Harvard Kennedy School

09/09/2026

Even as Massachusetts invests in early childhood education, there are still widening gaps between what the state is providing and what parents need. HKS's Jeffrey Liebman explores what parents are looking for and how policymakers can help close that gap in a recent working paper and policy brief.

In new research, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jeffery Liebman identifies the gaps in capacity, quality, and affordability of early child care in Massachusetts and offers a path forward with higher pay for teachers.

09/08/2026

In 2023, more than 6,300 people were killed by police in Brazil. HKS Professor Yanilda González and University of Georgia's Natán Skigin explored public support for these killings and the impact of testimony around it.

They found that support for police killings was significant, especially when people read accounts from police who claimed they killed in self-defense, and that the person they killed was committing a crime.

When presented with statements from victims’ mothers, however, couched in either their belief in their son’s innocence or the impact of his race and poverty, support for police killings fell.

Research by Yanilda González, the Ford Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy at HKS, and coauthor Natán Skigin from the University of Georgia, examines whether the families of victims can challenge official police accounts and reduce support for police violence.

09/07/2026

Who should be blamed when your wages are too low? Or take credit when your wages go up? A new survey by HKS’s Danny Schneider and co-authors at the Shift Project found that hourly workers assigned the blame—or credit—for their pay to their employer, manager, or boss. Only 10% credited the government when their wages went up.“

“Researchers suspect this is because workers often lack good information about the prevailing wage, and aren’t as tapped into efforts to raise it.”

09/07/2026

Hourly service workers support a higher minimum wage, regardless of their political affiliation, finds new research by HKS’s Danny Schneider and co-authors at the Shift Project.

Despite how researchers asked survey participants to politically identify themselves, “you can see a clear bipartisan support for $15 minimum wage.”

09/07/2026

A majority of hourly workers surveyed are working, but poor—with 36% reporting that it was very difficult to make ends meet and 42% reporting it was somewhat difficult to make ends meet—finds new survey by HKS’s Danny Schneider and co-authors at the Shift Project.

When respondents were asked how much they’d need to earn to get by, on average workers said $24/hour. Which is notably higher than both the federal minimum wage and any state minimum wage.

09/05/2026

🎞️ From the archives 🎞️ Gloria Steinem spoke at HKS in 1999, sharing her vision for a world free from child abuse, and what impact that could have on governing and public policy. She challenges us to imagine what society could be like if there was a new generation of children whose spirits were not broken.

Watch her full address at ken.sc/steinem1999.

09/04/2026

Raise early educator wages, increase capacity and subsidies at the same time, and expand financial aid for families are the three steps Jeffrey Liebman, HKS Professor and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, says we need to take to address the U.S.’s early education challenges.

09/04/2026

Increase class sizes. Reduce worker pay. Deregulation is what policy debates around early education claim is the best way to bring costs down, explains HKS Professor and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston Jeffrey Liebman.

But we can’t just focus on expanding slots, argues Liebman. “We actually have to first focus on making sure that the new slots are going to be high quality.”

09/04/2026

“We know that high-quality child care has large benefits.” Jeffrey Liebman, HKS professor and director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, discusses the benefits of quality childcare and the financial constraints that are associated with it.

This is why we need government involvement in this “highly productive investment,” he says.

09/03/2026

What happens when a kindergarten boy is among the oldest in the classroom?

New research from PhD in Public Policy candidate Matt Jacob shows that older boys are 42% more likely to become class president or hold school leadership positions than younger boys.

Discover more findings from the research ➡️

Research from PhD in Public Policy candidate Matt Jacob shows that the oldest boys in a class of schoolchildren go on to build 11 percent larger social networks in high school than the youngest boys.