PrincetonUniversity Communications Office, Stanhope Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA Tel 609-258-3601, Fax 609-258-1301   Feedback Princeton in the News Enclosing directory   The Augusta Chronicle, March 7, 2001 Smaller classes narrow racial gaps, report says Reducing class sizes in early grades improves overall performance and narrows the achievement gap between black and white pupils, according to a study released Tuesday. The study, prepared by Princeton University economist Alan Krueger, showed that smaller class size has a greater impact on black pupils than white pupils, who traditionally perform better on standardized tests than their black counterparts. For black pupils in smaller classes, that gap narrowed 38 percent and remained 15 percent smaller after the pupils moved back to a larger class. Black pupils in smaller classes also were more likely than their counterparts in larger classes to take ACT or SAT tests, increasing from 31.6 percent to 41.3 percent. ... Insight on the News, March 5, 2001 The Tales of Two Presidential Sons The historical parallels between George W. Bush and John Quincy Adams - both sons of U.S. chief executives - offer lessons about what it takes to be a successful president. Unlike Adams, a brilliant diplomat who was clumsy at politics, Bush seems to be graceful at both. While he is winning over Democrats with his education plans, he also is hitting them hard with his faith-based initiative program (see "Bush Embraces Charitable Choice," Feb. 29). His faith-based program appeals to African-Americans in the inner cities, mostly Democrats, as well as to social conservatives. This could funnel millions of federal dollars to social-welfare programs run by religious institutions for the public good. "Sustaining one's political base while tempering one's politics is a formidable task, even for an experienced statesman," says Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz in a recent USA Today editorial. "It will take a great deal of political skill and not a little luck for Bush to succeed where Adams failed. If he doesn't, there will be no shortage of people ready to replace him four years from now - including, one imagines, the dignified but bitterly disappointed Democrat from Tennessee who won the popular vote for president in November." Nearly everything Adams did "backfired," Wilentz observes. "His nonpartisan appointments did not mollify his chief adversaries - least of all Jackson - and they angered his own supporters." Adams went as far as promoting federal action for funding new roads, canals, a national observatory and a national university as a means to bring allies into his camp, but these public-works initiatives began to anger his own supporters who considered them excessive, Wilentz says. Business Week, March 5, 2001 WHAT'S LOST BETWEEN JOBS HIGHLIGHT: Earnings gains are forfeited The tight labor market of the past seven years made it easier for workers to find new jobs when they were hit by a permanent layoff. And the average pay cut they took at their new jobs got smaller. Nevertheless, those who found new jobs still saw their weekly income fall when compared with the wages of those workers who kept their old jobs. These are the conclusions of a new paper by economist Henry S. Farber of Princeton University. Using the Labor Dept.'s Displaced Workers Survey, which is conducted every two years, Farber finds that the percentage of workers reemployed after a spell without a job rose sharply during the 1990s (chart). By February, 2000, the date of the most recent survey, 75% of workers who lost their jobs from 1997 to 1999 had landed new ones. In contrast, only 61% were reemployed by early 1992 after losing work from 1989 to 1991. ... Fortune, March 5, 2001 What Could Go Right? It's scary. It's a downer. But the slowdown won't last forever. In fact, it may even be ending now. The U.S. economy has ground to a halt. That's certainly not news to anyone at this point. What you and the rest of the world are dying to know is just when America--that powerful, high-tech, and usually reliable engine of global growth--will get moving again... One way to look at it, as Princeton University economist Paul Krugman put it two years ago in the pages of Foreign Affairs, is as the "Return of Depression Economics." Krugman's main concern is this: In an era of low inflation, free trade, and deregulated financial markets, a central bank like the Fed might no longer find it so simple to kick-start an economy that has fallen into recession. He isn't the only smart economist talking this talk. In January, former Treasury Secretary (and former Harvard economics professor) Larry Summers scared a few folks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with his observations that the current U.S. downturn reminded him a lot more of the prewar variety than anything seen since. If this analysis is correct, it may mean the Fed and other central banks need to shift their focus from inflation fighting to recession fighting. To a certain extent, that appears to be what the Fed under Greenspan has done during the past three or four years. This is less straightforward work than merely hiking rates to keep the consumer price index down, and surely the Fed will make a hash of it one of these days. But to go from there to arguing that the Great Depression or even the Japanese "L" is upon us--something neither Krugman nor Summers has done, but several bearish Wall Street forecasters have--is a misreading of both past and present. The Economist, March 3, 2001 China's lost decade "THE Tiananmen Papers" makes a staggering claim. It purports to reveal the secret deliberations of China's senior leaders--in their own words--during that long stand-off in the spring of 1989 between students, intellectuals and ordinary folk in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and the Communist leaders in Zhongnanhai, their compound not far away to the north-west. After missteps on both sides--there were countless smaller stand-offs in cities across China--escalating confrontation led the leaders on June 3rd-4th to call in tanks and infantry. It is a calamity for China that by resorting to deadly force those leaders put a freeze on change that continues to this day. ... Yet the papers suggest that only a handful of surviving politicians would be directly implicated. An even longer version of "The Tiananmen Papers" is soon to be published in Chinese. The book will swiftly find its way on to the mainland, even if in pirated form or on the Internet. Its effect, Mr Nathan suggests, may be to "cut the Gordian knot", by placing the leaders' deliberations in the public domain. Nobody questions that to lift the curse of "counter-revolution" from the Tiananmen movement would damage Mr Li and the small group of officials around him. Less clear is how Jiang Zemin, the current president, would be affected. In any event, later next year Mr Li and Mr Jiang are both supposed to retire from their party posts, creating a window for reappraisal and a chance for moderates to try again to undertake reform. That evidently is the hope of the compiler of this book, who goes under the pseudonym Zhang Liang and who spirited these documents out of China in the form of computer files and into the hands of Mr Nathan and his co-editor, Perry Link, of Princeton University. ... The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, March 2, 2001 IN CONCERT THIS WEEKEND: Along for the 'Ride' with Paul Lansky An experimental composer and Princeton University professor on an album-of-the-year nominee? Strange, but true. Paul Lansky's "mild und leise" was composed on an IBM 360/91 mainframe computer in 1973, and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood came across it on a mid-'70s compilation he picked up at a used record store while on tour. With the composer's blessing, a sample from the work ended up on the British quintet's Grammy-nominated "Kid A" (it lost in the album-of-the-year category but picked up the award for alternative album). ... UK Newsquest Regional Press, March 2, 2001 Internet degree honour The inventor of the World Wide Web and the first female prime minister of Norway are among eight people to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University this summer. ... Other candidates to be honoured include Prof Walter Kohn, of the University of Santa Barbara, California, Prof Sir Gustav Nossal, of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Dr William Bowen, a former provost and president of Princeton University, America. ... AScribe Newswire, March 1, 2001 Scientists Detail Key Molecular Pathway and Potential Drug Targets Against Cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases PHILADELPHIA, March 1 -- Molecular geneticists at the Kimmel Cancer Center of Jefferson Medical College are uncovering clues to how and why cancer cells grow with abandon, while at the same time, understanding why brain cells die too young in neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Understanding the molecular secrets of apoptosis, or programmed cell suicide, they say, will enable scientists to identify potential drug targets against these diseases. Reporting the results of a study March 1 in the journal Nature, Emad Alnemri, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his co-workers at Princeton University and the University of Pittsburgh describe a particular molecular pathway involved in apoptosis. Scientists believe apoptosis gone awry underlies neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases such as lupus, and cancer. ... The New York Times, March 1, 2001 Economic Scene When it comes to cloning, social science has to catch up with genetic science. By Alan B. Krueger; This column appears here every Thursday. Alan B. Krueger is the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and editor of The Journal of Economic Perspectives. E-mail: akrueger@princeton.edu THE field of genetics is moving at mach speed. In January, an international team of doctors announced plans to clone a human within 18 months. In February, two teams of researchers published a map of the human genome. While Wall Street frets over whether the discovery that the genome consists of "only around 30,000 genes" will limit the market value of genomics companies, the potential impact of genomics on the economy and society runs much deeper. Most fundamentally, cloning and genetic engineering could change the distribution of characteristics in the population. ... The Princeton molecular biologist Lee M. Silver weaves a scenario in his book "Remaking Eden" (Hearst Books, 1997) that makes Malthus look like an optimist. If left to the marketplace, he argues, there is a real possibility that genetic engineering will lead to a two-class society, populated by well-off, genetically engineered "GenRich" individuals whose parents could afford genetic engineering, and impoverished "Naturals," conceived the old-fashioned way. He also foresees overpopulation, and the two classes splintering into distinct species, with the GenRich viewing Naturals much the way humans now view chimpanzees. ... Whatever the impact of cloning, it appears researchers are on the verge of learning much more about the genetic determinants of health and other life outcomes than their social and environmental determinants. This imbalance is unfortunate -- even dangerous -- because, as Professor Silver observes: "Environment and genes stand side by side. Both contribute to a child's chances for achievement and success in life, although neither guarantees it." Moreover, even with the mapping of the genome, the molecular biologist Shirley Tilghman of Princeton says we are still in the Dark Ages when it comes to understanding the combinations of genes that contribute to intelligence and personality. ... The Mississippi Business Journal, Feburary 12, 2001 Insurance companies, MSMA at odds on late payments Large medical insurance companies who delay payments to doctors and hospitals can make as much as $400,000 in interest per day, according to studies done by a Princeton University economist. The Mississippi State Medical Association (MSMA) said delaying or even denying payments without just cause are standard operating procedure for many insurance companies. MSMA said some physicians in this state may go as long as three or even six months or more without being paid for their care of patients. The effect is that health care companies hold the payments, earning interest, while the physicians have to wait for the money owed for the hard work they do, said Dr. Candace Keller, president of MSMA. Keller said that while Mississippi, like many other states, has a "prompt pay" law, it contains loopholes that render it largely ineffective. "The law says we can charge interest on payments not received in 45 days, but everyone knows there is no penalty to the company that waits 60 to 90 days to pay their bills," Keller said. "We want to hold health care plans to the same rules that we all have to live by - pay your bills on time." ... Keller said late payments happen to doctors all the time across the state, and numerous excuses are given: the insurance company says they didn't receive the claim, or that it was sent to the wrong place or that they need more information. "But it's clear. to us, some insurers have adopted a business strategy of holding invoices and that's just bad business," she said. ...