The Value of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences to National Priorities

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Nearly every major challenge the United States faces—from alleviating unemployment to protecting itself from terrorism—requires understanding the causes and consequences of people's behavior. Even societal challenges that at first glance appear to be issues only of medicine or engineering or computer science have social and behavioral components. Having a fundamental understanding of how people and societies behave, why they respond the way they do, what they find important, what they believe or value, and what and how they think about others is critical for the country's well-being in today's shrinking global world. The diverse disciplines of the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences ―anthropology, archaeology, demography, economics, geography, linguistics, neuroscience, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics―all produce fundamental knowledge, methods, and tools that provide a greater understanding of people and how they live.

The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities evaluates whether the federal government should fund SBE research at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and, specifically, whether SBE research furthers the mission of the NSF to advance national priorities in the areas of health, prosperity and welfare, national defense, and progress in science; advances the missions of other federal agencies; and advances business and industry, and to provide examples of such research. This report identifies priorities for NSF investment in the SBE sciences and important considerations for the NSF for strategic planning.

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52 pages · 8.5 x 11 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-45992-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-45993-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/24790

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. The Value of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences to National Priorities: A Report for the National Science Foundation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Alan I. Leshner

Alan Leshner (Chair) (NAM) Dr. Leshner is Chief Executive Officer, Emeritus, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and former executive publisher of the journal Science. Before this position, Dr. Leshner was director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. He also served as deputy director and acting director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and in several roles at the National Science Foundation. Before joining the government, Dr. Leshner was professor of psychology at Bucknell University. Dr. Leshner is an elected fellow of AAAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Public Administration, and many other professional societies. He is a member and served on the governing Council of the National Academy of Medicine (previously the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academies of Science. He was appointed by President Bush to the National Science Board in 2004, and then reappointed by President Obama in 2011. Dr. Leshner received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in physiological psychology from Rutgers University and an A.B. in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College. He has been awarded seven honorary Doctor of Science degrees.

John S. Carroll

John Carroll is the Gordon Kaufman Professor of Management, a Professor of Organization Studies and Engineering Systems, and the Co-Director of the Lean Advancement Initiative at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as an expert on individual and group decision making, with a focus on its relationship to organizational learning and change practices such as self-assessment and root cause analysis. His recent work focuses on industries that manage significant hazards, such as nuclear power, petrochemicals, and healthcare. He has examined the relationships among leadership, management philosophies, teamwork, mental models, safety culture, and human performance improvement. Carroll is currently serving on the Committee on Offshore Oil and Gas Safety Culture: A Framing Study. Carroll holds a BS in physics from MIT, as well as an MA and a PhD in social psychology from Harvard University.

Ivy Estabrooke

Ivy Estabrooke is the executive director for the Utah Science Technology and Research Agency (USTAR), the State's technology innovation and commercialization program. Previously, she was a program officer at the Office of Naval Research for Human, Social, Cultural and Behavioral modeling where she managed a novel high risk/high payoff portfolio. She was a AAAS S&T Policy Fellow in the Office of Naval Research Global where she worked to identify emerging technologies. She served on the National Academies Committee on the Role of Experimentation Campaigns in the Air Force Innovation Life Cycle. Estabrooke is a cognitive neuroscientist by training, with technical expertise in psycholinguistics, pharmacological interventions, and statistical modeling. She earned her doctorate in neuroscience from Georgetown University, an M.S. in National Security Strategy and Resource Management from the Eisenhower School of the National Defense University (formerly ICAF) and a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Smith College.

Ralph M. Garruto

Ralph Garruto is a research professor of biomedical anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a human population biologist whose research focus is on natural experimental models of disease, using both field and laboratory approaches. Dr. Garruto’s cross-disciplinary research and interests include studies of neurodegenerative disorders including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease, also food chain disorders, health transition studies, obesity and bionutrition, malaria, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and prion diseases, especially Chronic Wasting Disease. Currently he has research projects in Micronesia, Vanuatu, Ukraine, China, Siberia, and in upstate New York. His laboratory focus is on cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal degeneration, host-pathogen interactions, experimental modeling, use of mitochondrial DNA in biomedical and evolutionary studies, and the study of gene-environment interactions in health and disease. Dr. Garruto is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He earned a B.S. in zoology, an M.A. in anthropology and a Ph.D. in anthropology (Human Biology Program) from The Pennsylvania State University.

Kathleen M. Harris

Kathleen Mullan Harris (NAS) is the James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, adjunct professor of Public Policy, and faculty fellow at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on social inequality and health with particular interests in family demography, the transition to adulthood, health disparities and family formation. Dr. Harris is director and principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a longitudinal study of more than 20,000 teens who are being followed into adulthood. Her work has sought to bridge social and biomedical sciences to advance knowledge on the development of health disparities. Her publications appear in a wide range of disciplinary journals including demography, genetics, family, epidemiology, biology, public policy, survey methodology, medicine, and social and health behavior. Dr. Harris was awarded the Clogg Award for Early Career Achievement from the Population Association of America in 2004 and the Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Social Sciences from ICPSR in 2013. She was President of the Population Association of America in 2009 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. She received her Ph.D. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ron Haskins

Ron Haskins is a senior fellow and holds the Cabot Family Chair in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he co-directs the Center on Children and Families. He is also a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and was the President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in 2016. Haskins is the co-author of Show Me the Evidence: Obama’s Fight for Rigor and Evidence in Social Policy (2015) and the author of Work over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law (2006). Beginning in 1986, he spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee and was subsequently appointed to be the Senior Advisor to President Bush for Welfare Policy. In 1997, Haskins was selected by the National Journal as one of the 100 most influential people in the federal government. He and his colleague Isabel Sawhill were recently awarded the Moynihan Prize by the American Academy of Political and Social Science for being champions of the public good and advocates for public policy based on social science research. Haskins is also president-elect of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Haskins was recently appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan to co-chair the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission. He holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Edward H. Kaplan

Edward H. Kaplan (NAE/NAM) is the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Operations Research, professor of public health, and professor of engineering at the Yale School of Management. He is an expert in operations research, mathematical modeling and statistics, and studies problems in public policy and management. His recent research has focused on counterterror topics such as the tactical prevention of suicide bombings, bioterror preparedness, and response logistics in the event of a smallpox or anthrax attack. Kaplan has also conducted award-winning research evaluating the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs while developing new mathematical models for the study of HIV transmission, prevention, and resource allocation. He is the author of more than 125 research articles and his work reported in many major media outlets. Kaplan received both the Lanchester Prize and the Edelman Award, two top honors in the operations research field, among many other awards. An elected member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academies, he has also twice received the prestigious Lady Davis Visiting Professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has investigated AIDS policy issues facing the State of Israel. In 2014, he was elected to the presidency of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the world’s largest society of operations research and analytics academics and professionals. Kaplan holds a Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Planning, as well as masters’ degrees in mathematics (statistics), operations research and city planning, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ronald Lee

Ronald D. Lee (NAS) is the Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Endowed Chair in Economics. Lee is also the director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging at Berkeley. His work focuses on demography and population studies, particularly from an economic point of view. Lee is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding member of the British Academy. His other honors include Presidency of the Population Association of America and its Mindel C. Sheps Award for research in Mathematical Demography, and the Irene B. Taeuber Award for outstanding contributions in the field of demography. He also has chaired the population and social science study section for NIH and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population and has served on the National Advisory Committee on Aging. He is currently on the National Advisory Committee on Child Health and Human Development. Lee holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Robert A. Moffitt

Robert Moffitt is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University. He also holds a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Moffitt’s research has focused on labor economics, including labor force issues associated with welfare reform, Medicaid, and social insurance programs. His methodological research has led to publications on selection bias and limited-dependent variable models, nonlinear budget constraints, panel data, attrition, duration models, and causal modeling and program evaluation. Moffitt served as chair of the National Academy of Science’s panel to evaluate welfare reform. In addition, he is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past president of the Population Association of America, and recipient of a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health. He is also currently serving as Chair of the Social Security Advisory Board Technical Committee on Labor Force Projections and is the editor of Tax Policy and the Economy of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has also served as editor to several journals. He earned his doctorate in economics from Brown University.

Duncan J. Watts

Duncan Watts is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a founding member of the MSR-NYC lab. He is also an AD White Professor at Large at Cornell University. Prior to joining MSR in 2012, he was from a professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and then a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, where he directed the Human Social Dynamics group. His research on social networks and collective dynamics has appeared in a wide range of journals, from Nature, Science, and Physical Review Letters to the American Journal of Sociology and Harvard Business Review, and has been recognized by the 2009 German Physical Society Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics, the 2013 Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize for Complexity Science, and the 2014 Everett Rogers M. Rogers Award. He is also the author of three books: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age and Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness , and most recently Everything is Obvious: Once You Know The Answer. Watts holds a B.Sc. in Physics from the Australian Defence Force Academy, from which he also received his officer’s commission in the Royal Australian Navy, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University.

Yannis C. Yortsos

Yannis C. Yortsos was appointed Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2005. He is the Chester F. Dolley Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean’s Chair in Engineering. Dr. Yortsos is well known for his work on fluid flow, transport and reaction processes in porous and fractured media with applications to the recovery of subsurface fluids and soil remediation. Along with his counterparts at Duke University and Olin College, he promoted the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges of Engineering, co-hosting the first NAE Grand Challenges Summit at Duke University in Spring 2009, and the second annual summit at USC in Fall 2010. The recipient of many honors for research, teaching and service, Dr. Yortsos is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and serves as the liaison of Section 11 to the National Research Council. He received his B.Sc. from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, all in chemical engineering.

Closed

The Value of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences to National Priorities

April 17, 2017

12:00 AM - 12:00 AM (EDT)

Past

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Institution Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

Alan Leshner
John Carroll
Ivy Estabrook
Ralph Garruto
Ron Haskins
Edward Kaplan
Ronald Lee
Robert Moffit
Duncan Watts

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

The committee discussed its charge for the study, a plan for gathering information, and an outline of its report.

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

study's statement of task

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

April 26, 2017

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