Economics & Statistics
The London Telegraph: Runner’s world: Usain Bolt and his entourage
The London Telegraph has written a comprehensive piece on the Usain Bolt, the fastest sprinter on earth, as he is preparing for the London 2012 Olympic Games this summer.
The April 27 article, “Runner’s world: Usain Bolt and his entourage,” quotes SMU’s Peter Weyand, an expert in human locomotion. Continue reading
Despite belief WIC improves infant health, new study finds no positive or negative impact
Existing scientific literature suggests the U.S. government nutritional program known as WIC improves birth outcomes of children, but new SMU research is unable to find either a positive or negative impact on infant health.
WIC, which serves 53 percent of all U.S. infants, is for low-income pregnant women and their young children under five who are at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Continue reading
Imposing trade restrictions on parallel imports can motivate a firm to export, study finds
Imposing trade restrictions on parallel imports has the surprising effect of motivating a firm to export, according to a new study using game theory economic analysis, says co-author Santanu Roy, SMU. The study found that diverse parallel importing policies make it possible to analyze for the first time how competition between firms and allowing or banning parallel imports can influence competition. Continue reading
USA Today: Women scientists lose out on research prizes

USA Today’s “ScienceFair” blog has covered the research of SMU sociologist Anne Lincoln. In a March 13 entry, journalist Dan Vergano writes about Lincoln’s latest findings surrounding discrimination against women in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.
Dubbed “the Mathilda Effect,” Lincoln has shown that women in the STEM areas do not receive the same recognition for their research and achievements as do men in those fields. Continue reading
UPI: Study looks at how language excludes many in EU
UPI and other media outlets have covered the research of SMU economist Shlomo Weber.
In the new book “How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity” (Princeton University Press), Weber and his co-author, Victor Ginsburgh, researched the costs and benefits of the many languages across the globe. Continue reading
Fermilab Today: Top quark mass team wages war on two fronts
The research of SMU physicist Robert Kehoe, a professor in the SMU Department of Physics, has been featured by Fermilab Today. The magazine is the official publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. Fermi is a high-energy particle physics laboratory credited in 1995 with discovery of the fundamental particle, the top quark.
The article, “Top quark mass team wages war on two fronts,” appears in Fermilab Today‘s Jan. 26 edition as the “Result of the Week.”
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Vast majority of European Union citizens are marginalized by dominance of English language
A new study finds nearly two-thirds of the European Union’s 500 million people are linguistically disenfranchised because they don’t speak English, which is the EU’s most dominant official language.
History has shown that political regimes mandate single languages for efficiency or social control. But limiting linguistic diversity can backfire, says economist Shlomo Weber, Southern Methodist University. Continue reading
International Monetary Fund: A review of “How Many Languages Do We Need?”
Renowned non-fiction author Henry Hitchings covers SMU economist Shlomo Weber’s new book “How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity” (Princeton University Press).
Writing for the International Monetary Fund, Hitchings’ review “Speaking in Tongues” notes that Weber and his co-author, Victor Ginsburgh, have scrupulously researched the costs and benefits of the many languages across the globe. Hitchings, the author of “The Language Wars” and “The Secret Life of Words” among other books, notes that the books most thought-provoking section is the case study of linguistic policy in the European Union. Continue reading
The New York Times: The Fast Life of Oscar Pistorius
The New York Times has written a comprehensive piece on the long-running global controversy surrounding double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius, the South African vying to compete in the Olympics.
The Jan. 18 article, “The Fast Life of Oscar Pistorius,” cites extensively the work of SMU’s Peter Weyand, an expert in human locomotion.
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