Economics

Electric Grid’s Future: Increased Risk of Attack

by Jay London on December 14, 2011

in Economics,Energy,Engineering,In the News,Research

Despite growing smarter, the U.S. electric grid is expected to become more vulnerable and a prime target for a cyber attacks, according to a new report from the MIT Energy Initiative. The report, “The Future of the Electric Grid,” was published on Dec. 5 and cites weaknesses in oversight, processes, new communication devices, and the grid’s existing physical environment.

The study, led by MIT professors John Kassakian and Richard Schmalensee, focuses on the electric grid’s challenges over the next 20 years, including safeguarding the existing power structure, the rising prices in fossil fuels, and in the potential influx of renewable energy sources. The 268-page report also calls for the designation of a single federal agency to combat cyber attacks. President Barack Obama and his administration have advocated for the Department of Homeland Security to take the lead; other members of Congress would prefer the Department of Energy or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

From The Future of the Electric Grid:

“This lack of a single operational entity with responsibility for grid cyber-security preparedness as well as response and recovery creates a security vulnerability in a highly interconnected electric power system comprising generation, transmission, and distribution.”

The report criticizes the current kilowatt/hour pricing system and concludes that the while the power grid is adequate for meeting today’s power needs, it will have trouble integrating alternative power sources like wind and solar. It also acknowledges that a cyber-attack will eventually succeed, and an investment of about $3.7 billion is needed to adequately secure the grid from attack.

From the report:

“Perfect protection from cyber-attacks is not possible. It is thus important for the involved government agencies, working with the private sector in a coordinated fashion, to support the research necessary to develop best practices for response to and recovery from cyber-attacks on transmission and distribution systems, so that such practices can be widely deployed.”

“The Future of the Electric Grid” is the sixth in the MIT Energy Initiative’s future-focused series, which has also studied natural gas, nuclear fuel, and transportation. For more information, view the report or watch a video discussing the report’s findings.

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New Greek Prime Minister Hails from MIT

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on November 11, 2011

in Alumni Life,Economics,In the News

Greek Prime Minister Luca Papademos

New Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos--photo courtesy Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Yasoo! Greece’s debt troubles are shaking world financial markets—and shifting the career trajectory of MIT alumnus Lucas Papademos ’70, SM ’72, PhD ’78. A former banker and European Central Bank vice president, Papademos was named interim prime minister of Greece on Thursday.

Papademos, who earned his MIT degrees in physics, electrical engineering and computer science, and economics, is taking on the enormous task of forming a new national unity government that will be charged with implementing the controversial European Union bailout package. The new government was due to be sworn in today at noon GMT.

The Guardian reports on his background:

“As he pointed out himself, he is an economist not a politician—having held academic positions at Columbia University, Harvard University and the University of Athens. He also worked for the Boston branch of the Federal Reserve.

“But Papademos’s biggest job within Greece, until now, was to run the Bank of Greece between 1994 and 2002. That stint covered the period in which Greece prepared to join the eurozone (it was admitted at the start of 2001). He had previously served as the bank’s chief economist for nearly a decade.

“Papademos went onto become vice-president of the European Central Bank, from 2002 to 2010. He left that job to become as an advisor to George Papandreou.”

 Learn more about Papademos in a Guardian profile.

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Faculty Forum Online: The Real Solution is Growth, Oct. 26

by Amy Marcott on October 24, 2011

in Economics,Events,Learning

MIT Faculty Forum Online logoUpdate: View a video of the presentation.

In the U.S., recent headlines have focused on such issues as the debt ceiling, the recent credit rating downgrade, and unemployment. But consider this: increasing the average growth rate in the U.S. by one percentage point over the next 20 years would not only result in much higher incomes and more jobs but would also obviate the need for drastic spending cuts today to reign in the government deficit.

With a 2% increase per year, average incomes, and to a first approximation government tax revenues, would be 49% higher in 20 years than they are today; with a 3% increase per year, they would be 81% higher.

The underlying message? We should not take our eye off the really important ball: economic growth and the innovation process that underpins it.

The Faculty Forum Online series continues on Wednesday, Oct. 26, from Noon to 12:30 p.m. EDT. MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu will offer his thoughts on the economy and growth and take questions from the worldwide MIT alumni community via video chat.

Register for this free event to receive the link for live viewing. After the event, come back here and continue the conversation about economic growth in the comments.

MIT economics Professor Daron Acemoglu

MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu.

About Daron Acemoglu

Daron Acemoglu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of York and a master’s and doctorate from the London School of Economics. He began teaching at MIT in 1993, becoming a full professor in 2000. In addition to the books listed below, he’s written numerous journal articles. His fields of interest include political economy, economic development, economic growth, economic theory, technology, income and wage inequality, human capital and training, labor economics, and network economics.

Books

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty (with James A. Robinson), Crown publishers (Random House), forthcoming March 2012.

Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (with James Robinson), Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Princeton University Press, 2009.

Learn more about Daron Acemoglu and read his blog post about economic growth for the Harvard Business Review.

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Make Your (SHASS) Day

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on August 22, 2011

in Arts,Economics

The summer issue of Said and Done, a enewsletter from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, presents these tasty bits:

Watch the performance by Daniel Manesh ’14, piano; Albert Wu ’14, violin; and graduate student Yoni Kahn G, horn.

Watch the performance by Daniel Manesh ’14, piano; Albert Wu ’14, violin; and graduate student Yoni Kahn, horn

Watch a short video of three MIT students and the MIT Chamber Music Society performing the Finale of the Trio for Piano, Violin, and Horn by Johannes Brahms (Trio Op. 40, 1865).

Or, in another performance, hear MIT students and alums of the MIT Chamber Music Society play the first movement of the String Quintet in C major by Franz Schubert.

Read a  Slate magazine interview with Economics Professor Jonathan Gruber, who is shaping health care reform at the national and state level.

Learn about The Deaths of Others, a new book that explores the fate of civilians in America’s wars by  John Tirman, executive director of the MIT Center for International Studies.

Browse in the SHASS bookshelf.

 

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Data Junkies, You’ll Love This

by Amy Marcott on August 12, 2011

in Economics,Engineering

NSF chart of university degrees in natural science and engineering in selected countries.

Click the image to enlarge

The National Science Foundation’s 2010 Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) report is quite possibly the mother lode of data. SEI is a compilation of quantitative stats from a variety of national, international, public, and private sources that show the world’s changing science and technology picture on a variety of fronts: education, labor, R&D, academic research, industry, and more.

Among other things, the data indicate that developing and developed nations alike have firmly built science and technology into various economic, educational, and infrastructure policies to help boost economic viability and future global competitiveness.  Represented here is just a tiny sampling of the myriad stats available.

You can also find out public attitudes and understanding of science and technology, the economics behind U.S. exports and imports of commercial knowledge-intensive services, and the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of workers in science and engineering occupations (below), which had one sophomore blogger for the MIT Admissions Office very excited.

Check out the statistics for yourself. The raw data are also available. Think of all the pie charts and graphs you can make!

NSF slide of doctoral degrees in natural sciences and engineering in selected countries

Click image to enlarge

NSF table of top metropolitan areas for science and technology careers.

The U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of workers in science and engineering occupations. Click image to enlarge.

 

 

 

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Join the Online Debate: Collective Bargaining, March 21

by Amy Marcott on March 18, 2011

in Economics,Learning

MIT Faculty Forum Online logo

Update: Watch the video from  this program on the Alumni Association website.

Are the current efforts by some governors to eliminate or curtail collective bargaining an attack on workers’ rights or fiscal necessity? One of the Institute’s key thinkers and a national expert in this area, Professor Thomas A. Kochan of the MIT Sloan School, will offer his thoughts and take questions from the worldwide MIT alumni community on Monday, March 21, from noon to 12:30 p.m. EDT.

This video chat, the inaugural webcast of Faculty Forum Online, presents a unique opportunity to debate an important issue with an MIT expert. Register for this free event. Once you register, the URL for the webcast will be sent to you for live viewing.

After the event, come back here and continue the conversation in the comments.

Thomas A. Kochan

Thomas Kochan taught at Cornell from 1973 to 1980 before coming to MIT.

Thomas Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, professor in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division, and codirector of both the MIT Workplace Center and the Institute for Work and Employment Research.

In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin and has since served as a third-party mediator, fact finder, and arbitrator and as a consultant to a variety of government and private-sector organizations and labor-management groups—he helped Boston resolve its standoff with the firefighters’ union last year, for example.

He has researched a variety of topics related to industrial relations and human resource management in the public and private sector, and he’s written, cowritten, and edited numerous books and journal articles.

His most recent books include Healing Together (ILR Press, 2009), about Kaiser Permanente’s complex labor-management partnership, and Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families’ Agenda for America (MIT Press, 2005).

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Sloan Experts Blog on Hot Topics

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on March 3, 2011

in Economics,Management

Experts guides are part of a good university’s outreach program but when faculty experts shed light and offer facts on timely topics, that’s really good. The new MIT Sloan Experts Blog is doing just that.

sloan experts blog

Sloan Experts blog

Launched in February, the blog kicked off with Professor Tom Malone’s post on Solving Climate Change with Crowdsourcing, a commentary on the Climate CoLab project that has an online community of people worldwide “already creating, analyzing, and discussing detailed proposals for how to address global climate change.”

Recents posts probe the battle in Wisconsin between the governor and public-service employees. Professor Thomas Kochan offers facts that illuminate the issues including conflicting characterizations of public unions as either 1. the cause of states’ and cities’ financial challenges or 2. a scapegoat demonized by politicians who want to reduce workers’ wages and rights. “The Wisconsin virus: Some facts to control the spread” offers some data.

John Minahan PhD ’88, former pension consultant-turned MIT Sloan lecturer, takes on the intense politicization around whether public pension plans are adequately funded, especially whether current  actuarial rules can resolve that question. Read Debate about public pension plans should include understated funding levels for his take.

Read the MIT Sloan Experts Blog for these and other topics from Greece’s $100-plus billion bailout package last May t0 an overview of MIT Sloan Management Review’s articles about surprising sustainability boosts in a post-recession world.

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Alumni: Check Out Upcoming MIT150 Symposia

by Liv on February 9, 2011

in Economics

You may have heard that in honor of its sesquicentennial, the Institute is hosting a series of symposia on topics ranging from cancer to computation to women in science. The first one, dedicated to economics and finance, happened at the end of January. There are five more coming up; see if one (or more!) interests you.

March 16 Conquering Cancer through the Convergence of Science and Engineering

March 28–29 Leaders in Science and Engineering: The Women of MIT

April 11–12 Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything

April 26–27 Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration

May 3–5 Brains, Minds and Machines

Screen shot from video of "Economics and Finance: From Theory to Practice to Policy"

Also, if you missed the economics and finance symposium at the end of January, you can still watch on-demand video of the sessions at http://mit150.mit.edu/symposia/economics. Check it out if you’re interested in learning more about the uncertain state of the global economy, the recovery, inflation, and the Fed–all from accomplished professors and half a dozen Nobel Laureates. Indeed, we at Slice were so impressed by the event that we taped a couple testimonials for the blog. Take a look below.

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MITers Make List of Top Global Thinkers

by Amy Marcott on January 5, 2011

in Alumni Life,Economics,In the News

Foreign Policy magazine's 2010 Top Global ThinkersForeign Policy magazine named 100 people—including economists, politicians, writers, business leaders, philosophers, entrepreneurs, scholars, activists, and others—as 2010′s Top Global Thinkers. Not surprisingly, numerous members of the MIT community made the list. They are named below, along with their place in the order.

5) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke PhD ’79 was selected “for owning the U.S. economy, no matter what it takes.”

25) Elder statesman George Shultz PhD ’49 was chosen with three others “for showing that if wise men can give up on nukes, so can the rest of us.”

26) Economists and professors (at Princeton and University of Chicago respectively) Paul Krugman PhD ’77 and Raghuram Rajan PhD ’91 were selected “for their spirited debate over the roots of the global financial meltdown.” View an interview of Rajan with Reuters.

30) Economist and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz PhD ’66 was selected “for his full-throated defense of fiscal stimulus.” View an interview of Stiglitz with Reuters.

38) Economist and MIT Professor Esther Duflo PhD ’99 was chosen “for putting hard numbers to a bleeding-heart pursuit.”

48) Economist and Yale Professor Robert Shiller SM ’68, PhD ’72 was chosen “for bringing economics (and economists) down to earth.” View an interview of Shiller with Reuters.

58) Founding member of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and former MIT Economics Associate Professor Sendhil Mullainathan was selected “for bringing behavioral economics out of the ivory tower.”

73) Economist and Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff PhD ’80 was chosen “for seeing the financial future in the past.”

76) Consultant Richard Clarke SM ’79 was selected “for scary prescience about the great threat of our time—again.”

88) Economist and MIT Professor Daron Acemoglu was chosen “for showing that freedom is about more than markets.”

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Billion Prices Project: Introducing Real-Time Economics

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on November 29, 2010

in Economics,In the News,Research

Billion Price Project tracks daily economics changes.

Billion Price Project tracks daily economics changes.

The Billion Prices Project (BPP), an initiative started by a pair of alumni Sloan professors, collects prices from hundreds of online retailers around the world on a daily basis. The result is an Internet-based resource that measures price changes from around the world and gives real-time inflation estimates.

Currently BPP monitors daily price fluctuations of ~5 million items sold by ~300 online retailers in more than 70 countries. That’s a lot of numbers—and crunching them is producing results. Consult the Inflation Map, for example, to drill down to a country of interest for its daily price index and inflation rate for each of the past 365 days.

The co-founders, Alberto Cavallo MBA ’05 and Roberto Rigobon PhD ’97, are both members of Sloan’s Applied Economics Group, with expertise in Latin American economics. They are also using the data to investigate price-stickiness, price adjustments to shocks, the relationship between asset and retail prices, sales strategies, and premiums paid for green or organic products around the world.

Index Universe says the project provides pricing data at much greater speed than conventional inflation indices, but also in greater detail across countries.

The article notes that this type of data also is helpful in countries where the official inflation statistics are unreliable: “MIT has been publishing alternative inflation estimates for Argentina since 2008, for example, and its index has become a widely used measure of inflation there. MIT estimates that annual inflation in Argentina is over 20 percent, compared to the government’s official figure of around 11 percent.”

Read a  News@MITSloan article for background on the project.

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