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The White House lawn on a sunny day.
Feature: Is DOGE Sure It Wants to Fire These People?

Juliette Kayyem examines the negative effects that Elon Musks’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could have on the safety of everyday Americans.

River running through a densely populated area.
Feature: Private Benefits from Public Investment in Climate Resilience

Joseph Aldy finds that governmental construction of levees, which enhance resilience to flood risks amplified by climate change, increases home values by 3-4 percent.

Person sits on a bed holding a check.
Feature: Assessing Government Outreach to Bolster Benefits Take-Up

Elizabeth Linos finds that light-touch interventions significantly, consistently, and cost-effectively increase benefits take-up among low-income households, while higher-touch proactive outreach yields minimal additional take-up.

Black family happily sits on the grass in a park.
Feature: Excess Mortality Rate in U.S. Black Children Since 1950

Soroush Saghafian finds that 5 million excess deaths of Black Americans, including over 500,000 infants, could have been avoided over the past 70 years if their mortality rates were equal to those of White Americans.

Harvard Kennedy School faculty disseminate their research in working publications and papers that contribute to public knowledge and fuel policy innovation. This list features recent faculty publications, including journal articles, books, edited volumes, research papers, and public testimony.

Faculty Publications

A Simple, Statistically Robust Test of Discrimination

Gaebler, Johann D., and Sharad Goel. "A Simple, Statistically Robust Test of Discrimination." 9 July 2024.

Auditing the Use of Language Models to Guide Hiring Decisions

Gaebler, Johann D., Sharad Goel, Aziz Huq, Prasanna Tambe. "Auditing the Use of Language Models to Guide Hiring Decisions." April 3, 2024.

Reconciling Legal and Empirical Conceptions of Disparate Impact

Grossman, Joshua, Julian Nyarko, and Sharad Goel. "Reconciling Legal and Empirical Conceptions of Disparate Impact." .

Mitigating Included - and Omitted - Variable Bias in Estimates of Disparate Impact

Jung, Jongbin, Sam Corbett-Davies, Johann D. Gaebler, Ravi Shroff, and Sharad Goel. "Mitigating Included - and Omitted - Variable Bias in Estimates of Disparate Impact." .

LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models

Guha, Neel, Sharad Goel, et al. "LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models." August 23, 2023.

Reevaluating the Role of Race and Ethnicity in Diabetes Screening

Coots, Madison, Soroush Saghafian, David Kent, and Sharad Goel. "Reevaluating the Role of Race and Ethnicity in Diabetes Screening." June 2023.

Risk Scores, Label Bias, and Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Zanger-Tishler, Michael, Julian Nyarko, and Sharad Goel. "Risk Scores, Label Bias, and Everything but the Kitchen Sink." .

Automated Court Date Reminders Reduce Warrants for Arrest: Evidence from a Text Messaging Experiment

Chohlas-Wood, Alex, Madison Coots, Joe Nudell, Julian Nyarko, Emma Brunskill, Todd Rogers, and Sharad Goel. "Automated Court Date Reminders Reduce Warrants for Arrest: Evidence from a Text Messaging Experiment." .

Popular Support for Balancing Equity and Efficiency in Resource Allocation: A Case Study in Online Advertising to Increase Welfare Program Awareness

Koenecke, Allison, Eric Giannella, Robb Willer, and Sharad Goel. "Popular Support for Balancing Equity and Efficiency in Resource Allocation: A Case Study in Online Advertising to Increase Welfare Program Awareness." April 17, 2023.

Learning to be Fair: A Consequentialist Approach to Equitable Decision-Making

Chohlas-Wood, Alex, Madison Coots, Henry Zhu, Emma Brunskill, and Sharad Goel. "Learning to be Fair: A Consequentialist Approach to Equitable Decision-Making." February 2022.

Empirical Approaches to Identify Systemic Discrimination in Policing

Chohlas-Wood, Alex, Marissa Gerchick, Sharad Goel, Aziz Huq, Amy Shoemaker, Ravi Shroff, and Keniel Yao. "Empirical Approaches to Identify Systemic Discrimination in Policing." .

Blocks as geographic discontinuities: The effect of polling place assignment on voting

Tomkins, Sabina, Keniel Yao, Johann Gaebler, Tobias Konitzer, David Rothschild, Marc Meredith, and Sharad Goel. "Blocks as geographic discontinuities: The effect of polling place assignment on voting." May 2021.