Maxwell School News and Commentary

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, “just leapfrogged over everyone” through legislation that became law last month that requires companies to start reporting carbon emissions from the energy used for operations and outputs beginning in 2026, says Jay Golden, Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance.

In the glory days of the American labor movement, when unions were strong and wages rose alongside productivity, “organized workers could cash that out as more free time,” says Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology. “But for decades, workers haven’t even been getting that choice because, for the most part, productivity growth has ended up as higher profits and more inequality.”

David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs, notes that while new factories will be needed to build electric vehicle batteries, the vehicles will require fewer suppliers producing parts. Many assembly workers will also need to be retrained. “We may also need fewer workers,” Popp says. But, he says, “there doesn’t seem to be a consensus yet on whether that is the case.”

"It is clear that, whatever Trump actually believed, he himself did not mean his pronouncements of election fraud to be taken as mere opinion. When Trump made such claims, he invariably portrayed them not only as true but proven conclusively, albeit by evidence he never produced," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

Jenn M. Jackson, assistant professor of political science, has written “Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism” (Random House Press, 2024).

"How Citizens Want to ‘See’ the State: Exploring the Relationship between Transparency and Public Values," co-authored by Professors Sabina Schnell and Tina Nabatchi, along with Ph.D. student Jiho Kim, was published in Public Administration Review.

"Extreme Weather Events and Local Fiscal Responses: Evidence from U.S. Counties," co-authored by Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, was published in Economics of Disasters and Climate Change.

“Disabled people are already underserved,” says Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology. Altering the way the Census Bureau gathers disability statistics, he argues, will generate “inaccurate information.”

"These are the youngsters on campus who are protesting against the war," says Osamah Khalil, professor of history. "And then some of them start to look at Israel's role in the Middle East and say, are we seeing kind of the same dynamic here about U.S. foreign policy?"