Nothing encapsulates the failures of our society more than what just happened to Mia Tretta. When she was 15, she was shot in the stomach by a classmate at her high school in California. Yesterday, she survived the second school shooting of her short life: A person opened fire at Brown University, where Tretta is a junior. Students were studying for finals when a shooter walked into an economics classroom and started firing, killing two students, injuring nine, and inflicting terror on not just a campus but an entire city. No suspect has been named yet, but authorities have detained a 'person of interest.' I left Brooklyn to attend Brown in 1995, when New York City had yet to shake its rough-and-tumble reputation. Of all the amenities that the Ivy League campus provided'bountiful libraries, a full-service gym'the most luxurious to me was a sense of safety. I'd walk around campus at all hours of the night; just the other day, my freshman roommate and I reminisced about keeping our dorm room unlocked so our friends could come and go. Despite how much has changed in the decades since I was there, it was that sense of security that had, after what she'd endured in high school, appealed to Tretta....
One in 10 babies in the U.S. ' nearly 374,000 infants ' were born preterm in 2023, meaning before 37 weeks of pregnancy. More than 15% were very preterm, meaning they were born before 32 weeks. A full-term pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. According to the March of Dimes, preterm birth and low birthweight-related health complications cause 37.5% of infant deaths nationwide. This makes preterm birth the second-leading cause of infant deaths, after birth defects. Preterm babies who survive infancy are susceptible to health complications later in life, including cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. Preterm and low-birthweight babies ' those weighing less than 5.5 pounds (2,500 grams) ' are far more likely to go to the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Very preterm infants tend to have the longest NICU stays, averaging around 43 days. Beyond the emotional toll this takes on a family, preterm births and their resulting health complications carry substantial financial costs. The average NICU admission in 2021 cost around US$71,000. And economists estimated the lifetime societal cost of all preterm babies born in 2016, from birth to subsequent disability care, at $25.2 billion....
In the U.S., approximately 2 in 10 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 20 drink alcohol. About 1 in 10 smoke cigarettes. For teens living in neighborhoods with high levels of disadvantage and social disorganization, the odds are 35% to 72% higher. Disadvantaged neighborhoods generally have higher levels of economic hardship, poorer educational opportunities and limited resources. Those factors weaken the social fabric of a community. Although alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents has declined in recent years, both remain the most commonly used and abused substances compared to cocaine or heroin. Alcohol and tobacco use have been linked to substance dependence in adulthood, sexual victimization, some cancers and premature death. One of us ' Anna Maria Santiago ' studies neighborhood effects, or how where children and adolescents live affects their health and well-being. Iris Margetis is a Ph.D. candidate in economics and co-author of the study. Exposure to neighborhood violence has been thought to trigger adolescent alcohol and tobacco use as a way of coping with the heightened levels of stress associated with that exposure. However, previous findings have been mixed....
'As a student of both sociology and economics, MIT Sloan was the ideal place for me to combine both disciplines,' says Alex Busch, a PhD student. 'MIT Sloan is unique in the freedom it offers its PhD students to become the researchers they aspire to be: I take classes in management, economics, and sociology, all taught by experts in the field.' Before joining MIT Sloan School of Management's PhD program, Busch received a BS in economics and a BA in sociology from Heidelberg University in Germany and a MS in economics from The London School of Economics and Political Science. Then, he worked as a pre-doc for professors at the University of California Berkeley and MIT, which introduced him to the research at MIT Sloan ' and more specifically, the Institute for Work and Employment Research. Busch's work focuses on how institutions such as trade unions and employer associations shape the labor market. 'To me, the future of work means democracy. It's hard to have any positive vision of work without meaningfully engaging workers. This is why I research economic democracy ' whether through unions, employee ownership, or works councils ' worker voice is pivotal in designing good jobs.'...
