As part of the Tobin Project’s National Security inquiry into "Power through its Prudent Use," scholars Deepak Malhotra (Harvard Business School) and Jeremi Suri (University of Texas-Austin, History) traveled to Washington, D.C. in July to share their research with members of the policymaking community.
In the wake of the financial crisis, it became clear that existing models of the financial system were not only mistaken, but lacking real-world perspective and empirical foundation. Confronting these deficiencies, the Tobin Project supported a workshop in June, entitled "Behavioral and Institutional Research and Financial Regulation," to forge a better understanding of our financial system and develop innovative social-science based frameworks that illuminate its workings.
Personal identity, long a concern of sociology, is now being incorporated into economic models thanks to the pioneering work presented in Identity Economics (Princeton University Press, 2010), a new volume by Nobel Prize-winning economist and longtime Tobin Project friend, George Akerlof (University of California-Berkeley, Economics), and co-author Rachel Kranton (Duke University, Economics).
Over the past three decades, the United States has become richer, but significantly more unequal. In 2007, the most affluent 1% of American families received more than 23% of total income for the first time since 1928. While the causes of this dramatic rise in inequality are widely researched, far less is known about its potential effects on our economy, our democracy, and our society.
In an April issue of The Economist, an article examines the effects of rising inequality on the reality of the "American dream," and references research from the upcoming Tobin Project conference on the economic, political, and social consequences of rising inequality.