The biggest U.S. tax breaks
The hundreds of exemptions, deductions and other breaks embedded in the tax code will cost the federal government more than $1.3 trillion this fiscal year.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Methods
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This year’s GOP presidential battle isn’t the first – or even the deepest – party divide
Both major U.S. political parties have a long history of splits, splinters and other schisms.
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Many Americans say they voted, but did they?
One-in-six (16%) of those who say they “definitely voted” in the 2014 midterm election have no record of voting in commercially available national voter files.
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So far, turnout in this year’s primaries rivals 2008 record
So far this year, Republican primaries are experiencing record turnouts, much as voting in Democratic primaries surged in 2008. But the longer-term trend in primary turnout has been down.
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UN peacekeeping at new highs after post-Cold War surge and decline
The number of UN peacekeeping forces around the world has peaked in recent months after falling off in the late 1990s, following a period of trial and error for UN interventions.
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Long Supreme Court vacancies used to be more common
If Senate Republicans stick with their declared intention to not consider anyone President Obama might nominate to replace Antonin Scalia, his seat on the Supreme Court likely would remain vacant for a year or more. That would be the longest vacancy on the court for nearly five decades, but by no means the longest ever in U.S. history. In fact, for much of the 19th century it was not uncommon for Supreme Court seats to be unoccupied for months – or, in a few cases, years – at a time.
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Data Quality Deserves an Honest Discussion
While the possibility of falsified data is an important consideration in survey research, a new tool to detect it fails to perform as advertised.
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Scalia’s Supreme Court vacancy draws much public interest, unlike past open seats
Such high levels of interest and engagement weren’t common in past Supreme Court nomination battles.
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Evaluating a New Proposal for Detecting Data Falsification in Surveys
Concern about data falsification is as old as the profession of public opinion polling. However, a new approach proposed by Kuriakose and Robbins (2015) to detecting falsification is concerning.
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Evaluating a New Proposal for Detecting Data Falsification in Surveys
The claim by Kuriakose and Robbins (2015) that there is widespread falsification in international surveys is clearly concerning. However, an extensive investigation conducted by Pew Research Center finds the claim is not well supported.
