Working Papers

Browse all our working papers.
Latest

How Americans Think About Health Care and Insurance

This paper investigates how Americans perceive and reason about health insurance policies through two large-scale surveys and experiments conducted in 2019 and 2025. We elicit open-ended considerations, measure factual knowledge, and examine views on equity, fairness, efficiency, and different policies. We also provide respondents with randomized information about health insurance

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How Americans Think About Health Care and Insurance

This paper investigates how Americans perceive and reason about health insurance policies through two large-scale surveys and experiments conducted in 2019 and 2025. We elicit open-ended considerations, measure factual knowledge, and examine views on equity, fairness, efficiency, and different policies. We also provide respondents with randomized information about health insurance

Read More >

All Working Papers

How Americans Think About Health Care and Insurance

This paper investigates how Americans perceive and reason about health insurance policies through two large-scale surveys and experiments conducted in 2019 and 2025. We elicit open-ended considerations, measure factual knowledge, and examine views on equity,...
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The 2025 US Tariffs: Perceptions, Understanding, and Policy Views

This paper summarizes the findings from several waves of surveys fielded between mid-April and mid-September 2025 regarding people’s understanding of and views on trade and trade policy, including tariffs. The survey is on-going and this...
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Emotions and Policy Views

This paper investigates the growing role of emotions in shaping policy views. Analyzing social citizens' media postings and political party messaging over a large variety of policy issues from 2013 to 2024, we document a...
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The Universal Pursuit of Safety and the Demand for (Lethal, Non-Lethal or No) Guns

Personal lethal firearm ownership has for several decades been a hot button political issue in the United States. This article aims to explore the motivations and beliefs underlying sharply different views on the subject through...
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The How and Why of Household Reactions to Income Shocks

This paper studies how and why households adjust their spending, saving, and borrowing in response to transitory income shocks. We leverage new large-scale survey data to first quantitatively assess households’ intertemporal marginal propensities to consume...
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Working Papers - Perceptions of Racial Gaps, their Causes, and Ways to Reduce Them

Perceptions of Racial Gaps, their Causes, and Ways to Reduce Them

We investigate how respondents perceive racial inequities between Black and white Americans, what they believe causes them, and what interventions, if any, they think should be implemented to reduce them....
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Working Papers - Understanding of Trade

Understanding of Trade

I study how people understand and reason about trade, and what factors shape their views on trade policy....
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Working Papers - Understanding of Economics

Understanding Economics

Using large-scale online surveys and experiments on representative U.S. samples, we study how well people understand, reason, and learn about four economic policies: i) Personal income taxation, ii) Estate taxation, iii) Health insurance, and iv)...
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Updates, Events & News

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Updates & Events

AMEC Symposium on The Economic Implications of Heightened Uncertainty

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Inaugural Slemrod Lecture

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Harvard Magazine: Zero-Sum Political Thinking

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Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Public Opinion and Climate Change

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Society for Economic Dynamics 2024 Keynote

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News

To understand America today, study the zero-sum mindset, writes Stefanie Stantcheva

Young people and city-dwellers are among those most likely to see one group’s gain as another’s loss

The zero‑sum mindset is no mystery

Tim Hartford: Stefanie Stantcheva’s economic survey of US citizens deserves the acclaim it has received

Democrats, Republicans, and Zero-Sum Thinking

Founder of Harvard’s Social Economics Lab on a mindset held across the bipartisan divide

Inflation’s lasting pressure: A hotel worker’s story shows the struggle

Inflation has come way down in the past two years. But the issue might have decided the recent presidential election, and its effects still weigh on many Americans.

Inflation Is Down to 3%. Why That Isn’t Good Enough.

Even inflation this low could feed consumer frustration, workplace friction and an inflationary psychology
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