Book talk with authors, UC Berkeley economists and O-Lab affiliates Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, focused on their new book, The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay. The book presents a forensic investigation into a dramatic transformation that has taken place in recent decades: even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have had their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Saez and Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government. Their conclusion? For the first time in more than a century, billionaires now pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Join us to hear Saez and Zucman present their work and take questions from the audience. Hosted by the UC Berkeley Department of Economics, and co-sponsored by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality, and the Center for Equitable Growth.

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The GSPP Policy Research Seminar is an ongoing series that highlights academic research of direct relevance to real-world public policy. Faculty, PhD students, MPP students and staff are invited from any part of the UC Berkeley community and beyond.

Solomon Hsiang kicks off the the first Policy Research Seminar with his talk: Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change Accounting for Adaptation Costs and Benefits.

More information.

A roundtable discussion on the fight against poverty in California and nationwide, hosted by Congresswoman Barbara Lee. The roundtable will feature a presentation by O-Lab Co-Director Hilary Hoynes and other representatives from the National Academy of Sciences on their groundbreaking February 2019 report, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty.

To RSVP, please email RSVP2povertyroundtable@gmail.com by Thursday August 22, 2019 at 5pm PT.

O-Lab affiliate Rucker C. Johnson will present findings from his new book “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works” followed by an insightful dialogue with Chris Edley, Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley and Prudence Carter, Dean Graduate School of Education.

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The first event in a new joint UC Berkeley-UCSF Population Health Series: Data Science for Advancing Population Health. Speakers include Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, William H. Dow, Rita Hamad and O-Lab affiliate Jesse Rothstein. The event will present a vision for population health data science in 2020 and beyond and provide a forum for UCSF and UCB faculty to discuss cutting edge topics related to population health and data science.

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O-Lab affiliate Solomon Hsiang will lead a discussion on data for adaption to climate change, moderated by Marshall Burke. This event is part of the Stanford Center on Global Poverty and Development Speaker Series, which features talks by distinguished scholars and policymakers. The goal of the series is to foster discussion about successes and challenges in the field of poverty alleviation and development. Learn more here.

Discussions about the future of work have focused on the idea that technology will soon reduce or alter the need for human labor in many occupations. Has this conventional narrative failed to focus on the key challenges facing workers today and in the future?

Join O-Lab and IRLE for a talk by Paul Osterman of MIT who will offer a perspective on these discussions and how they relate to addressing the challenge of a large low wage labor market.

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O-Lab affiliate Gabriel Zucman will speak on globalization, taxes and inequality at UC Berkeley’s Cal Day Economics Faculty Spotlight.

Join O-Lab Co-Director Hilary Hoynes for a talk on the evidence from the Food Stamp Program. After Social Security, the Food Stamp Program touches the lives of more American families than any other element of the social safety net. What is the impact of this program on the long-term outcomes of children who receive these resources early in life? Hoynes finds that access to food stamps in childhood leads to long-term improvements in human capital, quality of life, and mortality. Learn more here.

Come learn about "Climate Change & Human Mortality" with O-Lab affiliate Solomon Hsiang. He will discuss recent research on how populations around the word may be impacted, often unequally, by climate change as well as how these populations may adapt. Find more information here.

O-Lab’s Co-Director Hilary Hoynes will be moderating a talk on economic and health disparities. Entitled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” the event features Anne Case of Princeton University as well respondents Mahasin Mujahid and Ron Lee. Learn more here.

Inequality has become a central focus of policy discussions, but inequality has multiple dimensions and correspondingly many potential policy interventions. This mini-conference will consider inequality from this broad perspective. The event will feature a keynote by Peter Orszag, and presentations from O-Lab faculty Hilary Hoynes and Gabriel Zucman.

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O-Lab affiliate Meredith Fowlie will be speaking at UC Davis on the real world application of market based environmental regulations.

About: Economists generally agree that carbon pricing should be a core component of any meaningful policy response to climate change. But this compelling economic idea has been difficult to translate into politically feasible policy. Over the past two decades, experimentation around the world has been progressing slowly and with mixed results. In many respects, California has been at the bleeding edge of these efforts. Fowlie will unpack some of the empirical evidence on carbon pricing impacts across a range of economic outcomes and focus on some important challenges.

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David Pedulla, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, will discuss his detailed research data on both job applications and job offers, which provide the unique ability to adjudicate between these processes. This data provides evidence that although blacks and whites utilize their networks at similar rates, these methods are less likely to lead to job offers for African-Americans.

The talk will include O-Lab faculty Conrad Miller and Haas faculty Laura Kray as discussants and is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

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On March 28 O-Lab held a conference and matchmaking event to identify ways that new-unique data can advance social good, promote communication between researchers and companies with rich data-sets, and provide a deeper understanding of the synergistic benefits of data access. 

Read #OurTake by Ben Handel to learn more about key takeaways and how data can produce public good. Event video and pictures can be found HERE. 

For more information about speakers please visit the event website, www.data4publicgood.com.