political economy phd harvard

Political Economy

Political Economy. Understanding how societies work.

Faculty Chairs:  Jeff Frieden  &  Torben Iversen  

Political economy is the study of how politics affects the economy and how the economy in turn shapes politics. Training in political economy can help students understand how societies work; a useful skill whether they seek to become better policy analysts or more effective social reformers ( Frieden 2020 ). 

Topics in political economy include inequality (across class, gender, race, ethnicity), redistribution, economic development, globalization, macroeconomic policy, economic crises, populism, and environmental policy. For example, the last four decades have seen a sharp rise in inequality in rich democracies, yet government redistribution has not risen; why? Technological change has produced greater inequality and concentration of wealth; what role do governments play in amplifying or countering these trends? Why do some countries grow at a much faster pace than others? Trade has risen sharply for decades, but it is now under political attack; why? China has emerged as an economic superpower; what are the consequences for international politics? Women have been economically mobilized across the world over the past four decades; what are the political implications?    The Government Department’s political economy program offers a thorough introduction to theoretical approaches to political economy and important empirical cases among the advanced industrial countries and the developing world. It provides training for a broad range of careers in government, finance, international organizations, and think tanks. The program is also good preparation for applying to business schools, law schools, and graduate programs in political science and economics. 

Requirements :  Students must take three Government courses in political economy from the list of designated political economy courses below, including at least one Gov 94 undergraduate seminar. In addition, they must take at least one course on Economics from the list of courses below. All four courses for the political economy program must be taken for a letter grade (except for courses taken during Spring 2020, when emergency satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading was in effect). Working with their concentration advisers and faculty mentors, students develop their own Plans of Study to identify their academic goals and to select their courses accordingly. 

Possible Areas of Focus : In formulating their Plans of Study, students can choose to focus on specific aspects of political economy, such as international political economy, economic development, or inequality.  

Political Economy Course s

Courses offered in AY2024-2025 are highlighted in bold below.

Government Courses on Political Economy  

• Gov 94ACH: Politics of Inequality in Latin America. Alisha Holland  
• Gov 94AU: Political Economy. Torben Iversen 
• Gov 94BD: Fighting Poverty. Nara Dillon
• Gov 94EK: Globalization and Private Governance. Michael Hiscox  
• Gov 94GM: Politics of Climate Change. Alexander Gard-Murray
• Gov 94HG: The Politics and Political Economy in Latin America, Fran Hagopian 
• Gov 94JF: The Political Economy of Economic Growth: The Past Thousand Years. Jeffry Frieden
• Gov 94KL: Advanced Topics in Formal Political Economy. Konstantin Matakos  
• Gov 94NB: Capital, Ideas, and Development in Latin America. Dan Epstein
• Gov 94ND: Global Cities in East Asia. Nara Dillon 
• Gov 94OA: Inequality and American Democracy. Theda Skocpol  
• Gov 94PI: Politics of Development in Africa. Pia Raffler
• Gov 94RG: A Revolt against Globalization? How Political Economies Change. Peter Hall
• Gov 94TR: The Politics of Economic Inequality. Thomas Remington 
• Gov 1015: Strategic Models of Politics. Sarah Hummel 
• Gov 1025: Political Economy and Its Future. Roberto Mangabeira Unger
• Gov 1108 : The Politics of Economic Inequality. Thomas Remington  
• Gov 1135: Political Economy of Development in Africa. Pia Raffler 
• Gov 1171: Making of Modern Politics. Peter Hall
• Gov 1203: Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Grzegorz Ekiert 
• Gov 1279 : Political Economy of East and Southeast Asia  Political Economy of East and Southeast Asia 
• Gov 1288: China’s Economic Development. Nara Dillon 
• Gov 1754: Science, Technology, and National Security: Japan in Global Perspective. Matthew Brummer
• Gov 1759: Behavioral Insights and Public Policy: Nudging for the Public Good. Michael Hiscox  
• Gov 1780: International Political Economy. Jeffry Frieden 
• HKS BGP 610: The Political Economy of Trade. Robert Lawrence 
• HKS BGP 670: Financial Crises: Concepts and Evidence. Carmen Reinhart  
• HKS DEV 130 : Why Are So Many Countries Poor, Volatile, and Unequal? Ricardo Hausman 

Economics Courses on Political Economy  

• Econ 10a: Principles of Economics: Microeconomics  
• Econ 1010a/1011a: Intermediate Microeconomics 
• Econ 1018: Cultural Economics. Alberto Alesina 
• Econ 1133: Authoritarian Superpower: The Political Economy of Modern China. David Yang
• Econ 1420: American Economic Policy. Summers & Liebman    
• Econ 1450: The Political Economy of Religion. Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary  
• Econ 1535: The Global Economy. Pol Antras
• Econ 1746: Financial and Economic Crises of the 21st Century. Karen Dynan 
• HKS DEV 356: Economic Policy in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. Celestin Monga 

Applying:  Concentrators   should   complete the  Political Economy plan of study supplement , review it with their  concentration adviser , and submit the completed form to the Government Department Undergraduate Coordinator,  Karen Kaletka .  

Political Economy Faculty

Alisha c. holland.

Danielle Allen

Dustin Tingley

Elizabeth J. Perry

Feyaad Allie

Frances Hagopian

Jeffry Frieden

Mashail Malik

Matthew Blackwell

Melani Cammett

Michael J. Hiscox

Nara Dillon

Peter A. Hall

Pia Raffler

Stephen Chaudoin

Theda Skocpol

Torben Iversen

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Political Economy and Government

Akshay Dixit

Shivram Viswanathan

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Discussing the Thucydides Trap

Harvard Professor Graham Allison's trip to Beijing yields new insights into the fraught US-China relationship

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In the wake of an intense nine-day tour of Beijing, Harvard's Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Graham Allison, PhD ’68, has returned with fresh insights into the complex and evolving relationship between the United States and China. Allison, a renowned scholar at Harvard Kennedy School and former director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, has spent much of his recent career studying the rise of China and the potential implications for the global balance of power.

Central to Allison's work is the concept of the "Thucydides Trap," a term he coined in his book, Destined for War . It refers to the precarious situation when an ascending power threatens to displace an established one—a situation that historically has often led to war. As China continues to rise, challenging the global leadership of the United States, Allison says the idea feels more relevant than ever.

During his visit to Beijing, Allison and US business leaders engaged in discussions with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping. "While [President Xi's] primary objective in the meeting was to emphasize that China is 'open for business,'” he wrote on social media, “he was also interested in engaging about the broader geopolitical relationship."

President Xi, in response to Allison's inquiry about the US-China relationship, offered a metaphor: "I am in you, and you are in me," then elaborated. 

"What did I mean when I said the US and China should work towards a relationship where  ‘I am in you, you are in me?’ The answer is ‘engagement,’” he said. “Through communication and cooperation, the US and China can become closely linked.  

Xi said the same metaphor applied to the mindsets of the two nations’ citizens. “There will always be differences and disagreements because people—even within a family—are different,” he said. “However, the goal should be to seek common ground and keep the differences small. This is true between countries, households, and family members alike.” 

President Xi concluded by saying that “the history of US-China relations is a history of friendly exchanges between our two peoples. The past was written by the people, and the future will be created by the people of our two nations. People from all walks of life in the US and China should increase exchanges and cooperation."

Allison's reflections on his discussions with President Xi and his observations of the current geopolitical climate underscore the complexity of the US-China relationship. He notes, "Across nearly every dimension—tech, trade, industry, military, and global influence—the US and China will be the fiercest competitors history has ever seen. But if war means suicide for both nations, then the central truth [US President Ronald Reagan] captured about nations with robust nuclear arsenals remains as true today as it was during the height of the Cold War: 'A nuclear war cannot be won and therefore must never be fought.'"

Allison emphasizes that the US and China exist in 21st-century conditions where each nation’s survival depends on cooperation from the other to address shared, existential challenges such as mutually assured destruction in the event of nuclear war, climate change, and global pandemics. This, he suggests, requires leaders in both countries to identify what former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, PhD ’54, called a new “strategic concept” that satisfies the contradictory imperatives to simultaneously compete and cooperate. This concept, he suggested, could be similar to the strategy employed during the Cold War, which allowed for competition without escalating to a "hot" war. 

There will always be differences and disagreements because people—even within a family—are different. However, the goal should be to seek common ground and keep the differences small. This is true between countries, households, and family members alike. —Chinese President Xi Jinping

Allison commended President Xi and US President Joe Biden for establishing a solid foundation for a stable, constructive relationship. While acknowledging the structural realities that make maintaining peace challenging, he remains optimistic about the potential for peaceful competition. “My purpose in Destined for War is not to be fatalistic,” he says. “In the last chapter, ‘12 Clues for Peace,’ I examine the instances when war was avoided. I also explore the times when people tried and failed to avoid war in order to consider what they might have done differently. For example, during the Cold War, leaders developed a strategy that allowed ruthless competition but avoided a ‘hot’ war. They used diplomacy and statecraft to compete vigorously in a multidecade rivalry. After four decades, the Soviet Union collapsed.” 

Allison says a similar strategy could work for the United States and China. “If the two countries engage in peaceful competition in the coming decades, they might keep themselves from falling into the Thucydides Trap.” 

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Spring 2023 • Course

Law and Political Economy

Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: No Exam

Law and political economy is the study of how law shapes power in market societies.  The course will begin by looking at various approaches to thinking about law and market society and at the changes in property law that drove the emergence of capitalism in England, the development of racialized enslavement in the American colonies, and the fundamental legal choice points that shaped the trajectory of American capitalism. It then follows with a study of changes in labor law, corporations, and torts as Big Business emerged in the Northeast and Midwest in the late 19th century, shaping of the uniquely weak status of American labor during the “Second Industrial Divide,” and the network of legal elements governing property, contract, credit, trespass, game, and criminal labor law that laid the foundations for racialized class structure in the post-Reconstruction South. After learning about the rise of Legal Realism in reaction to the judicial imposition of laissez faire at the turn of the 20th century, the heart of the course revolves around the role of law in supporting the emergence of a broad, primarily white middle class from the 1930s to the 1960s, the structuring of racialized class in response to the Great Migration outside of the South, and then since the 1970s, the dismantling of the welfare state, its displacement by mass incarceration and a punitive welfare regime, and changes in the law governing labor, banking, financial regulation, antitrust, corporate governance, and trade that drove the dramatic increase in precarious employment, the stagnation of middle class wages, and the spectacular escape of the 1%, unique to the United States among advanced market society. The course concludes with examination of proposed reforms, and assessment of their likely effectiveness on the background of the experience of regimes within American capitalism covered in the first ten weeks of the course.

There is no exam. Students will submit an individual paper, no longer than 2500 words, as their end-of-semester project.

Political Economy of Refugee Education

What would it take to ensure that all refugee young people have access to learning that enables them to feel a sense of belonging and prepares them to help build more peaceful and equitable futures? Analysis of the political economy of education can inform research, policy, and practice on this question.

The political economy of refugee education is distinct from political economy for citizens as it requires critically addressing fundamental questions and assumptions about:

responsibility and

possible futures

How can we address these questions about responsibility and possible futures toward ensuring equitable and effective education for all refugee children?

For the Political Economy of Refugee Education

For Analysis of the Political Economy of Refugee Education in Context

Case Studies

Of Political Economy Analysis in Refugee-Hosting Countries

Take Action

On Political Economy of Refugee Education in Your Context

If you are interested in a workshop on political economy of refugee education with your organization, please be in touch, [email protected]

suggested Citation

Shelby Carvalho and Sarah Dryden-Peterson. (2024). Political Economy of Refugee Education: Tools for Analysis and Action. Refugee REACH, Harvard Graduate School of Education: Cambridge, www.reach.gse.harvard.edu .

Political Economy of Refugee Education: Tools for Analysis and Action © 2024 by Shelby Carvalho and Sarah Dryden-Peterson is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Related resources

Research Article | Bridging the Gap Between Imagined and Plausible Futures for Refugees: What Students Wish Their Teachers Knew , AERA Open

Educator Resource | Pedagogies of Belonging: Educators Building Welcoming Communities in Settings of Conflict and Migration

Mapping the Political Economy of Space

There is no such thing as neutral space. Topography and soil history, land use and tenure chronicle, housing demands and construction costs, public policies, plot subdivision and zoning, access to water and electricity networks and other public infrastructure, negotiations and financing schemes, urban codes and insurance policies, location and surrounding context, project design and materiality choices, excavation works, execution and construction settings, labor force and machinery, completion and real estate mechanisms, occupancy, use and expansion, decay and destruction: at every turn, several agents and forces act upon space. The production of architecture and urban form is grounded in power structures, and articulating a possible political economy of space uncovers how the house, the neighborhood, the city, and the territory partake in the violent and unjust spatiality of power. This seminar is set on understanding what forces shape the built environment and in what ways by uncovering the social, economic, or political forces that impact and generate the physical and technological features of our world. The aim is to enhance our capacity to reflect on spatial conditions in a critical way, and use representation tools available to designers to do so.

The class is structured around 7 guest lectures articulating “7 Questions” on the political economy of space, prepared with readings, while students chose a topic to investigate mapping the political economy of space. Explorative mappings and graphic representations, along with short texts shall be produced in order to untangle the actors and forces acting upon space, to investigate and uncover the relationship between social, economic, and political processes and spatial form. Ultimately, the aim is to articulate a definition of what a possible political economy of space could entail, and how to use it as a critical thinking tool within design and research practices.

Note: the instructor will offer online live course presentations on 08/26, and/or 08/27. To access the detailed schedule and Zoom links, please visit the Live Course Presentations Website .

Please note this course will meet online through 9/15. After that, the class will meet in person with the exception of the following dates, when the class will meet on Zoom with guest speakers: 9/8, 9/22, 10/6, 10/20, 11/3, 11/17.  Please review the syllabus for more details. Please note that this is subject to change.

NOTE: the first class meeting is scheduled on September 1 online at 6:00 PM EST – 90

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Jamie Dimon Issues an Economic Warning

The JPMorgan Chase chief executive used his annual letter to shareholders to flag higher-for-longer inflation, uncertain growth prospects and widening political divisions.

By Andrew Ross Sorkin ,  Ravi Mattu ,  Bernhard Warner ,  Sarah Kessler ,  Michael J. de la Merced ,  Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni

Jamie Dimon sees America at a ‘Pivotal Moment’

Jamie Dimon’s annual letter to JPMorgan Chase shareholders has just been published. The widely read note offers a glimpse of his views on not just business, but the economy at a “pivotal moment for America and the free world,” with deep divisions at home and global uncertainty.

Here are some highlights.

The economy is resilient but the government underpinning it is a red flag. Consumers are spending and investors expect a soft landing. But Dimon warns that the economy is being fueled by government spending and rising deficits. “The deficits today are even larger and occurring in boom times — not as the result of a recession — and they have been supported by quantitative easing, which was never done before the great financial crisis,” he writes.

Inflation may be sticky. “These markets seem to be pricing in at a 70% to 80% chance of a soft landing — modest growth along with declining inflation and interest rates,” Dimon writes, adding that the odds are actually a lot lower.

Global uncertainty is another dark cloud. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could further “disrupt energy and food markets, migration, and military and economic relationships.” That shock coincides with a surge in public investment to power a green transition, restructure supply chains and trade relationships, and boost health care spending.

Industrial policy is needed but should be limited and targeted. Dimon says the U.S. must be tough with China, but engage with Beijing. That includes establishing independence on supplies of materials crucial to national security, like rare earth, semiconductors and 5G infrastructure. (According to Dimon, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPs Act get it right.)

Dimon warns about the deep political divisions at home. Dimon doesn’t explicitly weigh in on the election (his public backing for some of Donald Trump ’s economic policies caused a stir at Davos in January), but said the U.S. is grappling with “highly charged, emotional and political” issues centering around the border security crisis and the “fraying of the American dream.”

On Basel 3 endgame: Dimon reiterated his concerns that many of the proposed banking rules are “flawed and poorly calibrated.”

On corporate governance: Dimon argues that proxy advisory firms like ISS have become too influential (he recently backed Disney in its fight against Nelson Peltz). He is opposed to recent efforts to split chairman and C.E.O. roles and thinks the universal proxy “makes it easier to put poorly qualified directors on a board.”

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Janet Yellen sees progress in China relations, but warns there’s “more work to do.” The Treasury secretary concluded meetings in Beijing on Monday saying that ties between the nations had stabilized, but it was unclear how the relationship would endure in an election year. Her comments came as the Biden administration agreed to give Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC $6.6 billion in grants to begin manufacturing in Arizona in 2028.

Brazil’s supreme court opens an investigation into Elon Musk. Alexandre de Moraes, the chief justice, opened the instruction of justice inquiry after Musk said he would reactivate some X accounts that the judge had ordered blocked. The accounts weren’t disclosed. Moraes has been investigating “digital militias” accused of spreading disinformation.

Gold hits a record high and an oil rally takes a breather. The safe-haven asset reached more than $2,300 a troy ounce , buoyed by worries over a widening conflict in the Middle East and higher demand for the precious metal from central banks and Chinese consumers. The price of Brent crude fell on Monday to trade near $90 a barrel, down from a five-month high reached last week.

Is it show time for Warner Bros. Discovery?

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Warner Bros. Discovery mega deal closing. Crossing that milestone means that the entertainment giant, which owns HBO, CNN and a lucrative piece of the March Madness broadcasts, can now strike a deal without facing a huge tax hit.

The industry is ripe for consolidation , given challenges in cable and streaming. An obstacle is President Biden’s antitrust cops. “Regulatory constraints are limiting what deals can get done, which is the case in most industries,” Rob Kindler, the global chair of the M.&A. Group at Paul, Weiss, told DealBook.

Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t gone as hoped. Its stock is down 66 percent since the deal closed as its bet on streaming has languished (alongside rivals not named Netflix). The legacy cable business has been a bigger drag, hurt by cord-cutting.

Its $44 billion debt mountain could also make an acquisition more difficult. But John Malone, the media mogul and a board member, said in November that cash flow is improving, which could set the company up to scout for deals.

A merger with Paramount seems unlikely. Shares fell 5 percent when talks between the two leaked in December, a sign that investors may not look enthusiastically on the company increasing its exposure to linear media. It’s probably a moot point anyhow with Paramount in exclusive talks with Skydance .

Even still, would an alliance with Paramount’s TV networks, like, CNN and CBS through a spinoff or divestiture make sense, down the line?

Targeting Comcast could face challenges, too. Investors may like the potential to combine their cable, studio and streaming businesses. But regulators would likely have tough questions.

Still, don’t count out a deal. As Barry Diller told The Times last year : There seems to always be interest in the Warner media properties. “Whether that will happen depends on whether someone wants to take it,” said Diller, a longtime friend of the Warner Bros. Discovery chief, David Zaslav.

Rethinking the deals-are-bad trope

For decades, the common wisdom in corporate America — as encapsulated in the 2004 book “Mastering the Merger,” by two Bain & Company consultants — was that for all the billions spent on mergers, roughly 70 percent failed.

But a new white paper by one of the book’s authors and two other colleagues finds that the inverse is now true: 70 percent of takeovers succeed . DealBook got the first look at the research to learn what had changed.

Companies have gotten smarter about M.&A. In 2004, the defining deals of the era — including that of AOL-Time Warner — were meant to be transformative and deliver big savings. Today the goals are more modest, such as expanding into new geographies or adjacent businesses, or adding new talent.

Acquirers are also getting more practice. Having more-conservative aims for mergers means companies can do more of them, justifying having in-house teams of M.&A. specialists who can better identify promising acquisitions and make them work. One advancement: more sophisticated analysis of potential takeovers, compared with earlier deals that often relied on less exacting financial considerations like synergies.

“Frequent acquirers have the experience and capability to do the diligence that’s required,” Suzanne Kumar, a Bain vice president and one of the white paper’s authors, told DealBook, pointing to Thermo Fisher Scientific, Constellation Brands and tech giants.

Serial acquirers tend to have better returns. Between 2000 and 2010, companies that did at least one deal a year had 10-year total shareholder returns that were 57 percent higher than businesses that did no deals, Bain found. Between 2012 and 2022, that spread rose to 130 percent — a finding that surprised the researchers.

Unionization efforts come to Harvard Yard

With car companies on high alert over the United Auto Workers’ efforts to ramp up labor organizing, the union has racked up a series of wins far from the factory floor — on college campuses.

The most recent victory was at Harvard University. The school’s nontenure track employees — a group of roughly 6,000 that includes faculty, postdoctorate fellows and preceptors — overwhelmingly voted to unionize last week. That opens the door to negotiations for higher wages, improved job security and bolstering workplace protection.

The divide brings another source of tension to campus. Harvard has been embroiled in a fight over free speech and safety ever since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, spurring a debate that led to a wave of high-level resignations.

Harvard is far from alone. Staff at Wellesley College and New York University also voted to unionize this year, joining efforts by adjunct professors and postdocs at Boston University, Columbia, Rutgers and the University of Connecticut.

The U.A.W. is at the center of the push. The union has been branching into higher education for years. And its hard-knuckled tactics in securing new contracts from Detroit’s Big Three automakers last year have given it momentum.

After N.Y.U.’s successful unionization vote, Shawn Fain, the U.A.W.’s president, hailed the moment as a historic one for labor organizing efforts on America’s university campuses. “We’ve got their back,” he said .

The week ahead

Congress returns today from its two-week recess to find Ukraine, the TikTok bill and repairing the Baltimore bridge in the spotlight — and a possible House leadership challenge looming. Elsewhere, inflation, central banks and the new earnings season will also be in focus.

Here’s what to watch:

Tuesday: Google’s Cloud Next developers conference opens amid expectations that the tech giant will make a raft of announcements to do with artificial intelligence.

Wednesday: The March Consumer Price Index is set for release. Economists forecast that overall inflation rose by 3.5 percent on an annualized basis, a slight increase from February. Core C.P.I., which removes food and fuel, is expected to have cooled.

Minutes from the last Fed meeting are also due to be published.

Elsewhere, President Biden will hold talks at the White House with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan. On the agenda : trade, A.I. and China. Also looming over the summit is Nippon Steel’s $14 billion bid for U.S. Steel.

Thursday: It’s decision day on rates for the European Central Bank. Inflation has fallen relatively quickly across much of Europe, prompting the question: Will the E.C.B. cut interest rates before the Fed?

Friday: Wall Street giants begin reporting first-quarter results, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and BlackRock.

THE SPEED READ

The luxury group Puig, owner of the brands Paco Rabanne and Charlotte Tilbury, plans to list in Spain and aims to raise more than 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in what would be the sector’s biggest I.P.O. in years. (FT)

Could investors’ relative apathy for European stocks push the continent’s biggest oil companies to consider bigger listings in the U.S. ? (Bloomberg Opinion)

Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, has warned that the Biden administration’s decision to pause liquefied natural gas projects could hurt the party’s chances in November. (FT)

“ Maryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills , Despite Tech Industry Pushback” (NYT)

Best of the rest

Solar eclipse mania has gripped North America, and there’s good news : The weather should cooperate for a decent viewing across big parts of the U.S. (NYT)

South Carolina has topped Caitlin Clark and Iowa to win the women’s national basketball championship. Up tonight: UConn takes on Purdue — and there’s a Bill Murray connection . (The Athletic, WSJ)

We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected] .

Andrew Ross Sorkin is a columnist and the founder and editor at large of DealBook. He is a co-anchor of CNBC’s "Squawk Box" and the author of “Too Big to Fail.” He is also a co-creator of the Showtime drama series "Billions." More about Andrew Ross Sorkin

Ravi Mattu is the managing editor of DealBook, based in London. He joined The New York Times in 2022 from the Financial Times, where he held a number of senior roles in Hong Kong and London. More about Ravi Mattu

Bernhard Warner is a senior editor for DealBook, a newsletter from The Times, covering business trends, the economy and the markets. More about Bernhard Warner

Sarah Kessler is an editor for the DealBook newsletter and writes features on business and how workplaces are changing. More about Sarah Kessler

Michael de la Merced joined The Times as a reporter in 2006, covering Wall Street and finance. Among his main coverage areas are mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and the private equity industry. More about Michael J. de la Merced

Lauren Hirsch joined The Times from CNBC in 2020, covering deals and the biggest stories on Wall Street. More about Lauren Hirsch

Ephrat Livni reports from Washington on the intersection of business and policy for DealBook. Previously, she was a senior reporter at Quartz, covering law and politics, and has practiced law in the public and private sectors.   More about Ephrat Livni

• Yale Directories

Institution for Social and Policy Studies

Advancing research • shaping policy • developing leaders, cancelled: “does access to citizenship confer socio-economic returns evidence from a randomized control design,” jens hainmueller, stanford university.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS WORKSHOP - CANCELLED

Abstract: Based on observational studies, conventional wisdom suggests that citizenship carries economic benefits and improves political integration. We leverage a randomized experiment from New York where low-income registrants who wanted to become citizens entered a lottery to receive fee vouchers to naturalize. Voucher recipients were about 36 p.p. more likely to naturalize. Yet, we find no discernible effects of access to citizenship on several economic outcomes, including income, credit scores, access to credit, financial distress, and employment. Leveraging a multi-dimensional immigrant integration index, we similarly find no measurable effects on non-economic integration, including political, social, psychological, linguistic, and navigational integration outcomes. However, we do find that citizenship reduces fears of deportation. Explaining our divergence from past studies, our results also reveal evidence of positive selection into citizenship, suggesting that observational studies of citizenship are susceptible to selection bias.

Jens Hainmueller is the Kimberly Glenn Professor in Political Science and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. He is also the Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab, which focuses on the design and evaluation of immigration and integration policies and programs. His research interests include statistical methods, causal inference, immigration, and political economy. Hainmueller received his PhD from Harvard University and has also studied at the London School of Economics, Brown University, and the University of Tübingen. Before joining Stanford, he served on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This workshop is open to the Yale community. To receive announcements and invitations to attend, please subscribe at https://csap.yale.edu/quantitative-research-methods-workshop .

This series is sponsored by the ISPS Center for the Study of American Politics and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale with support from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund.

This workshop is being sponsored jointly with the Leitner Political Economy Seminar series.

• It Takes a Village: Harvard Students Reflect on Creating the HUM SAB EK (We Are One) Exhibition

Apr 10, 2024 | Announcements , COVID-19 , India , News , Students

The multimedia exhibition, HUM SAB EK (We Are One), based on Dr. Satchit Balsari ’s research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2.9 million-strong Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and its members’ response to it, launched this past week in CGIS South ( read an interview with Dr. Balsari here ). Ahead of the April 15 Opening Reception , we spoke with some of the students who volunteered their time to make this exhibition a reality. Few had prior experience bringing an exhibit to life, yet they all pitched in to make it a reality. They hail from departments and Schools across Harvard, with a variety of academic backgrounds and interests. Together they created something powerful, and look forward to bringing their immersive show to sites around the U.S. in in South Asia. 

Behind-the-scenes images of creating the HUM SAB EK exhibit | By Bettina Weyler.

Hiteshree Das , MDes ’25 (Harvard Graduate School of Design)

Mittal Institute: What was your role in the exhibition – how did you help?

Hiteshree Das:  I’ve been fortunate to design and co-curate this exhibition alongside Professor Satchit Balsari.  We envision Project Hum Sab Ek as a two-year long multipronged initiative to effectively convey SEWA’s pandemic response story to academics, policy-makers, creatives, and citizens who are still grappling with the aftermath of the pandemic, both in India and globally. This initiative comprises a traveling exhibition, archival resources, and seminars to engage a wide-ranging audience.

To kickstart the project, we undertook the task of transcribing and translating 30 hours of SEWA members’ testimonies from Gujarati to English. Simultaneously, I delved into Prof. Balsari field notes from 2022 to grasp SEWA members’ experiences, and develop a preliminary catalog for our envisioned traveling exhibition using digital collage as a medium. Towards the end of this phase, I visited SEWA in Ahmedabad, conducting interviews with the members to present our exhibition proposal and refine it based on their feedback. We engaged with various subject matter experts, multilateral organizations, museums, and think tanks to introduce our project proposal and establish partnerships for this unique art-science collaboration. And by the end of January 2024, we had formed a strong interdisciplinary team consisting of engineers, researchers, filmmakers, and designers. 

The several iterations of the proposed exhibition design catalog served as a broad framework for the individual installations that were detailed by our team members. For example, I had rendered an initial vision for our ‘You Are On Mute’ installation, showcasing SEWA’s massive digital literacy drive. This was depicted through 100 smartphones arranged asymmetrically, each lighting up sequentially to symbolize the multitude of Zoom calls the members engaged in—despite lacking any expertise in programming video loops or video editing. Soon Bobby began experimenting by splitting a video across two phones, eventually escalating to over 70 devices to realize our vision. Deepak collaborated with him to sift through a myriad Zoom recordings to create a three-minute video montage showcased on the phones. Meanwhile, William constructed the framework that supports the installation, completing the task over a single weekend.

As the team worked on their individual installations asynchronously, I also took on the responsibility of coordinating with the venue’s building services team and the fabricators to ensure a significant part of the installation was completed over the spring break. This experience opened up a new realm of learning for me about spatial codes within the university, which differed significantly from my previous work as an exhibition designer in India. 

Mittal Institute:  Why did you decide to get involved in the first place?

Hiteshree Das:  I enrolled in the GSD’s Masters of Design Studies program with the goal of expanding my skillset beyond traditional industrial and exhibition design. I was eager to explore an over lap between design and deep social science research and believed that the liberal arts environment at Harvard would support this pursuit, although I wasn’t sure how at the time. One day, before the class of the course GENED 1011: Entrepreneurial Solutions for Intractable Problems, co-taught by Professor Balsari, I struck up a conversation with him about a recent trip to India, where he had interviewed informal working women. He was contemplating the idea of creating an archive and I was intrigued by the fact that a physician was exploring this concept and felt that it was something I could contribute to, especially considering my previous experience working with India’s first virtual museum through Google Arts and Culture. Now, a year later, we have developed a comprehensive exhibition that aims to start conversations about ways to include communities in policy decisions that impact their lives and livelihoods.

Mittal Institute: What did it mean to you to be involved in this project? What are you most proud of?

Hiteshree Das:  Being part of this project has allowed me to evolve and reshape my design practice using systems thinking and participatory research approaches, while gaining a deeper understanding of the responsibilities associated with being a designer and researcher. I now view design as a process of negotiation–one that involves the democratic collection and creation of knowledge,  and facilitates its sharing for collective objectives while carefully weighing trade-offs influenced by socio-political, economic, and geographic factors.  

I believe that through this journey of learning about SEWA and contributing to this exhibition, we absorbed SEWA’s values into our curatorial and design approach, albeit at a subtle level. Despite our initial lack of clarity, there was a strong foundation of trust demonstrated by the team which provided a lot of freedom to make mistakes and learn iteratively. I am proud of the fact that despite limited resources, technical challenges, and time constraints, we did not compromise on the shared vision of the project.

Robert McCarthy , BA ’23 (Harvard College)

Robert McCarthy:  My role was to prototype and build the phone component of the you are on mute exhibit. So I programmed the system that cropped the videos and synchronized them across the phones, I built the cases that were used to mount the phones to the wall, and I edited the videos that went onto the phones.

Mittal Institute: Why did you decide to get involved in the first place?

Robert McCarthy:  Originally they had asked the professor for the class that I am a teaching assistant for, but he did not have the free time to work on the project, so he asked me if I wanted to get involved. Before I even knew about the material of the exhibit, you are on mute was just a very interesting engineering problem to solve, but once they told me more about SEWA, taking on this project was a no brainer.

Robert McCarthy:  I think I am proud of this exhibit for two reasons. One from an engineering perspective, this had been the biggest engineering project I had taken on to this point, so I am just proud that I was able to get the exhibit running. Second, I am just proud to have been a part of an exhibit that was displaying these powerful stories. In my life I have not done anything extraordinarily powerful or meaningful, so to use my engineering skills to be able to show what SEWA was able to overcome during the pandemic makes me happy.

A prototype of the “You Are On Mute” exhibit | Video courtesy of Robert McCarthy.

Deepak Ramola , EdM ’23 (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Deepak Ramola: I was a member of the design team and assisted in curating all the video assets featured in the showcase such as the ‘You are on Mute’ exhibit and oral history short films. This entailed reviewing, shortlisting, and creating excerpts from the 30+ hours of oral history recordings captured by Satchit during his field trips.

Deepak Ramola: I’ve always been a firm believer in the wisdom and resilience of everyday people, and the women of SEWA epitomize this belief. Their stories reflect their grounded lives and aspirational dreams, showcasing the intersection of possibility and determination through resilience, hard work, and hope. Joining this project from its inception provided me with the chance to sit with some of India’s most inspiring women and hear their stories firsthand. Who could pass up such a remarkable opportunity for a masterclass in empowerment?

Deepak Ramola: Words like “innovation,” “path-breaking,” and “revolutionary” are rarely associated with marginalized communities and the impoverished. Yet, delving into the world of SEWA and witnessing the vibrant legacy of its members, these are the only descriptors that seem fitting. Throughout the project, I navigated between two contrasting worlds: from the bustling streets of India to the quiet lanes of Cambridge. The unspoken dialogue between these worlds, characterized by mutual respect, enabled us to design with sensitivity and care. I take the greatest pride in the collaborative effort of every team member, coming together to envision, design, and deliver this truly unique exhibition experience.

Constructing and designing the exhibit | Photos by Deepak Ramola.

Karthik Girish , MUP ’25 (Harvard Graduate School of Design)

Karthik Girish: I played the role of data visualizer and designer. I helped by converting data and statistics into visual pieces that conveyed powerful stories and information. I have a vendetta against pie charts and bar graphs, so I sit and think of ways to represent data through visually appealing but factually correct graphics.

Karthik Girish: My entry into the project was unexpected. Initially, I was onboarded to design exhibit description panels and resize images. Having no experience working on a project of this scale, I was thrilled to work and learn more. But before I got my initial tasks, Dr. Satchit Balsari asked me to make one data graphic. And then another. Then six more after that. I ended up designing the two big-wall graphics for ‘Every Body Counts’ and ‘Super Spreaders’. My love for designing data was fulfilled with every graphic that was created. I enjoyed the iterative design process for such an important and impactful message. This was a surreal experience, and I am highly indebted to Dr. Balsari and Hiteshree for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

Karthik Girish: The project was an eye-opener to me. I am happy I used my design tools to spread the effort and voices of poor working women and the SEWA organization. The intention to convey the recorded conversations and stories impactfully drove me and my design process. I am also extremely grateful to have worked with a multi-talented team.

Katikeya Bhatotia , MPP ’24 (Harvard Kennedy School)

Kartikeya Bhatotia: I contributed to the editorial and research aspects of the exhibition. After grasping the vision of Prof. Balsari and Hiteshree, I reviewed the transcripts and read the oral histories of women in SEWA. We brainstormed the types of narratives to highlight from their enriching lives, focusing on their perseverance through the pandemic, which significantly increased their socio-economic precarity. From the experiences of migration to living through one of the harshest lockdowns in the world, these women’s stories are both important to tell and inspiring to hold onto.

Kartikeya Bhatotia: I have been researching the informal economy for years. Although often overlooked in India, it offers deep insights into the narratives of development and growth. As the Head Teaching Fellow for the FAS fall course GENED 1011: Entrepreneurial Solutions for Intractable Problems, co-taught by Professor Balsari, I gained a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs, like the women at SEWA, innovate across the economy’s various sectors. Their stories are not just fascinating; they are crucial for comprehending the intricacies of the Indian economy. This is what drove me to get involved and assist in sharing their experiences.

Kartikeya Bhatotia: As someone who lost a loved one in the pandemic, it was deeply important for me to carry forward the narratives of those who endured the worst suffering. To me, this project is a memory-keeping initiative. In popular imagination, the pandemic is about Zoom calls, yoga, and in India’s case, beating pots and pans. It rarely touches on the biggest internal migrant crisis of independent India or the massive undercounting of pandemic-related deaths. I am really proud that I have highlighted both the stories of perseverance and loss. In preserving our histories and keeping them alive, a significant part involves acknowledging how societies and states failed to care for their people. At its core, the project is about policy: it encompasses the world’s largest cash transfers, the complex supply chains of food in India, and it is about reclaiming the popular narrative.

Student Participants

Hiteshree Das, MDes ’25 (GSD), Lead Student Designer and Co-Curator

TECHNOLOGY LEAD

Robert McCarthy, BA ’23 (Harvard College)

DESIGN TEAM

William Boles, MLA ’26 (GSD)

Deepak Ramola, EdM ’23 (HGSE)

Shariq M. Shah, MDes ’24 (GSD)

Karthik Girish, MUP ’25 (GSD)

RESEARCH TEAM

Abhishek Bhatia, MS ’17 (HSPH)

Kartikeya Bhatotia, MPP ’24 (HKS)

Ravi Sadhu, (HSPH)

☆ The views represented herein are those of the interview subjects and do not necessarily reflect the views of LMSAI, its staff, or its steering committee.

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