DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE

HKS professor examines how U.S. Electoral College strengthened white political power in some states

In a new book, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Alexander Keyssar examines the sweeping history of the U.S. Electoral College system—including the ways in which it has reinforced white political power in states in the American South well into the 20th century. Keyssar, who studies history and social policy, says many people know the system bolstered the influence of Southern states during slavery because enslaved people counted as three-fifths of a person each, which gave slave-holding states more Electoral College votes. But he points out that long after the Civil War, Southern states drew an even greater political advantage by including Black residents in the count used for allocating Electoral College delegates—while still denying Black people the vote: “That gave white Southerners substantially more influence in presidential elections than they would have had under a national popular vote,” Keyssar says in an interview. To protect that electoral edge Southern politicians fought hard, over a long period, to block the adoption of a national popular vote. Keyssar notes that similar Electoral College math drives some states to continue to suppress the votes of African American residents, and not just in the South. The impact of the Electoral College on racial justice is just one of the issues that Keyssar explores in his new book, Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

ECONOMY

Research finds that cutting unemployment benefits would drive down economic activity for the rest of 2020

Kennedy School Professor Jason Furman concludes in a new study that the expiration of pandemic-related jobless benefits would badly constrain economic activity through the rest of the year. Furman, who was chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, writes in a policy brief for the Peterson Institute of International Economics that the need for these benefits remains very high, with 18 million people still unemployed. The abrupt cutoff of benefits would hit workers hard and reduce gross domestic product by about 2.5 percent in the second half of the year, Furman says, which is more than a typical year’s worth of economic growth. Congress is now negotiating possible extension of some pandemic jobless benefits, which expired on July 31. Furman argues that the pandemic has heightened the need for reforms to fix longstanding structural weaknesses in the unemployment insurance system—and that much more needs to be done to protect and create jobs during the pandemic.

SOCIETY & HEALTH

Research finds COVID-19 test results in the U.S. are taking too long to be helpful, especially for people of color

The latest survey by a consortium of researchers on COVID-19 policies finds that most testing results are coming too late to help slow the coronavirus’ spread. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they weren’t getting test results within the optimal one-to-two-day time frame, and the average wait was just over four days. The consortium, which includes researchers from Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Medical School, and other universities has been conducting a 50-state survey of attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 in the United States since April. HKS Professor Matthew Baum, one of the co-authors, explains in an interview that the results took even longer on average for Black Americans and Hispanics, who often live in areas with fewer health services even as they are more likely to face exposure to the virus through service jobs. Baum says the survey data provides evidence that “political polarization has handicapped our nation’s response to the COVID pandemic at virtually every level.”

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY

The biggest land conservation legislation in a generation, adopted amid a pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have had the surprising effect of galvanizing bipartisan support for vitally needed long-term funding for national parks in the United States, says HKS Senior Lecturer Linda Bilmes. The co-author of Valuing U.S. National Parks and Programs: America’s Best Investment, Bilmes has long studied the national parks’ complicated budgeting and chronically scarce funding. She says the $9 billion committed in the new law signed by President Trump this week will help offset the immense backlog in maintenance of the country’s 419 national park sites. Bilmes explains that the pandemic helped congressional legislators of both parties as well as the public to see not only economic but also health and recreational value in the parks. And these revelations led to the unexpected consensus on The Great American Outdoors Act after years of scarce funding.

IN THE NEWS

• Why parents now face an impossible choice [Nancy Gibbs] Washington Post

• How has the electoral college survived this long? [Alex Keyssar] New York Times

• Former diplomat: Closing Chinese consulate ‘was an overreach’ [Wendy Sherman] CNN

• The GOP's five traps [Thomas Patterson] Boston Globe

• COVID: We need to talk about social responsibility [Steve Kelman] FCW

• ‘Success addicts’ choose being special over being happy [Arthur Brooks] The Atlantic

• Who is rescuing America’s national parks? Trump [Linda Bilmes] Boston Globe

• The impact of extending work-from-home policies [Juliette Kayyem]  WGBH

• The pandemic pain of emerging markets [Jeffrey Frankel] Project Syndicate

• Biden’s VP selection should hinge on this one question [David Gergen] CNN