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AEA Research Highlights

The American Economic Association conducts podcast interviews on a wide range of topics with economists whose research appears in our journals. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Oct 31, 2023

Some social scientists have postulated that governments are designed for the purpose of helping the powerful take resources from the less powerful. But while there have been many exploitative governments throughout history, states may have actually started to form as a means of facilitating cooperation.

In a paper...


Oct 2, 2023

Seven years before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ended the legal segregation of Black schoolchildren, California ended the legal segregation of Mexican American schoolchildren.

That decision, known as Mendez v. Westminster, had a rapid impact across the state and led to significant educational benefits,...


Sep 5, 2023

The bulk of education research focuses on the benefits of the traditional K–12 and higher education systems, while non-traditional programs are relatively understudied. But economists are starting to shine a light on the large returns to investing in adult education.

In a paper in the American Economic Journal:...


Aug 9, 2023

The United States spends over a billion dollars a year on housing programs that give recently released prisoners a place to stay and modest support before reintegration into society. Yet there is little causal evidence that these programs work.

In a paper in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, author Logan...


Jul 11, 2023

The costs of Alzheimer’s disease are significant. In 2021, it affected nearly 6 million Americans and accounted for an estimated 8 percent of total US health-care spending—about as much as cancer and heart disease combined. And those numbers are only expected to increase as the population ages.

In a paper in the...