The Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

09/10/2026

Join us in one week for the 38th Annual Lourie Lecture! Gary Taubes will discuss diet, disease, scientific controversy, and the limits of what health science can claim to know.

RSVP: https://syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8D5OrYVE8Qg7Ffo

What do we actually know about why we get sick—and how confident should we be in the science behind it? Debates about nutrition science, metabolic health, and obesity are squarely in the public consciousness. But how is scientific consensus formed? When does it deserve our trust? And how should we reason about the questions it has yet to settle?

Join us on Thursday, September 17th at 3:30pm for the 38th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy! At this year's lecture, Gary Taubes will discuss diet, disease, scientific controversy, and the limits of what health science can claim to know.

To learn more or RSVP, visit: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/center-for-policy-research/events/lourie-lecture-series

09/09/2026

A paper led by CPR Senior Research Associate Badi Baltagi titled, "Time Invariant Variables in the Mundlak and Hausman–Taylor Panel Data Models" was published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.

Read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obes.70056

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

This paper shows that the classic augmented Mundlak regression yields the between estimator for time-invariant variables. It is well known that the estimates of the time varying variables yield the f...

09/01/2026

Grassland birds have declined more steeply than almost any other bird group in North America, and the "nesting season" rules meant to protect them on Conservation Reserve Program land don't always match when the birds actually nest.

An article co-authored by CPR Senior Research Associate Rick Welsh finds that while these designated windows cover peak breeding for most species, some birds nest earlier or later, including species of conservation concern, leaving stakeholders divided on whether the current approach gets the balance right.

Learn more:

Primary nesting season (PNS) dates under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) span the peak breeding of most grassland bird species, but some initiate breeding before and some continue after PNS, i...

08/27/2026

"The Mundlak Estimator in a Panel Data Model with Serially Correlated Error Component Disturbances" by Badi H. Baltagi and Long Liu was added to the CPR Working Paper Series!

Read the paper: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/535/

08/26/2026

Donors give significantly more to higher-rated nonprofits, even when those ratings are not based on verified performance. Platinum-rated nonprofits receive 34% more in donations than unrated organizations, suggesting many donors use rating hierarchies as mental shortcuts rather than performance signals.

Learn more in this new Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs CPR Policy Brief:

Nonprofit organizations depend on donations to fulfill their missions, but donors choosing among 1.8 million U.S. public charities often lack the time or capacity to evaluate which organizations are actually performing well. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used a five-year panel dat...

08/19/2026

Household earnings fall about 13% in the year after childbirth, right when new expenses arrive, and families without paid leave must rely on a patchwork of government assistance programs to get by. Those programs can offset post-birth losses on paper but deliver almost nothing during pregnancy or right after birth.

Learn more in this new Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs policy brief:

Childbirth is a life event that often disrupts maternal employment and household earnings just as family expenses increase. In the United States, families do not have access to a national paid parental leave program and must rely on a patchwork of safety net programs that were not designed specifica...

08/06/2026

What do we actually know about why we get sick—and how confident should we be in the science behind it? Debates about nutrition science, metabolic health, and obesity are squarely in the public consciousness. But how is scientific consensus formed? When does it deserve our trust? And how should we reason about the questions it has yet to settle?

Join us on Thursday, September 17th at 3:30pm for the 38th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy! At this year's lecture, Gary Taubes will discuss diet, disease, scientific controversy, and the limits of what health science can claim to know.

To learn more or RSVP, visit: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/center-for-policy-research/events/lourie-lecture-series

08/03/2026

“We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the US,” says CPR Senior Research Associate Yingyi Ma in The South China Morning Post.

Learn more:

As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’.

07/31/2026

"Should We Flee? The Mortality and Economic Impacts of Hurricane Evacuation Orders" by CPR Graduate Research Associate Lucas Kaplan has been added to the CPR Working Paper Series!

Read the paper: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/533/

07/27/2026

"An Introduction to the China Land Sales Data Set: The Universe of Land-Use-Right Transfers in China 2000-2022" by CPR Senior Research Associate Yilin Hou, Lin Li, and Qiang Ren was added to the CPR Working Paper Series.

Read the paper: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/532/