Here are links to some of the interesting social science research we encountered during the week:

Late last year, the Russell Sage and Alfred P. Sloan Foundations sponsored a competition to solicit proposals for smart disclosure demonstration projects. "Smart disclosure" policies aim to improve consumer markets by providing decision-makers data about their their personal use patterns or histories. Here are some details on the winning proposals:

1. Efficient Web-Based Credit Markets

While the consumer credit market has grown dramatically in the past two decades, consumers find it difficult to systematically compare credit offers (many of which arrive in the mail). Consumers know that their credit score may be downgraded by repeated applications for credit, but a bigger challenge is sorting through lengthy contracts, complicated reward programs, and interest rates. This research project will investigate the potential of a recent policy shift in Sweden, where consumers can "shop" for credit using an online intermediary. When they submit their information -- for example, the amount of credit they seek and their credit score -- the online intermediary supplies their application to participating banks, which can decide to offer a bid to the consumer. The web intermediary standardizes all financial contracts, reduces search costs, and allows consumers to see competing bids in an accessible manner.

2. Doctor Finding Service

Finding a healthcare provider can be difficult: comprehensive information about a doctor -- that is, including malpractice history, patient feedback, outcomes -- is rarely available in one location, and websites often present data using arcane terminology and complicated designs. This research project aims to develop and test a smart disclosure service that captures information local area health care providers and provides consumers an easy to understand interface for finding and comparing health care resources.

In the latest issue of the American Journal of Sociology, sociologist David Grusky reviews Arne Kalleberg's RSF book, Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, a wide-ranging, empirical investigation of polarization in the American labor market. Calling Kalleberg's account "masterful," Grusky writes:

The real contribution of Good Jobs, Bad Jobs lies in showing that economic and noneconomic forms of polarization are coming together, with the implication that those at the top are not just securing an ever-larger share of national earnings but also an ever-larger share of the available autonomy, authority, and other forms of control over the work situation. If once there was a substantial band of middle-class jobs with middling amounts of autonomy or authority, now that middle class has withered away and U.S. workers either have good jobs with much control over the work situation or bad jobs with virtually none. At the same time, Kalleberg shows that the mean level of many noneconomic rewards has increased over time, although job security has decreased and is accordingly an important exception to this overall upgrading trend.

Here are links to some of the interesting social science research we encountered during the week: