The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT has awarded funding to eight new research studies to understand how artificial intelligence innovations can be used in the fight against poverty through its new Project AI Evidence. The age of AI has brought wide-ranging optimism and skepticism about its effects on society. To realize […]
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But the state of Alabama, which represented ALEA, did not settle. It first took a defeat in the district court to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with Singleton. A three-judge panel concluded last April that begging was constitutionally protected speech under the circuit’s prior precedents, in line with the Supreme Court’s solicitation […]
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On the other hand, the Supreme Court has also struck down multiple state and local statutes that seek to criminalize public solicitation. In the 1980 case Village of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment, for example, the court rejected a Chicago suburb’s ordinance that sought to restrict public solicitation unless a group in question […]
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Through the MITx MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy, Munip Utama strengthened the skills he was already applying in his work with Baitul Enza, a nonprofit helping students in need via policy-shaping research and hands-on assistance. Utama’s commitment to advancing education for underprivileged students stems from his own background. His father is […]
Read MoreIn July, the Republican-led Congress passed a massive legislative package that extended certain tax breaks while dramatically slashing social safety net programs. A provision to increase the amount of the child tax credit, which was set to decrease at the end of the year, has one of the most direct and immediate impacts on families. […]
Read MoreOn its face, prohibiting SNAP dollars from being spent on soda and candy might seem unobjectionable. Soda and candy are high in sugar and low in nutrition. But implementing these restrictions is burdensome for states and often difficult for grocery stores to follow. Gina Plata-Nino, the SNAP deputy director at the Food Research and Action […]
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As Washington state was one of the states to pay out full benefits, Ligon was able to receive her SNAP payments on November 11—but only after enduring a period of significant uncertainty the previous week. SNAP benefits are loaded onto a card, which can then be used to purchase food products. On November 6, Ligon’s […]
Read MoreBy the time fruits and vegetables finally make it to the more rural villages in the region Kawerak serves, Lizak said, they are often halfway to their expiration date, or even already rotting. “And that’s if you can afford it,” Lizak continued. “Which you can’t.” When the Senate passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act […]
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Zohran Mamdani swept to victory in the mayor’s race with a canny pledge to freeze the rent for New York City’s roughly two million tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. When Mr. Mamdani takes office in January, a vote to freeze the rent will still be several months away. But the city’s housing crisis is a much […]
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Good management of aid projects in developing countries reduces violence in those areas — but poorly managed projects increase the chances of local violence, according to a new study by an MIT economist. The research, examining World Bank projects in Africa, illuminates a major question surrounding international aid. Observers have long wondered if aid projects, […]
Read MoreOct. 16 is World Food Day, a global campaign to celebrate the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization 80 years ago, and to work toward a healthy, sustainable, food-secure future. More than 670 million people in the world are facing hunger. Millions of others are facing rising obesity rates and struggle to get healthy […]
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“All of this will lead to unnecessary chaos and confusion in the midst of widespread uncertainty, record inflation, and a government shutdown,” the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit, said in a statement. That’s unlikely to bother Republicans, because almost every change they’ve made since taking control of the federal government this year […]
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Unlike the last shutdown, which spanned 35 days from the end of 2018 through the beginning of 2019, the current lapse in government funding is occurring at the very beginning of the fiscal year. In 2019, states had already received some WIC funding from the federal government, meaning that it was easier to maintain the […]
Read MoreThis spring, J-PAL North America — a regional office of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) — launched its first ever Learning Lab, centered on climate action. The Learning Lab convened a cohort of government leaders who are enacting a broad range of policies and programs to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. […]
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And contrary to the widespread liberal complaint, these voters do know, in increasing numbers, that the Trump administration is strafing their Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and rural hospitals. In 2022, scholars Kristin Lunz Trujillo and Zack Crowley discovered that, while some rural voters had symbolic concerns about their “way of life” or threats from elites, others […]
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More important, this study has to be evaluated within a large body of qualitative and quantitative evidence that shows cash payments to families can have a positive effect on both parents and their children, which Waldfogel has recently surveyed for her book. “We know very robustly that if you give families money, it reduces poverty […]
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At this point, though, people are tired, Higgins tells me. North St. Louis was already experiencing an unemployment crisis, a housing insecurity crisis, a fentanyl crisis. People in North St. Louis heard about the rapid response to restore Forest Park, an urban space larger than Central Park. With people in North St. Louis still living […]
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Ronald Reagan and his fellow Republicans once invoked what they referred to as “welfare queens” as they made the case for reining in social spending in the 1970s and 1980s, painting a picture of unscrupulous women bilking the system to finance a sumptuous lifestyle. Now as they try to justify cuts to Medicaid, congressional Republicans […]
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This semester, MIT D-Lab students built prototype solutions to help farmers in Afghanistan, people living in informal settlements in Argentina, and rural poultry farmers in Cameroon. The projects span continents and collectively stand to improve thousands of lives — and they all trace back to two longstanding MIT D-Lab classes. For the last seven years, […]
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Around the world, low immunizations rates for children are a persistent problem. Now, an experiment conducted in India shows that an inexpensive combination of methods, including text reminders and small financial incentives, has a major impact on immunization. Led by MIT economists, the research finds that a trifecta of incentives, text messages, and information provided […]
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