In the News

In this article, John Friedman provides three main statistics that show why American families need additional federal aid as the pandemic surges on.

In this interview with KCBS, Emily Oster explains that in-person learning seems to be better for kids, if there is a way to do it safely.

Emily Oster provided commentary in this article on the effect of Covid-19 on youth sports.

In this interview, Emily Oster reveals her five-step process to make decisions in the face of uncertainty during COVID-19.

This article was reported in partnership with the Costs of War Project.

This opinion piece references the research and tracking efforts of Emily Oster.

This article cites Watson's Costs of War report on the U.S. military's consumption of fossil fuels.

Rose McDermott penned this piece on the correlation between healthy lifestyles amongst men and women, and the likelihood of war and international struggle.

This article references the research and tracking efforts of Emily Oster.

Mark Blyth appeared in this podcast interview alongside Rana Foroohar.

Patrick Heller in the Huffington Post, "This isn't magic...The kind of investments required – in high-quality education, health care and safety nets – are relatively straightforward. Making them effectively is the challenge."

Emily Oster provided commentary in this article around her national COVID-19 database saying, "Schools are opening and yet we don't seem to have any coordinated way to collect and share information about what's working, what's not working, how risky are schools."

This article cites Watson's Costs of War report on the number of people displaced due to post-9/11 wars.

This article references the research and COVID-19 tracking efforts of Emily Oster.

In this interview, Emily Oster provides data-driven insight to New Hampshire school districts currently thinking about transitioning to remote learning due to COVID-19.

This article references the research and tracking efforts of Emily Oster.

Emily Oster provided commentary in this article on COVID safety in the classroom.

Emily Oster talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenge of reopening schools in a pandemic.

In this piece, Stephanie Savell provides commentary on the transition of military defense from the Trump administration to Biden's.

Senior Fellow Heidi Heitkamp penned this op-ed on how the mismanagement of the IRS has had a disproportionate impact on working Americans.

Jeff Cogan provided commentary in this article, which also cites the Climate Solutions Lab at Watson: "There's so much that a federal government can do on climate change across the various agencies, not just at the state department, or the Treasury or the Environmental Protection Agency, or the Federal Reserve, at all of them...We should not forget how powerful the president can be."

Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Biden has a chance to end the longstanding practice of handing out ambassadorships as political rewards. The temptation to continue, however, is strong. Biden is unlikely to resist it any more successfully than his predecessors."

Emily Oster said she is surprised to hear that the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is relying on the Covid-19 School Response Dashboard, a website she started to promote in-person learning for schoolchildren.

Emily Oster in NHPR, "I think we need to say, let's draw some guidelines about what we would see and when."

Emily Oster appeared in this interview segment on school closures due to COVID-19.

Wendy Schiller appeared in this Bloomberg radio interview.

In this piece, Emily Oster provides information on the closing of schools in New York and the debate on why it's happening.

Emily Oster penned this column arguing that the best available data suggests that infection rates in schools simply mirror the prevalence of COVID-19 in the surrounding community — and that addressing community spread is where our efforts should be focused.

Stephen Kinzer in The Christian Science Monitor, "To this day I remember looking at people's blank faces in Turku and [Estonia's capital,] Tallinn. Even for those of us not directly affected, it was a traumatic episode to live through. It's engraved in my memory forever."

In this article, Emily Oster provides information on transmission of the virus, or lack thereof, in schools that are now facing temporary closures.

Deborah Gordon co-wrote this piece on the potent climate pollutant methane, which is 100 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Mark Blyth in this article, "When the pandemic subsides, the fight for the economy begins in earnest."

This film features interviews with David Kertzer on Pope Pius XI's handling of the Holocaust during World War II.

Watson Director, Edward Steinfeld penned this article on the power of leadership.

In this interview segment, Stephen Kinzer delves into CIA mind control - focusing specifically on the use of LSD.

This article includes commentary from, and highlights the research and tracking efforts of, Emily Oster.

Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar appeared on this episode of the Dan Yorke Show.

In this article, Jeff Colgan provides commentary on Biden's future approach to climate change.

This article cites Watson's virtual exhibition on the American flag called "Out of the Fray."

This article cites Mark Blyth's new book, Angrynomics.

In this article, Rob Blair offers commentary on the coronavirus vaccine.

This article cites Watson's Costs of War Report, "...Has monitored the economic and medical costs of both wars for years. It estimates that the United States will have spent more than $6.4 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when lifetime medical needs for the veterans who served there are included."

Emily Oster penned this column arguing that Americans need to start thinking about how to control the pandemic under the assumption that people are not necessarily going to listen.

Rose McDermott is quoted and cited in this article, which focuses on her argument that the advent of computers, the internet and social media have yielded massive change in the design and execution of certain types of large field experiments.

In this interview, Emily Oster says priorities need to shift, because data doesn't show that schools are a primary source of COVID-19 outbreaks or broad community spread.

In this article, Stephanie Savell offered commentary predicting what the U.S. military budget will look like under the Biden administration.

In this article, Emily Oster shares information on her COVID-19 tracking efforts and her opinion on the rate of spread through specific demographics.

Mark Blyth appears in this podcast segment with Finacial Times' Rana Foroohar and host Paul Jay.