MAS members have benefitted from a wonderful set of experiences over the past month that illuminate the complicated ways that the city has been shaped over the decades. The Department of Design and Construction hosted a hard-hat tour of the Eastside Coastal Resilience Project recently. The ECRP is the result of the lessons learned from Superstorm... See more
Predictive algorithms are everywhere these days, as are concerns that they embed & perpetuate discrimination
In a new (short!) working paper with David Arnold & Will Dobbie, we develop + apply new quasi-experimental tools to address these... See more
So, what did I learn from the 2024 election? I don't mean to be flippant, but if you're going to be a convicted felon with a history of sexually assaulting women who incited a mob to violently prevent the peaceful transfer of power, you praise Hitler and you call for the termination of the Constitution and you still want to be elected president to... See more
In 1894 at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Douglass delivered the last great speech of his career. Titled “The Lessons of the Hour,” it was his attempt to make sense of the rise of Jim Crow and the violent retrenchment of the era. I want to share a little of the speech with you because I think it is worthwhile... See more
3. If you want good cheap infrastructure, build up state capacity
America has a big problem building infrastructure. Our roads and trains cost much more per mile than other rich countries. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, including land-use regulation, NIMBYism, and broken government contracting processes. But one reason is... See more