Research shows responsive caregiving enhances children’s brain development, with parental knowledge predicting positive behaviors and outcomes. However, knowledge varies widely across educational levels, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. Despite evidence that this knowledge can be improved, no comprehensive metric exists for efficient assessment. We introduce SPEAK (Survey of Parent/Provider Expectations and Knowledge), a computer-adaptive Read more...

Generative Artificial Intelligence tools have been adopted faster than any other technology on record, giving rise to writing that is either assisted or entirely completed by Large Language Models (LLMs). The ubiquity of AI-generated writing across domains such as school assignments and consumer reviews presents a new challenge to stakeholders aiming to detect whether content Read more...

In recent years, researchers and the business media have focused attention on superstar firms, or that small set of top companies that account for a large share of output. However, though we understand a good deal about the current make-up of these firms, questions persist about how these firms are born, and whether/how these firms Read more...

Nobel laureate James Heckman explains why ages zero to five are critical for brain development and lifelong outcomes. He discusses the Perry Preschool Program’s surprising health benefits 35 years later, why low-cost home-visiting programs that engage parents outperform expensive institutional interventions, and how “dynamic complementarity” means early skills beget later skills. Heckman also critiques economics’ Read more...

A rich literature within economics focuses on , or, the relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and their children’s outcomes later in life. While much research focuses on how parents’ average income shapes that of their child, research also suggests that timing matters across childhood. Moreover, joint consideration of family income and family structure is less Read more...

Chicago, IL

Linktree. Make your link do more.

By Carl Coates September 29, 2025 — George J. Stigler’s article The Case, If Any, For Economic Literacy turned 55 this past spring. His assertions are nowhere close to retirement. In fact they remain vibrant and all too relevant for today’s economic educators. George Stigler, the 1982 Nobel Prize winner and University of...

Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL

Season 15, Episode 1 - Freakonomics

Americans’ trust in the banking sector has collapsed this century, with the percentage of US adults with high confidence in banks tumbling from 53% in 2004 to 10% in 2023, following the and the . Furt...

For teachers, the desire to adopt educational apps in their classrooms to improve student learning is challenged by the increasing number of available apps and by the difficulty of judging their effec...