Matt Darling

Jul 15, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Matt Darling

While economic policies in previous decades mainly revolved around individual support (i.e., providing money or services to low-income individuals or families), recent years have witnessed a surge in interest in “place-based” policies. Programs aimed at helping individuals escape poverty can only do so much. We also need to consider poor areas, given that only some are willing or able to move to affluent areas. Under the Biden administration, there has been a flurry of “place-based” programs.

Jul 15, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Matt Darling

The policy world is engaged in an ongoing debate about the extent to which economic policy should be “place-based”. Should economic policy target programs for poor people or programs for poor places? One argument in favor of “place-based” policy (PBP) is that policies may be more cost-effective in some places than in others. For example, a jobs program could be more effective in a region with persistently low employment rates than in an area with high employment rates.

Jul 10, 2024 | geekway.substack.com | Andrew McAfee |Christopher Mims |Matt Darling

My previous post on the headline topics drew some interest, so let’s keep the conversation going. A good place to start is with a recent article by Christopher Mims in the WSJ. It’s a good place to start because of its headline: “AI Doesn’t Kill Jobs? Tell That to Freelancers.” One of the first things I learned when I started writing for newspapers and magazines is that I had little input into what the piece’s headline would be, and no veto power over what the editors came up with.

Jun 10, 2024 | niskanencenter.org | Matt Darling |Milan Singh

Generative AI and other technological developments are changing the world, – and they may impact unemployment insurance (UI) fraud significantly. The nature and scale of UI fraud changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The amount of fraud increased, and sophisticated international criminal gangs committed the most fraud. AI can help these groups automate fraudulent claims, scaling up the potential for fraud.

May 23, 2024 | aibm.org | Matt Darling

Many government policies, though ostensibly neutral, have effects that vary by gender. It is important to be aware of these differences—in either direction—in policy design and evaluation. The financing of unemployment insurance (UI) programs is one example, as I show in recently published research for the Niskanen Center. UI benefits are paid for by taxes applied to individual companies, with the tax rate based on that company’s history of workers drawing on the UI system.