He grew up in Dorchester and West Roxbury, both in Massachusetts, attended Boston Latin School, and spent many afternoons in the family diner.
[3] One day, while leading a Torah reading, he had an epiphany that led him away from religious studies and towards scientific skepticism:"[I] learned something about why dogmas can be tenacious and irreconcilable.
While at the U.W., Manski served as Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty (1988–1991) and as Chair of the Board of Overseers of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1994–1998).
The committee report found that existing studies on efforts to address drug usage and smuggling, from US military operations to eradicate coca fields in Colombia, to domestic drug treatment centers, have all been inconclusive, if the programs have been evaluated at all: "The existing drug-use monitoring systems are strikingly inadequate to support the full range of policy decisions that the nation must make....
"[10] The study was mentioned by the press but was initially ignored by policymakers, leading Manski to conclude, as one observer noted, that "the drug war has no interest in its own results.
As of 2007, Manski's research interests focus primarily on the field of formation of social policy with partial knowledge of treatment response.
[13] In 2004, Manski challenged the theoretical basis for statements in the popular media "that markets can predict an election better than polls and experts can.