Analytic methods

Publication

Fear, trust and other human factors are vital yet overlooked piece of solar geoengineering research

Jul 1, 2025

Human perceptions hold the key to the future of solar geoengineering and other approaches to cool our warming planet.A new study from the University of Michigan urges the scientific community to move beyond solely focusing on the physical aspects of...

News

New Wolfers segment on MSNBC: The Professor Is In!

May 23, 2025

Ford School economics professor Justin Wolfers is one of the most prolific “public” scholars at the school. His analyses about current economic events regularly appear on the pages of The New York Times (among others), on the screens at Bloomberg...

News

"We can do better than this" – Weiland Kohn lecture on closing early education gaps

Apr 20, 2025

Christina Weiland, co-director of the Education Policy Initiative and professor at the Ford School, delivered her inaugural lecture as the Karl and Martha Kohn Professor of Social Policy. Weiland, who is also a professor at the Marsal Family School...

In the Media

Moynihan says "anti-DOGE" efforts boosted efficiency in Pennsylvania

Mar 27, 2025 Route 50

States have varying approaches to boosting government efficiency. Route 50 turned to the Ford School's Don Moynihan to analyze Pennsylvania's method of increasing efficiency after they recognized their state's processing systems fell behind other...

News

Wolfers counters Musk's claims about Social Security beneficiaries

Feb 21, 2025

Elon Musk shared on social platform X, that almost 20 million people over age 100, with no death record, were receiving Social Security benefits. The Ford School's Justin Wolfers quickly jumped in to assert the falsehood in Musk's claims.Responding...

In the Media

Green describes practical problems with algorithm oversight

Feb 4, 2025 Financial Times

Ben Green, professor at the Ford School, explains why human oversight of algorithms, such as the one that runs Google's Gmail spam protection, does not always work. He cites how "the human overseers are on a tight schedule — they have many cases to...

News

Owen-Smith: Here’s how the US can prepare for AI impacts on labor markets

Dec 30, 2024

In an article co-authored with Brent Orrell and Suzette Kent, Ford School professor Jason Owen-Smith writes for FedScoop about the possible impacts AI and other technologies will have on US labor markets. Owen-Smith compared new technologies like AI...

News

Cohodes' research "helped define" education in 2024

Dec 22, 2024

Research conducted by the Ford School's Sarah Cohodes has been cited for "defining education in 2024." The 74 network, a non-profit education news service, highlighted Cohodes' research among 11 other studies as some of the "biggest discoveries from...

In the Media

Jacob discusses new research and the shift in the "Grammar of Schooling"

Sep 4, 2024 American Enterprise Institute

Brian Jacob, Ford School professor discussed his recent papers "Did COVID-19 Shift the “Grammar of Schooling”?" and "The Lasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic" coauthored with Cristina Stanojevich about how schools have been transformed since the...

News

Identifying and Reducing Burdens in Administrative Processes - Herd and Moyhihan

Jul 2, 2024

Ford School professors Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan coauthored an article with Amy Widman for The Regulatory Review on why people are often unable to access what they are entitled to from the government and how to solve this problem. "Tens of...

Headshots of Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan

State & Hill

Holly Donnelly: Public servants advancing the public good

Apr 24, 2024

Holly Donnelly on harnessing the power of big data: I often joke about my work being taxing but that it keeps my interest (haha!). Specifically, I think about how we can harness the power of big data to collect taxes more efficiently....

News

Transformative upgrades to Michigan's longitudinal data system

Apr 11, 2024

A new $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will improve Michigan’s statewide longitudinal data system, the go-to source for critical education data going to researchers and other stakeholders in Michigan and nationwide. The grant...

Illustration of a bubble test sheet with bubbles filled in and lines connecting them like a circuitboard

Publication

New study ties exposure to armed conflict violence in childhood with subsequent alcohol use disorder

Sep 27, 2023

Exposure to nearby violence has been shown to increase the onset of alcohol use disorders (AUD), especially in young people. In new research, William Axinn, Ford School professor and research professor at the Survey Research Center and Population...

News

Weiser Diplomacy Center continues its practical approach to international affairs

Sep 27, 2023

Four current and former army officers stood before a set of maps on a screen in the Betty Ford auditorium, giving background on the on-going diplomatic standoff in Cyprus. The audience consisted of 24 undergraduate and graduate students from the...

News

Simulation software ViewPoint ready for next chapter after licensing agreement with ed tech firm Summit Venture Studio

Sep 13, 2023

In partnership with CAI, Ford School professor Liz Gerber was able to take an idea scribbled on a napkin and turn it into a powerful simulation tool for teachers and students. Following more than 100 simulations involving more than 4,000 users...

News

Swonk’s gift supports underrepresented PhD students in economics

Sep 5, 2023

With a generous commitment from U-M alumna and influential macro-economist Diane Swonk (BA ‘84, MAE ‘85), the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy has established the Diane Swonk Research Fellowship Fund to support doctoral students in the...

Selfie of Justin Wolfers (left) and Diane Swonk (right)

Publication

Mapping poverty in America: Shaefer’s new book explores “The Injustice of Place”

Aug 3, 2023

America is rife with "internal colonies," where systemic violence, resource extraction, and corruption among decision makers have contributed to generations of poverty and disadvantage. These communities suffer from environmental degradation, lack...

News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

Aug 2, 2023

What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society? How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe? These were...

Group of PPIA students posing in front of Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy courtyard

News

Report outlines direct economic impact of sponsored research

Jul 19, 2023

Grants awarded to University of Michigan faculty members were used, in part, to purchase $400 million worth of research-related goods and services last year from companies nationwide, accelerating innovative projects and supporting employment across...

News

Next steps for U-M’s Inclusive History Project

Jul 12, 2023

Six foundational values and commitments — independence, collaboration, broad engagement, community relationships, inclusion of all three University of Michigan campuses and Michigan Medicine and material change — will guide the future work of the...

News

Engaged Learning Student Projects Catalog: Preparing Ford School students for leadership

Jun 29, 2023

During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...

Weill Hall entrance with "Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy" etched into the glass

News

Ford School welcomes PPIA 2023 cohort

Jun 19, 2023

The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...

Publication

Yang conceives new framework for examining migration policies

May 23, 2023

How can individual researchers, NGOs and governments accurately assess how to improve migration policies, given the fraught international and sometimes nationalist political environment? While migration from a poorer to a richer country can have the...

News

Racial justice practitioners help policy students apply new skills

May 5, 2023

How do policy professionals apply racial justice in practice? This semester, the Ford School’s Center of Racial Justice hosted a series of workshops to explore different dimensions of justice, from antiracism and global development to community...

News

Hausman's clean energy investment proposal

Apr 27, 2023

The Ford School's Catie Hausman has established principles for a transition of policy focus to clean energy research and development (R&D). In an essay for The Brookings Institution Hausman outlines her thoughts on clean energy R&D policy,...

News

Ford School named #4 public affairs program in the U.S. and #2 in key specialty areas

Apr 25, 2023

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is recognized again as one of America’s top graduate programs in public affairs, ranked 4th in the U.S. according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. The Ford...

Publication

Learning from lottery-based evaluations of early education programs

Apr 19, 2023

The value of Pre-K education has been widely acknowledged through decades of research. However, much of that research has come from studying older and often smaller programs than those currently being implemented across the country. To determine how...

Kindergarten teacher with students at a table

Publication

Ethical implications of defense funding in social science

Mar 22, 2023

Since World War I, defense funding has been a driver of social science’s growth. The dense ties between social science and defense agencies benefitted social research but also attracted decades of heavy criticism. This long and entangled history has...

News

Poverty Solutions marks impact of action-based research in 2022

Mar 15, 2023

From informing how the U.S. Census estimates populations to reimagining land contracts as a path to homeownership and inspiring state legislation that would aid homeless youths, Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan continued to tackle the...

Publication

Yang’s remittances study has implications for survey design and empirical analyses

Feb 1, 2023

Researchers working with measuring remittance data often run into one big problem — misreporting. To provide better guidance for their own and their colleagues’ work, Dean Yang, professor of public policy and economics, and co-authors Giuseppe De...