Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

The wrong tariff for the wrong reason.

The incoming Trump administration is gearing up towards imposing substantial tariffs on all US imports. The new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has used the optimal tariff argument to justify such actions. The new head of the Council of Economic Advisors, Stephen Miran, citing our own work, proposes 20% as a "benchmark" for the US optimal tariff. We think this is a very bad idea.

The optimal tariff argument

The optimal tariff argument is hardly new. It is about as old as David Ricardo's famous...

If someone asked you to describe democracy in one word, what would you say? An October 2024 survey by the Political Psychology of American Democracy Policy Project, led by UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy Dean David Wilson, asked people just that. Many respondents said, “freedom,” but a lot of others said, “broken.”

In Berkeley Talks episode 220, Berkeley political scientist Henry Brady discusses how we got to a place of growing disillusionment with democracy, where so many mistrust the U.S. government...

UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Terri Bimes was recently awarded the James A. Thurber Article of the Year Award from the journal Congress & the Presidency for her co-authored piece, “Hyperpartisanship and the First Hundred Days.” The award recognizes exceptional scholarship on Congress, the presidency, their interactions and national policymaking, with a particular focus on pressing issues in current affairs.

Bimes’ research centers around populism, political parties and presidential elections in the United...

The UC Berkeley Social Sciences Career Readiness Internship Program (SSCRIP) was designed to equip students with the practical knowledge and real-world experience they need to succeed in their future careers. Nohemi Aguilar, a senior who is majoring in sociology and pursuing a human rights minor, is already seeing the program's impact after her first semester.

Aguilar came to Cal after receiving several associate degrees from Cañada College in Redwood City. Feeling the need for guidance on how to...