Research on how people learn in economic environments has burgeoned in the last ten years. Scholars in the fields of game theory, neuroscience, and other disciplines have explored the mechanisms by which people acquire and integrate new information for use in markets and interpersonal behavior. However, there has been little collaboration between the different fields.

As part of an effort to encourage the development of behavioral economics in Europe, the University of Toulouse in France will hold its first Summer Institute on Economics and Psychology from June 16-24, 2005. The institute is designed based on the Summer Institute in Behavioral Economics run by the Behavioral Economics Roundtable every two years for U.S.-based researchers. The Toulouse Institute will include 30-35 participants, about half of whom will come from European universities and the other half from North America.

Behavioral economics has revolutionized economic studies by showing how, in reality, people do not act in the rigidly self-interested, incentive-driven way that conventional economic models suppose. But beyond models and theory, behavioral economics also has important practical applications.

Michael Fix, Vice President and Director of Studies at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), will lead an effort to disseminate policy-relevant research on second-generation immigrants during the period of January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006. MPI will commission a total of 14 articles on immigration, immigrant incorporation, and the second generation by RSF grant recipients and other researchers.

A range of studies has demonstrated that social and economic factors are important determinants of health. Yet, despite having higher poverty rates, less education, and worse access to health care, many Hispanics living in the United States today have health outcomes that are equal to, or better than, those of non-Hispanic whites. This epidemiological paradox (also known as the Hispanic health paradox) seemingly varies between generations.

The 1996 federal welfare reform law had a significant impact on immigrants. It drastically scaled back immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits. Whereas legal immigrants were generally eligible for public assistance on more or less the same terms as citizens before 1996, they are now barred from receiving federally financed cash assistance for the first five years that they are in the United States.

As the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grows, and immigrants increasingly settle in non-traditional areas, how will immigrants’ residential settlement patterns shape their social, economic, and civic integration, and the integration of their children? To address this question, economist Marcia Meyers and geographer Mark Ellis organized a conference on “Local Contexts and the Prospects of the Second Generation” in October of 2006.