Why does social policy matter?
Through data-driven research, hands-on training, and collaborative public engagement, the Malcolm Wiener Center advances policy initiatives that empower people to solve the most urgent social challenges and questions of our times.
Latest Insights
Faculty Focus
Faculty Focus
Desmond Ang
Desmond Ang
Desmond Ang is an applied economist and Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Ang, who received his PhD in economics from the University of California, San Diego, brings an economist’s eye to issues of race, inequality, and justice. His research examines the educational consequences of police violence, the long-run effects of federal oversight under the Voting Rights Act, and the role of media on racial prejudice.
November 4, 2024
The impact of a payer-provider joint venture on healthcare value
November 1, 2024
Racial health disparities in the United States
The Case for Equity
Malcolm Wiener Center and ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø faculty explain how research that addresses questions of equity can benefit everyone—not just a few people.
Questions We Explore
The Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management
The Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management draws from rigorous research as well as insights from practitioners and people from impacted communities to inform the development of fairer and more just criminal legal system policies, practices, and procedures.
The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality and Social Policy unites faculty, students, and researchers from across Harvard University and beyond to address the causes and consequences of wealth inequalities in different populations around the world.
Reimagining the Economy
The Reimagining the Economy project explores local labor market, industrial, and development policies, combined with practitioner insights, to produce multidisciplinary scholarship to reshape narratives about how we achieve inclusive prosperity.
The Shift Project, a joint project at Harvard Kennedy School and UCSF, examines the nature and consequences of precarious employment in the service sector with a focus on how policymakers and firms can improve job quality.
The Project on Workforce is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project with Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education charting the course for a post-secondary system of the future that creates more and better pathways to economic mobility.
The Health Inequality Lab is a research group based at the Harvard Kennedy School dedicated to studying the economics of health inequality in the United States and around the world.
Funding Opportunity for PhD Students
The Malcolm Wiener Center's Social Equity and Health Equity (SEHE) stipend supports Harvard PhD students in the social sciences writing dissertations related to social equity or health equity.
Depoliticizing Public Health
From left to right: Sara Bleich, Carmen YulÃn Cruz Soto, Rochelle Walensky, Asa Hutchinson. Photo credit: Hayley Murks-Abdikadirova.
Carmen YulÃn Cruz Soto (former mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico), Rochelle Walensky (former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director), and Asa Hutchinson (former Governor of Arkansas) discussed how to reach across partisan divides and establish effective public health policies as part of the ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Candid & Constructive Conversations series. ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø faculty affiliate and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor of public health policy Sara Bleich moderated the discussion.