Social Sciences
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Is the US already in a recession?
Pascal Michaillat, professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a research associate at the NBER, estimates a 71 % probability that the US economy was already in recession in May.
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How regional Federal Reserve banks contribute to monetary policymaking
Regional Fed Presidents are chosen by independent boards and then sent to the Board of Governors in DC for approval. “It’s just more layers away from DC and that allows a little bit more protection of independence,” said Galina Hale, an economics professor at UC Santa Cruz.
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Solutions for Salinas Valley groundwater contamination exist, but adoption is slow
Hannah Waterhouse is an assistant professor of agroecology at the University of California Santa Cruz. At a test field on campus, she’s researching how cover crops benefit soil moisture and water quality.
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In high-cost Santa Cruz County, a generation of young workers increasingly turns to unions
Young local workers once viewed service jobs as temporary steppingstones. Now, more than 80% told UC Santa Cruz researchers that they are open to unionizing, motivated by both economic pressures and a broader vision of workplace democracy.
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Class-action trial in Manitoba to challenge province’s use of segregation jail cells on children
Craig Haney, a psychology professor with the University of California, Santa Cruz, is among three academics to provide expert reports as part of the lawsuit. “The conditions of confinement I encountered were stark and depriving − ranging from very bad to outright egregious,” he said.
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Birdwatchers flock to Colombia and South Africa- so why are Venezuela and DRC being left behind?
“Over the years, we’ve seen Colombia really explode as a birdwatching destination, and we often asked ourselves why more countries aren’t similarly recognized as great places for birdwatching,” said Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, lead author of the new UC Santa Cruz study.
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The state of labor on Labor Day 2025
Teresa Ghilarducci, a research fellow at the UC Santa Cruz Center for Labor and Community, wrote an opinion article about the need to defend workers’ rights, voice, and the truth about their conditions.
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Don’t rise to any bait from Trump
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh argues that following China’s example in building human capital and knowledge capital is India’s best defense against pettiness & narcissism.
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What Jesse Jackson and Zohran Mamdani Have in Common
Michael McCarthy, leader of the Community Studies Program at UC Santa Cruz says organizers have always known that “in order to build a movement, you need to address specific yet important concerns that affect only some parts of your coalition while also speaking to the issues shared by everyone you want to draw into your…
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A Woman With HIV Spent Six Years in Solitary. She Sued and Missouri Will Change Its Policy.
“It is a psychologically traumatizing experience,” said Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, of solitary confinement. “It persists after somebody gets out of solitary confinement. In some instances, it’s fatal.”
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UCSC study links immigration status to COVID deaths, survival rate
“This was the first study to really link immigration status and make it possible to link legal immigration status to excess death rates,” said Alicia Riley, and associate professor of sociology and core faculty member in the Global and Community Health Program.
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Nagaland University hosts workshop on ‘Ecologies of care’
UC Santa Cruz cohosted the workshop, and Professor Dolly Kikon, director of Center for South Asian Studies, introduced the initiative as a collaborative dialogue to explore the Himalayan region’s various intersections, expressions and care practices.