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The Worse the Economy Gets, the Longer People Live

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-22T19:46:47+00:00

Advisory Council member Peter Orszag writes in Bloomberg about the rise in life expectancy during recessions. Read his full piece here.

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What College Students Need to Know

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-21T16:26:56+00:00

An editorial in The New York Times applauds several of the Obama administration’s education initiatives, including the Department of Education’s “college scorecard,” which will help students compare the value of colleges. The proposal draws from a joint Hamilton Project and Center for American Progress proposal by Bridget Terry Long, which called for the federal government to expand the types of information available to students, and allow users to compare indicators like cost, financial aid, student debt, employment outcomes, and average salaries following graduation. Read Terry Long’s full proposal here.

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Congress Will Auction Public Airwaves to Pay for Benefits

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-17T20:39:02+00:00

President Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation to authorize the auction of public spectrum now used for television broadcasts to create more wireless Internet systems. The revenue from these auctions will be used to offset the costs of the payroll tax cuts and extending unemployment benefits. This legislation draws from a 2008 Hamilton Project discussion paper focused on ways to reform spectrum policy to ensure the most efficient use of wireless spectrum. Among other proposals in the paper, author Philip Weiser suggests Congress facilitate an auction of remaining spectrum used for UHF broadcasting. Read more on Weiser’s proposal here.

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The rule of more

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-16T16:40:42+00:00

Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone is cited in a new piece for the Economist, describing his proposal for ensuring that more consistent and objective cost-benefit analysis is applied to regulations. Greenstone has also testified before the Senate Budget Committee on ways to improve the use of cost benefit analysis in federal rule making. Read his testimony here, and read the full Economist piece here.

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Hamilton Project Ideas in Education

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-15T16:47:45+00:00

The core concepts from several Hamilton Project discussion papers have influenced education proposals being discussed by the Obama administration. The President’s newly announced "College Scorecard," which will allow prospective college students and their parents to compare the value and affordability of colleges and universities, draws directly from a joint Hamilton Project and Center for American Progress proposal by Bridget Terry Long. In her proposal, Long called for the federal government to expand the types of information that are available and allow users to compare indicators like cost, financial aid, student debt, employment outcomes, and average salaries following graduation, across peer institutions.

The Hamilton Project’s influence can also be seen in the Department of Education's focus on improving teacher quality through incentives to hire and retain the best teachers. A 2006 paper by Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane and Douglas O. Staiger would eliminate requirements for teachers to hold a master's degree and would provide teachers with good evaluations bonuses to teacher in high-poverty schools. A more recent proposal by Derek Neal would create a new student assesment to evaluate teacher performance.

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Spending Won’t Fix What Ails U.S. Infrastructure

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-14T16:17:06+00:00

In Bloomberg, Edward Glaeser proposes seven ways to improve U.S. transportation through incremental reforms. Two Hamilton Project proposals offer policy solutions to achieve these goals. “America’s Traffic Congestion Problem: Toward a Framework for National Reform” by Daniel Lewis proposes charging drivers to use the nation’s most congested roadways at the most congested hours, leading to a reduction in traffic and improvements in safety and efficiency. A second paper, by David M. Levinson and Matthew E. Kahn, proposes a reorganization of our national highway infrastructure priorities to “Fix It First, Expand It Second, and Reward It Third.” Read Glaeser’s full piece here.

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Hamilton Project Training Proposals Offer Guidance on Federal Budget

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-13T17:35:46+00:00

President Obama’s budget includes proposals to train our nation’s workers similar to plans put forward by The Hamilton Project late last year. In particular, the President’s plan to use pay for performance strategies to incentivize training providers, community colleges, and local workforce organizations to find trainees find permanent jobs highlights ideas from a proposal by Louis S. Jacobson, Daniel G. Sullivan, and Robert J. LaLonde that would reward One Stop Career Centers and training providers when their trainees receive certifications, pass state licensing exams in high-return fields, or complete a substantial number of advanced courses. More details on this proposal are available here.

A second provision of the President’s training program would target training at employers in growing sectors and provide workers with the latest certified training and skills and lead to good paying jobs. In his Hamilton Project policy paper, Harry J. Holzer makes a similar proposal to target training funds toward high-growth industries with good-paying jobs, through a series of competitive grants to fund partnerships between key employers, training providers, workforce agencies, and other support services. Learn more about Holzer’s proposal here.

To learn more about training initiatives in President Obama’s budget, click here.

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Why Manufacturing Still Matters

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-10T18:04:38+00:00

In her Economix posting for The New York Times, Advisory Council member Laura D’Andrea Tyson discusses why she believes a strong manufacturing sector is important for the United States. Read the full piece here.

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Five Facts About the Marriage Gap

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-08T18:15:54+00:00

WAMU’s DCentric blog pulls five facts about the marriage gap from The Hamilton Project’s recent analysis on the correlations between income and marriage. Read DCentric’s posting here, and read the Project’s full report here.

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A master’s degree is enough for teaching high school

The Hamilton Project — 2012-02-07T17:29:21+00:00

A Vermont legislator plans to hold a hearing and introduce legislative based on the findings of a 2006 Hamilton Project paper “Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job” by Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane, and Douglas O. Staiger. Rep. Brian Campion will introduce three bills to waive the requirement of high school teachers to hold a master's degree in the content area they teach, require all new teachers to be assigned a mentor for their first two years, and increase the number of assessments teachers receive in their first two years. Read more about Rep. Campion’s proposals here, and read the full The Hamilton Project proposal here.

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