc Wacquant." Ethnic & Racial Studies 37.10 (October 2014): 1712-1718.
Chen, Martha, Roopa Madhav, and Kaplana Sharma. "Legal Reforms for the Self-Employed: Three Urban Cases." The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 50.1 (July 2014): 133-150.
Bowles, Hannah Riley. "Why Women Don’t Negotiate Their Job Offers." Harvard Business Review. June 19, 2014.
Frederick, Carl B., Kaisa Snellman, and Robert D. Putnam. "Reply to Gao et al: Racial Composition Does Not Explain Increasing Class Gaps in Obesity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111.22 (June 2014): 2238-2238.
Bhabha, Jacqueline. Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Levels, Mark, Jaap Dronkers, and Christopher Jencks. "Mind the Gap: Compositional, Cultural and Institutional Explanations for Numeracy Skills Disparities Between Adult Immigrants and Natives in Western Countries." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP14-020, April 2014.
Chen, Martha. "Statistics on the Informal Economy: Definitions, Regional Estimates & Challenges." WIEGO Working Paper (Statistics) No. 2, April 2014.
Chen, Martha. "Informal Economy Monitoring Study Sector Report: Home-Based Workers." Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, April 2014.
Ferguson, Ronald. "Elements of a 21st Century Movement for Excellence with Equity." Journal of Negro Education 83.2 (Spring 2014): 103-120.
Wilson, William Julius. "More Than Just Race, Being Black and Poor in the Inner City." America’s Growing Inequality The Impact of Poverty and Race. Ed. Chester Hartman. Lexington Books, 2014.
Wilson, William Julius. "De Quel Ghetto The Wire Parle-t-elle?" The Wire, L'Amerique Sur Ecoute. Ed. Marie-Hélène Bacqué. La Découverte, March 2014.
Wilson, William Julius. "Being Poor, Black, and American: The Impact of Political, Economic, and Cultural Forces." Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Ed. David B. Grusky. Westview Press, January 2014.