The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy’s faculty, staff, 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

The Gender Wage Gap and Devaluation of Women’s Work
Daniel Schneider and the Shift Project find that gender segregation between companies contributes significantly to the gender wage gap in the service sector. The study, inWork and Occupations, also finds that this gender wage gap leads to women receiving both less in pay and fewer working hours.

Calculating the True Cost of Crime and Punishment
A new course, A Performance Evaluation of the Criminal Legal System, asked students to gather public and internal budgeting data to determine whether the criminal legal system is effective enough to justify the costs and the harm that it perpetrates on the most marginalized people in society.

2023 Malcolm Wiener Lecture with Gillian Tett
Gillian Tett presented the 2023 Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture in International Political Economy: "From Tunnel Vision to Lateral Vision; How Anthropology can help us all make (better) sense of global risks." Gillian Tett is chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times.

Avoiding Job Loss in the Transition to Renewable Energy
In the shift to green energy, Gordon Hanson says policymakers must act now to blunt job losses by being prepared to offer help to workers affected by mass layoffs. He discussed his paper written for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group in a webinar with John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President.
Programs and Initiatives
News
Stop requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need them
Vox, March 19, 2023
A Long Day of Hearings for Labor Bills, Guaranteed Sick Leave, Work Schedules
The Connecticut Examiner, March 10, 2023
What’s Next for Globalization?
Project Syndicate, March 9, 2023
What works in workforce development—and how can it work better?
Brookings, March 8, 2023
Supreme Court may halt health care guarantees for inmates
Harvard Gazette, March 2, 2023
RT @InequalityHKS: "Neoliberalism is in fact bad economics. Economics is not simply a paean to free markets. When properly applied, economi…
Join @HarvardIOP & @HKS_PCJ in the Forum at 6 PM ET for a conversation w/ former Governor of Oregon Kate Brown and IOP Interim Director Setti Warren on mass incarceration. Harvard ID-holders can register for a seat (this event is also livestreamed). RSVP: https://t.co/q2DdbI17ee
In the newest episode of the Reimagining the Economy projects's PolicyWorks podcast, @Rachel_Lipson discusses the role of community colleges in powering the economy and the institutional constraints that hold them back.
RT @InequalityHKS: "Neoliberalism is in fact bad economics. Economics is not simply a paean to free markets. When properly applied, economi…
In the newest episode of the Reimagining the Economy projects's PolicyWorks podcast, @Rachel_Lipson discusses the role of community colleges in powering the economy and the institutional constraints that hold them back.
Join @HarvardIOP & @HKS_PCJ in the Forum at 6 PM ET for a conversation w/ former Governor of Oregon Kate Brown and IOP Interim Director Setti Warren on mass incarceration. Harvard ID-holders can register for a seat (this event is also livestreamed). RSVP: https://t.co/q2DdbI17ee
RT @InequalityHKS: "Neoliberalism is in fact bad economics. Economics is not simply a paean to free markets. When properly applied, economi…
Join @HarvardIOP & @HKS_PCJ in the Forum at 6 PM ET for a conversation w/ former Governor of Oregon Kate Brown and IOP Interim Director Setti Warren on mass incarceration. Harvard ID-holders can register for a seat (this event is also livestreamed). RSVP: https://t.co/q2DdbI17ee
In the newest episode of the Reimagining the Economy projects's PolicyWorks podcast, @Rachel_Lipson discusses the role of community colleges in powering the economy and the institutional constraints that hold them back.