Big drop in international students coming to US (particularly from India)

 The Chronicle of Higher Ed has the story:

The Drop in International Students Last Year Was Worse Than We Thought  By Karin Fischer 

  

 

 

Work from home increases fertility

 Here's a recent paper showing that work from home (WFH) increases fertility, expecially if both couples work from home.  The proposed mechanism is that WFH offers increased flexiblilty for child care...

 Work from Home and Fertility  by Cevat Giray Aksoy, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Katelyn Cranney, Steven J. Davis, Mathias Dolls, and Pablo Zarate,  January 29, 2026
 

Abstract: We investigate how fertility relates to work from home (WFH) in the post-pandemic era, drawing on original data from our Global Survey of Working Arrangements and U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes. Realized fertility from 2023 to early 2025 and future planned fertility are higher among adults who WFH at least one day a week and, for couples, higher yet when both partners do so. Estimated lifetime fertility is greater by 0.32 children per woman when both partners WFH one or more days per week as compared to the case where neither does. The implications for national fertility rates differ across countries due mainly to large differences in WFH rates. In a complementary analysis using other U.S. data, one-year fertility rates in the 2023-2025 period rise with WFH opportunities in one’s own occupation and, for couples, in the partner’s occupation. 

 "Flexibility in when, where, and how to work – or the absence of such flexibility – is a potentially important factor in fertility decisions (Goldin, 2014, 2021). Jobs that allow work from home (WFH) typically offer more flexibility in these respects, making it easier for parents to combine child rearing with employment, and perhaps raising fertility. In this light, we investigate how realized and planned fertility relate to the WFH status of individuals and couples."

############

 The FT has this on that: 

Could working from home solve the global fertility crisis?
New research shows allowing more flexibility to fit jobs around family could enable people to have more children   by Ashley Armstrong

 ############ 

One can imagine that having both members of a couple work from home might raise fertility even more directly than through the prospect of increased flexibility for child care.   In that respect, WFH reminds me of Philip Larkin’s 1974 poem Annus Mirabilis:

“Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.”

 

Medical training becomes less desirable in abortion-restricting states

 Here's a new study of applications to medical residency programs, suggesting that medical training has become less desirable in states with abortion restrictions, especially in abortion-related specialties, including obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine.

Ganguly AP, Basu A, Morenz AM. State-Level Disparities in Residency Applications After Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(3):e260286. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.0286 

 "In this cross-sectional study with an ITS analysis of 24 193 864 applications to 4315 residency programs for 5 years across all medical specialties, we observed a statistically significant disparity in applications from both women and men in states with abortion restrictions following the Dobbs decision in 2022 compared with states that did not enact restrictions. Despite overall increases in the number of residency applications during the study period, existing disparities between application volume to programs in abortion-restricted and nonrestricted states widened for women applying to residency, and new disparities emerged for men applying to residency post-Dobbs. Stratified analyses suggested that specialty type may influence differences, as effect sizes were increased among abortion-related specialties and decreased among the most competitive specialties.

"These findings affirm and expand on recent studies demonstrating decreased OBGYN residency applications and applicant interest in abortion-restricted states following the Dobbs decision.19 Additional studies have reported challenges faced by OBGYN programs in abortion-restricted states, including nonadherence to accreditation standards requiring abortion training, financial constraints for medical training, and burnout among residents and program leadership."

 

 

A philosopher interviews economists about rational choice

A hardcover copy of this book of interviews (of economists, by a philosopher) arrived in my mail the other day, and I'm enjoying it. It's also freely available online at the links below. (Here is my interview (pp 371-395).

Conversations on Rational Choice, a series of interviews conducted by Catherine Herfeld DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316344392   Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2025

 

 Contents:

Acknowledgments

1Introduction

2Pioneers of Rational Choice

1. 2.1Kenneth Arrow

2. 2.2Thomas Schelling

3. 2.3Martin Shubik

4. 2.4Gary Becker

3Formal Theories of Rational Choice

1. 3.1David Kreps

2. 3.2Itzhak Gilboa

3. 3.3Christian List

4Psychological Dimensions of Rational Choice

1. 4.1Robin Hogarth

2. 4.2Daniel Kahneman

3. 4.3Ernst Fehr

4. 4.4Gerd Gigerenzer

5Relating Neurons, Norms, and Networks to Rational Choice

1. 5.1Colin Camerer

2. 5.2Cristina Bicchieri

3. 5.3Rachel Kranton

6Rational Choice, Games, and Markets

1. 6.1Robert Aumann

2. 6.2Alvin Roth

3. 6.3Vernon Smith

7Critical Reflections on Rational Choice

1. 7.1Duncan Foley

2. 7.2Robert Sugden

3. 7.3Alexander Rosenberg

8Rational Choice in Philosophy

1. 8.1Isaac Levi

2. 8.2Patrick Suppes

3. 8.3Laurie A. Paul

9Epilogue

References

Index

 

Nick Bloom discusses work from home

 Econ To Go is a Stanford series in which Neale Mahoney, the director of SIEPR, interviews an economist.

In this one he interviews the inimitable Nick Bloom, who is perhaps the leading scholar of the growing pattern of work from home. 

 

x 

 

Summer school in Economic Theory in Jerusalem (28 June- 7 July 2026)

 The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is once again planning its long-running summer school in Economic Theory (which was skipped last year, amidst war with Iran...)

The 35th Advanced School in Economic Theory - Recent Developments in Economic Theory
Sun, 28/06/2026 to Tue, 07/07/2026
 
General Director: Eric Maskin, Harvard University

Director: Elchanan Ben- Porath, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 Speakers

Itai Ashlagi, Stanford University

Elchanan Ben- Porath, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ben Brooks, The University of Chicago

Marina Halac, Yale University

Eric Maskin, Harvard University

Abraham Neyman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Bruno Strulovici, Northwestern University

Omer Tamuz, Caltech

Alexander Wolitzky, MIT

"This year’s School features some of the most exciting recent results in economic theory presented by the researchers who discovered them "

Claudia Goldin to Receive Talcott Parsons Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

 Here's the announcement from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences*:

Claudia Goldin to Receive Talcott Parsons Prize 

“To truly understand the American economy, one must recognize Claudia Goldin’s essential work,” said Laurie L. Patton, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “We commend her fearlessness, leadership, and commitment to understanding what is lost and what is gained for everyone when opportunities for women contract or expand. Her dedication to communicating that knowledge widely is equally courageous.”

“It is a great honor to receive an award named for Talcott Parsons that has been given to leading figures in linguistics, history, psychology, and sociology,” said Goldin. “I am immensely gratified that my work in economic history is seen as a bridge between economics and the other social sciences.” 

#########

I learned of this award from an email with the subject line "Announcing an Academy Award," which for a moment made me think that Claudia had been honored by the Academy Awards, and would receive an Oscar.

An anti-facist open letter from 23 retired Harvard Business School professors

Anti-fascism should have broad support across the American political spectrum.  Elections need to be defended.  Here's an open letter from retired professors at HBS (where I'm emeritus) in which we call for business leaders to address that need. This version is in the Harvard Crimson:

We’re 23 HBS Professors. This Is the Cost of Silence. 

"As the 2026 elections approach, we are witnessing many efforts to subvert American democracy by undermining one of its critical foundations: fair and free elections.

This is a matter of both voter access to the political process and the integrity of the process itself.

Business leaders — known for their capable company leadership and not their political party membership — are uniquely positioned and clearly needed to address this imminent threat in a strong and nonpartisan fashion.

It is vital to recognize the escalating threats to American democratic processes. On January 28, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents executed a search warrant at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, for ballots from the 2020 presidential election. On January 24, the U.S. attorney general made unprecedented demands in a letter to the Minnesota governor for information on voters in that state. For the past several months, the federal government has been collecting the largest database of voter information ever gathered by the Department of Justice — information that could be used to fraudulently impact election results. Deployment of armed federal immigration officers in American cities is discouraging citizens of various ethnicities — many of whom have already been detained — from venturing to schools, stores, and workplaces. It’s doubtful they will venture to the polls on election day.

We are retired Harvard Business School professors who have devoted our lives to business education. We ask that the leaders of the business world in the United States — some of whom it has been our privilege to teach — speak out now, act now, in defense of democracy.

“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.” These words, spoken by Franklin D. Roosevelt ’04 at his first inauguration, perfectly describe our situation today.

We understand the reluctance to speak out. Nobody wants to be a target in the toxic environment surrounding us. We understand that business leaders have a responsibility to their shareholders, employees, and customers, who may not agree with the politics of the CEOs.

But we are not asking for a statement about politics. We are asking for a statement about the most basic feature of democratic government — namely, the right to vote in electing public officials and adopting or rejecting proposed legislation.

Ensuring that our government meets this test is not a partisan issue. Business leaders can do much to help the nation that has done so much to enable them to have fulfilling careers leading successful companies. They can speak out, individually or collectively, for the proposition that access to the polls is a right that must be protected by the rule of law. Business leaders did speak, collectively, about the importance of election integrity in 2020. We need to hear these voices again.

They can allow their employees paid leave not only to vote but also to safeguard the polls, if they choose, against any intimidation from the left or the right. Some companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, and Walmart, are already supporting such efforts.

Our country will be a shadow of itself if our democracy fails — economically, socially, and in global standing.

“If destruction be our lot,” Abraham Lincoln said, “we must ourselves be its author.” Business leaders must act to prevent our country from being the author of its own destruction.

The world witnessed what happened when Germany turned its back on democracy on January 30, 1933. History does indeed have lessons to teach. We must strive to see that what happened there, then, does not happen here, now.

Some business executives may feel that any action or statement conflicts with their role as CEO. We understand that reticence. But we respectfully disagree.

A well-functioning democracy and, with it, the rule of law are essential for the functioning of a free enterprise economy.

We urge business leaders to recognize that there is no conflict between their responsibilities as CEO and their responsibilities as citizens. The cost of silence is incalculable.

This is the moment for leaders to lead. If not now, when?

Teresa M. Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. Richard S. Tedlow is the Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School.

Teresa M. Amabile, James E. Austin, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Christopher A. Bartlett, Michael Beer, Stephen P. Bradley, John A. Deighton, Allen S. Grossman, Paul M. Healy, James L. Heskett, Dorothy A. Leonard, Paul W. Marshall, F. Warren McFarlan, John W. Pratt, Alvin E. Roth, Malcolm S. Salter, Benson P. Shapiro, Howard H. Stevenson, Richard S. Tedlow, Richard H.K. Vietor, Lou T. Wells, Michael A. Wheeler, and Gerald Zaltman are retired professors at Harvard Business School. They sign as individuals, not as representatives of Harvard Business School, Harvard University, or all retired professors at HBS."

Ed Peskowitz (1944-2026)

 After an eventful life, with major accomplishments in business and philanthropy, Ed Peskowitz succumbed to kidney failure this week.  I met him only after he had turned to philanthropy, and after he had received a kidney transplant.

Here's his obit in the Washington Jewish Week: 

Edwin Peskowitz 

"Ed was an extremely generous man who touched the lives of many. Over the course of his life, he and his wife supported local educational initiatives, such as the I Have a Dream Foundation and the SEED Public Charter School. Ed was passionate about promoting Middle Eastern peace and supported numerous causes in the region aimed at building understanding between various cultures and religions and he created the Friendship Games to encourage this among young athletes. He was a supporter of the Anti-Defamation League, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the University of Maryland.

Ed suffered from renal disease and was given the gift of life by an altruistic kidney donation in 2019. Ed devoted the last years of his life to creating and supporting philanthropic efforts, such as the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation, Kidney Transplant Collaborative and Kidneys for Communities, to encourage living kidney donation and improve matches between potential donors and recipients." 

 

Privacy vs. security: doorbell cameras (and Ring's Superbowl ad)

There's a tension between privacy (some of it constitutionally protected)  and security, involving everything from street crime to terrorism, and citizen observers of government agents and others.  Cameras make a difference (even before facial recognition software), and the debate on how to reach a balance that yields appropriate safety in both dimensions is likely to continue.

 The NYT has the story, motivated by the Ring doorbell Superbowl ad:

Ring’s Founder Knows You Hated That Super Bowl Ad
Since the commercial aired, Jamie Siminoff has been trying to quell an outcry over privacy concerns with his doorbell cameras.    By Jordyn Holman

"The commercial showed a new Ring feature called Search Party, which uses artificial intelligence and images from its cameras to trace a lost pet’s wanderings across a neighborhood. Critics said the feature felt dystopian, showing the potential for far-reaching invasive surveillance. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a critic of corporate data collection, called out “the serious privacy and civil liberties risks” in Ring’s technology. 

...

"The ad landed at a tense media moment involving home surveillance. In the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of the TV news anchor Savannah Guthrie, law enforcement agencies were able to recover footage from her Google Nest doorbell, despite reports that she did not have a subscription to the device.

But Ring, which is owned by Amazon, is so ubiquitous that is has become a generic term for any doorbell camera, and users raised questions about how much Ring was monitoring them.

Mr. Siminoff took pains in his media appearances to clarify Ring’s privacy policies. He said his company does not store users’ footage if they don’t have a subscription with Ring.

...

"Mr. Siminoff defended his technology, saying that protecting privacy and providing useful tools for helping people are both possible. He said that he understood people’s concerns, and that maybe people were “triggered” by an image in the ad that showed blue rings radiating out from suburban homes. " 

Kidney exchange in India (one minute video)

In India, which already does the third most kidney transplants in the world (after the US and China), physicians and surgeons are making great progress on kidney exchange.

  Some of this progress is with the help of the Alliance for Paired Kidney Exchange (APKD), supported by a grant from Stanford Impact Labs (SIL)

 Here's a short video about that collaboration, narrated by Mike Rees, the founder and guiding light of the APKD.

 The picture below was taken just after Mike Rees (on the left) and I observed a robotic kidney transplant surgery performed by  Dr. Pranjal Modi (on the right), in Ahmedabad 

 

  

#########

Earlier:

Thursday, January 22, 2026  Kidney exchange in Brazil (a clinical trial)

 

50th Anniversary of Mathematics of Operations Research (and 50 papers, one for each year)

 MOR is a journal that published its first issue only two years after I finished my Ph.D., and Bob Aumann was the first editor of its Game Theory section. The 50 papers selected to mark its 50th anniversary, one for each year, are something of a history of operations research since 1976.

 The 1981 paper is Roger Myerson's famous paper on auctions.

I submitted my 1982 paper to MOR only after it was rejected by Chicago's Journal of Political Economy, with a letter from the editor, George Stigler, saying that the only economics in the paper was in the title. (He meant that market clearing in the model wasn't achieved by price adjustment.)  Matching markets have become a significant part of economics since then...

Editor’s Comments on the 50th Anniversary of Mathematics of Operations Research
Katya Scheinberg
Published Online:28 Jan 2026https://doi.org/10.1287/moor.2026.50th.v51.n1
 

"As we proudly celebrate the 50th anniversary of the journal Mathematics of Operations Research (MOR), we look back at its history and how it reflects the evolution of the field itself.

"The senior editors have prepared a list of 50 papers—one for each year—to represent this history. These papers are but a very small selection from an outstanding collection of contributions published by the journal over the past five decades. "

Augmented Lagrangians and Applications of the Proximal Point Algorithm in Convex Programming

RT Rockafellar

Mathematics of Operations Research 1976 1(2):97–116

New Finite Pivoting Rules for the Simplex Method

RG Bland

Mathematics of Operations Research 1977 2(2):103–107

Best Algorithms for Approximating the Maximum of a Submodular Set Function

GL Nemhauser, LA Wolsey

Mathematics of Operations Research 1978 3(3):177–188

Mathematical Properties of the Banzhaf Power Index

P Dubey, LS Shapley

Mathematics of Operations Research 1979 4(2):99–131

Some Useful Functions for Functional Limit Theorems

W Whitt

Mathematics of Operations Research 1980 5(1):67–85

Optimal Auction Design

RB Myerson

Mathematics of Operations Research 1981 6(1):58–73

The Economics of Matching: Stability and Incentives

AE Roth

Mathematics of Operations Research 1982 7(4):617–628

Integer Programming with a Fixed Number of Variables

HW Lenstra Jr

Mathematics of Operations Research 1983 8(4):538–548

Lipschitz Behavior of Solutions to Convex Minimization Problems

J-P Aubin

Mathematics of Operations Research 1984 9(1):87–111

Distributional Strategies for Games with Incomplete Information

PR Milgrom, RJ Weber

Mathematics of Operations Research 1985 10(4):619–632

Clique Tree Inequalities and the Symmetric Travelling Salesman Problem

M Grötschel, WR Pulleyblank

Mathematics of Operations Research 1986 11(4):537–569

Minkowski’s Convex Body Theorem and Integer Programming

R Kannan

Mathematics of Operations Research 1987 12(3):415–440

Cooling Schedules for Optimal Annealing

B Hajek

Mathematics of Operations Research 1988 13(2):311–329

Markov Chains with Rare Transitions and Simulated Annealing

JN Tsitsiklis

Mathematics of Operations Research 1989 14(1):70–90

Newton’s Method for B-Differentiable Equations

J-S Pang

Mathematics of Operations Research 1990 15(2):311–341

Scenarios and Policy Aggregation in Optimization Under Uncertainty

RT Rockafellar, RJ-B Wets

Mathematics of Operations Research 1991 16(1):119–147

The Generalized Basis Reduction Algorithm

L Lovász, HE Scarf

Mathematics of Operations Research 1992 17(3):751–764

On Adaptive-Step Primal-Dual Interior-Point Algorithms for Linear Programming

S Mizuno, MJ Todd, Y Ye

Mathematics of Operations Research 1993 18(4):964–981

A Polynomial Time Algorithm for Counting Integral Points in Polyhedra When the Dimension Is Fixed

AI Barvinok

Mathematics of Operations Research 1994 19(4):769–779

Fast Approximation Algorithms for Fractional Packing and Covering Problems

SA Plotkin, DB Shmoys, É Tardos

Mathematics of Operations Research 1995 20(2):257–301

Rounding of Polytopes in the Real Number Model of Computation

LG Khachiyan

Mathematics of Operations Research 1996 21(2):307–320

Self-Scaled Barriers and Interior-Point Methods for Convex Programming

YE Nesterov, MJ Todd

Mathematics of Operations Research 1997 22(1):1–42

Robust Convex Optimization

A Ben-Tal, A Nemirovski

Mathematics of Operations Research 1998 23(4):769–805

The Flatness Theorem for Nonsymmetric Convex Bodies via the Local Theory of Banach Spaces

W Banaszczyk, AE Litvak, A Pajor, SJ Szarek

Mathematics of Operations Research 1999 24(3):728–750

Mathematical Programs with Complementarity Constraints: Stationarity, Optimality, and Sensitivity

H Scheel, S Scholtes

Mathematics of Operations Research 2000 25(1):1–22

A Weak-to-Strong Convergence Principle for Fejér-Monotone Methods in Hilbert Spaces

HH Bauschke, PL Combettes

Mathematics of Operations Research 2001 26(2):248–264

The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processes

DS Bernstein, R Givan, N Immerman, S Zilberstein

Mathematics of Operations Research 2002 27(4):819–840

A Comparison of the Sherali-Adams, Lovász-Schrijver, and Lasserre Relaxations for 0–1 Programming

M Laurent

Mathematics of Operations Research 2003 28(3):470–496

Selfish Routing in Capacitated Networks

JR Correa, AS Schulz, NE Stier-Moses

Mathematics of Operations Research 2004 29(4):961–976

Robust Dynamic Programming

GN Iyengar

Mathematics of Operations Research 2005 30(2):257–280

Integer Polynomial Optimization in Fixed Dimension

JA De Loera, R Hemmecke, M Köppe, R Weismantel

Mathematics of Operations Research 2006 31(1):147–153

Subsolutions of an Isaacs Equation and Efficient Schemes for Importance Sampling

P Dupuis, H Wang

Mathematics of Operations Research 2007 32(3):723–757

Facets of Two-Dimensional Infinite Group Problems

SS Dey, J-P Richard

Mathematics of Operations Research 2008 33(1):140–166

Minimal Valid Inequalities for Integer Constraints

V Borozan, G Cornuéjols

Mathematics of Operations Research 2009 34(3):538–546

Proximal Alternating Minimization and Projection Methods for Nonconvex Problems: An Approach Based on the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz Inequality

H Attouch, J Bolte, P Redont, A Soubeyran

Mathematics of Operations Research 2010 35(2):438–457

The Simplex and Policy-Iteration Methods Are Strongly Polynomial for the Markov Decision Problem with a Fixed Discount Rate

Y Ye

Mathematics of Operations Research 2011 36(4):593–603

Online Stochastic Matching: Online Actions Based on Offline Statistics

VH Manshadi, S Oveis Gharan, A Saberi

Mathematics of Operations Research 2012 37(4):559–573

Robust Markov Decision Processes

W Wiesemann, D Kuhn, B Rustem

Mathematics of Operations Research 2013 38(1):153–183

Learning to Optimize via Posterior Sampling

D Russo, B Van Roy

Mathematics of Operations Research 2014 39(4):1221–1243

On the Convergence of Decomposition Methods for Multistage Stochastic Convex Programs

P Girardeau, V Leclere, AB Philpott

Mathematics of Operations Research 2015 40(1):130–145

Learning in Games via Reinforcement and Regularization

P Mertikopoulos, WH Sandholm

Mathematics of Operations Research 2016 41(4):1297–1324

A Descent Lemma Beyond Lipschitz Gradient Continuity: First-Order Methods Revisited and Applications

HH Bauschke, J Bolte, M Teboulle

Mathematics of Operations Research 2017 42(2):330–348

Error Bounds, Quadratic Growth, and Linear Convergence of Proximal Methods

D Drusvyatskiy, AS Lewis

Mathematics of Operations Research 2018 43(3):919–948

Quantifying Distributional Model Risk via Optimal Transport

J Blanchet, K Murthy

Mathematics of Operations Research 2019 44(2):565–600

Characterization, Robustness, and Aggregation of Signed Choquet Integrals

RD Wang, YR Wei, GE Willmot

Mathematics of Operations Research 2020 45(3):993–1015

Statistics of Robust Optimization: A Generalized Empirical Likelihood Approach

JC Duchi, PW Glynn, H Namkoong

Mathematics of Operations Research 2021 46(3):946–969

Entropy Regularization for Mean Field Games with Learning

X Guo, R Xu, T Zariphopoulou

Mathematics of Operations Research 2022 47(4):3239–3260

Distributionally Robust Stochastic Optimization with Wasserstein Distance

R Gao, A Kleywegt

Mathematics of Operations Research 2023 48(2):603–655

A Stochastic Sequential Quadratic Optimization Algorithm for Nonlinear-Equality-Constrained Optimization with Rank-Deficient Jacobians

AS Berahas, FE Curtis, MJ O’Neill, DP Robinson

Mathematics of Operations Research 2024 49(4):2212–2248

Stationary Points of a Shallow Neural Network with Quadratic Activations and the Global Optimality of the Gradient Descent Algorithm

D Gamarnik, EC Kizildag, I Zadik

Mathematics of Operations Research 2025 50(1):209–251

 

HT Itai Ashlagi