Harvard Economics Professor Eric Maskin will deliver the Commencement address at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ceremony on Friday, May 17, 2013.

A slowdown in the growth of U.S. health care costs could mean savings of as much as $770 billion on Medicare spending over the next decade, Harvard economists say.

In a paper published in the May issue of Health Affairs, David Cutler, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, and co-author Nikhil Sahni, a senior researcher in Harvard’s Economics Department, point to several factors, including a decline in the development of new drugs and technologies and increased efficiency in the health care system, to explain the recent slowdown.

The American Economic Association has named Harvard Economics Professor Raj Chetty as recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal for 2013. The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded to that American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

When French President François Hollande unveiled a plan in November for a business tax credit and higher sales taxes as a way to revive the economy, he was implementing an idea championed by economist Gita Gopinath. A 41-year-old professor at Harvard University, Gopinath has pushed for tax intervention as a way forward for euro-area countries that can’t devalue their exchange rates.