This week's roundup covers a range of topics from economics research and academic hiring to AI-assisted political conversations and home energy storage.

1. Selecting innovation funding mechanisms. A new NBER working paper examines how different mechanisms for funding innovation may be evaluated and selected. The paper contributes to a longstanding economics literature comparing tools such as grants, prizes, and patents as incentives for research and development, a debate that has gained renewed policy salience as governments weigh industrial policy and clean-energy R&D subsidies.

2. Helen Andrews on race. Writing for Compact magazine, Helen Andrews discusses race in a long-form essay.

3. Famous radio station goes all-automated. A well-known radio station has transitioned to fully automated operations, as reported in a post on X (Twitter): Michael Socolow on X. The move reflects a broader media industry trend in which radio groups are replacing live on-air staff with automation software as part of sustained cost-cutting and consolidation across the traditional broadcast sector.

4. On Stefanie Stantcheva. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, published by the American Economic Association, features a profile of Harvard economist Stefanie Stantcheva, known for her work on taxation and public economics. Stantcheva, a professor at Harvard and a research associate at NBER, is also the founder of Harvard's Social Economics Lab, which studies how people perceive and respond to economic policies.

5. ChinaTalk submission hiring contest. ChinaTalk, a newsletter and media outlet focused on China-related technology and policy analysis, is running a hiring contest for submissions. Founded by Jordan Schneider, ChinaTalk has carved out a niche covering U.S.–China technology competition, export controls, and industrial policy.

6. New Hamilton faculty at University of Florida — 21 of them. The University of Florida has announced 21 new Hamilton faculty members, marking a significant expansion of the program. The Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education was established at UF in 2022 with a focus on Western civilization and civic education.

7. Battery in your backyard? The Wall Street Journal reports on Zach Dell's efforts to raise money for residential battery energy storage. Dell, the son of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, is entering a residential energy storage market that already includes established players such as Tesla's Powerwall, Enphase Energy, and Sunrun, sectors attracting growing investor attention as grid resilience and home electrification demand increase.

8. How Americans are talking to Claude about politics. A Substack analysis explores how Americans are engaging with Anthropic's Claude AI assistant on political topics. The analysis reflects a wider societal question about how AI chatbots are becoming intermediaries for political information and deliberation, a trend that researchers and policymakers are still working to understand.