“It’s going to allow all of us to sit in the same space,” Pallais said. “It will allow for more impromptu conversations. It’ll be easier to stop by somebody’s office with a question or to talk about what we’re working on.”
That kind of collaboration will be critical for econometrician Isaiah Andrews, who develops statistical tools that help other economists overcome obstacles in their research.
“A lot of my work is focused around thinking about whether a lot of the methods we’re currently using in the field are reliable, what the shortcomings of those methods are, and how we can improve them,” said Andrews, recent winner of the prestigious Clark Medal, awarded annually to an American economist under the age of 40. “Because my work is largely motivated by challenges that folks doing research in empirical economics are running into, talking with my colleagues and having a sense of what folks are working on and what challenges they are running into — that is a very important input.”
Andrews pointed out that with the field’s shift to big data comes the need for bigger teams — and, as a result, spaces designed for this new era of research.
One researcher who came to Andrews’ mind is frequent collaborator Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics and the director of Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based institute of social scientists and economic policy analysts that harnesses big data for policy solutions.
Chetty, 2013 Clark Medal winner, looks at massive economic, geographic, and demographic datasets to try to figure out how such variables as race, education, and income affect lives and futures of individuals in neighborhoods across the country. In the new building, Chetty’s team will for the first time be brought together in the same place with their department collaborators and with other large labs like the Social Economics Lab, which conducts large-scale online surveys to understand how views on economic and social policies emerge.
Along with excitement over how the gift will help them continue their innovative work, faculty like Chetty, Pallais, and Andrews say they expect it will foster a more inclusive and diverse community of economists.
“Often the best solutions come from places that we haven’t looked before,” Chetty said. “I think that naturally leads to diversity. It leads us all to do genuinely better work because you get exposed to ideas that are going to be really helpful in tackling these various social problems. I think this building can really be the place at which this happens.”
Chetty says Harvard has often been at the vanguard of leading shifts in the field. A drive toward more inclusivity should be no different, especially as the field continues branching out to take on increasingly dire and complex societal issues like the persistence of income inequality and public health emergencies like COVID-19.
Economics faculty discuss changes gift will bring to department - Harvard Gazette
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