This is an interesting article on the #NIH, the #future of #science, and whether science and #reason can thrive in this era of toxic information ecosystems and politics. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/o... (I know a lot of academics have issues with this piece. But there is a lot to think about here)

One of many reasons I've been quiet on here recently. Plenty of work to be done to make the world better off of social media.

Featured in the latest Digest: Expelling Japanese Americans Lowered US Farm Productivity https://www.nber.org/digest/202509/expelling-japanese-americans-lowered-us-farm-productivity

Can economic opportunity lower mortality? Exploiting the fracking boom: job growth lowered medically treatable deaths (e.g. cardiovascular), likely via increased insurance coverage, but had no effect on external causes such as Deaths of Despair. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

On the beauty and wide applicability of the #GrossmanModel -- from the pages of the JPE to the clinic! #healtheconomics

New paper w/ Brian McGarry, Ashvin Gandhi, and Drew Wilcock in @jamainternalmed.com! Hospitals are complaining across the US that patients are "stuck" waiting for rehab beds at nursing homes when they are medically stable and ready for discharge. What is going on?? jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

1/ #NaturalExperiments are increasingly being used to answer #clinicalquestions, like how does treatment X affect disease outcome Y. Recent review by Lizzie Bair and me in NEJM Evidence covers examples and best practices for these types of studies: evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

1/ #Policies shape our #health. But why? We usually think it has to do with how policies change material resources (e.g., access to food, health care, etc) and opportunities. In @nejm.org, we argue that policies can also affect health by shaping social #narratives. www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

1/ Opportunity for Health (@oppforhealthlab.bsky.social) is 5 years old today! I can't think of a better way to kick off our anniversary than embarking on this multi-year study on #job #reskilling and #health with a fantastic Philly based partner, The Skills Initiative.

I'll never forget the man in his 30s, brought to us by family in the middle of the night, unable to move his entire left side because of a massive stroke. His risk factor? Excessively high blood pressure. This intervention by Siedner et al would have saved him: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

#Policies can affect our #health by shaping and transmitting social narratives and affect people's #beliefs about their current and future status -- independent of any impacts they have on people's material circumstances. See our new #paper in @nejm.org: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

🚨 New paper 🚨 In the latter half of the 20th c, states in the US passed massive suites of “tough-on-crime” sentencing policies. In this paper, we investigated how (& why) these policies shaped pop health, esp racialized patterns of birth outcomes in the US. track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

The Opportunity for Health Lab is thrilled to be partnering with The Skills Initiative on WORKS - a new study exploring the powerful connection between economic opportunity and health. #OpportunityForHealth #SkillsInitiative #ResearchCollaboration

As health systems confront the social, economic, and political drivers underlying worsening U.S. population health, a new Perspective series examines the extent to which the business of health care may promote or impede progress. Learn more: nej.md/4etpu3D #MedSky

With the Agency for Healthcare [sic] Research and Quality on the chopping block, I thought it might be useful to highlight a few ways in my own research on efficiency and access in the U.S. health care system has benefited from AHRQ data, collaboration and funding.

Please subscribe to my Substack for data driven takes on health & science: jenndowd.substack.com

Wrote something for @pennldi.bsky.social based on our recent paper on perceptions of culturally responsive care among people with disabilities Link: ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/res... #disability

Essential reading for Census/ACS/etc. microdata users, by @stevenruggles.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Just published in @jpube.bsky.social: "Testing above the limit: Drinking water contamination and test scores" By Michelle Marcus www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #econsky

I’ve had the privilege of serving the country in 2 different government agencies ~10 years apart. At the FTC I was in charge of about 120 people as head of the Bureau of Economics. At the DOJ I worked closely with career staff from the Economic Analysis Group & other parts of the Antitrust Division.

More of this framing, please.

1/ #COVID-19 revealed the best and worst of the #scientific enterprise. Best: -Rapid learning and R&D (developing vaccines, large trials testing steroid therapy, etc) Worst: -Incentives to generate useless papers -Lack of humility in face of bad data -Advocacy masquerading as science

Healthcare jobs have grown 2x faster than the overall labor market since 1980 Healthcare overtook retail to become largest industry by employment in 2009 New working paper w/ @gottliebecon.bsky.social, @kevinrinz.bsky.social and @victoriaudalova.bsky.social on the rise of healthcare jobs

We pay 5,000 billion dollars yearly for US health care. Less than 0.5 billion for AHRQ, a compass to guide us, is too much?

Edward Leamer, Economist Who Said Economists Were Doing it Wrong, Dies at 80 Preaching humility, he inspired new levels of transparency in economics and other fields Chris Kornelis March 14, 2025 9:00 am www.wsj.com/economy/edwa...

The Population and Development turns 50 this year! To mark the occasion, w/ @aasli.bsky.social, we conduct a computational analysis of research themes and author characteristics in PDR and compare with @readdemography.bsky.social and Population Studies. doi.org/10.1111/padr...

Why is it that, at every level of (county) income, #lifeexpectancy is worse in 2019 than in 2010? This is shocking, and a marks general deterioration of the #social and #economic factors that shape #health. We need high-quality, rigorous, courageous #science. To solve the #problem of our time.

How can tax credits, paid leave, and other policies improve population health? Join us on March 28 for our virtual seminar featuring experts Elizabeth Ananat, Bradley Hardy, Aparna Mathur, and LDI Fellow @atheendar.bsky.social. ldi.upenn.edu/events/boost...

With apologies to Florence Nightingale

Slowly but surely coming along: we have a new version of our working textbook on diffs in diffs! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Chapters 2 to 4, which cover the set up, classical DIDs, and relaxations of the parallel trends assumptions have been thoroughly revised and are now almost finished.

The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), 1903–4

They are cancelling grants for path-breaking research to improve people's health care. I get that Columbia is no sympathetic target in the abstract. But the work that's under threat matters for real-life patients. The rescissions are blatantly illegal and will cause real harm.

Thrilled to see this paper out! This is part of a larger research agenda documenting that: 1) A variety of (often understudied) factors affect the quality of colleges students choose, and 2) College choice and quality matter for longer-run outcomes like graduation and earnings.

Why is it that, at every level of (county) income, #lifeexpectancy is worse in 2019 than in 2010? This is shocking, and a marks general deterioration of the #social and #economic factors that shape #health. We need high-quality, rigorous, courageous #science. To solve the #problem of our time.

Does a worker's relative earnings rank within their workplace affect health? In this new paper we show that it does, and that the rank-health gradient is even stronger than the income-health gradient. www.nber.org/papers/w33514

At Opportunity for Health, directed by @atheendar.bsky.social, we study how policies shape health and economic well-being. Our research seems to improve the health of all Americans by boosting social and opportunity—because where you live, work, and grow should support your ability to thrive.

Cool new paper by @eduardomontero.bsky.social and JD Denton-Schneider... Eliminating Chagas disease in Brazil raised income by 11%! Larger gains for non-whites, reducing racial inequality. Public health interventions can address both development and inequality... www.nber.org/papers/w3351...

1/4 🗓️Save the date! On March 18, from 3:30-5pm ET we are hosting a webinar featuring 3 #RCTs that evaluated the impact of cash transfers on health. Read this 🧵 to learn more about the research and register for the event (www.povertyactionlab.org/event/unders...

Excess mortality rates of U.S. Americans age 25-44 (relative to 1999-2010 baseline) by cause of death from @wrigleyfield.bsky.social and co-authors from new article here: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

In @jama.com, results from the first 1.5 years of NC #medicaid Healthy Opportunities Pilots. We find evidence supporting the central idea that addressing #foodinsecurity, housing instability, and other health-related social needs can improve health. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The paper presents a set of identifying assumptions for judge IV with multiple treatments. It shows how these assumptions imply strong behavioral restrictions on judge choice models. This stuff is complicated but we tried to make it accessible. 3/

So many organizations I’ve had the privilege of working with received termination letters from USAID this week. Here’s an estimate of how many lives may be lost as a result, in South Africa alone: >500k additional deaths, >500k new infections doi.org/10.7326/ANNA...

Sailing At Sainte Adresse, 1873

I'm getting asked by people whether they should pivot from #healthequity work or somehow rebrand it. All I can say is that if you care about an issue you should continue to work on it. Further, it doesn't seem to matter what you call it. Those attacking this area don't care what you call it.

Just published at AER: Insights: getting negative information about your health when there are no treatment options available lowers long-run survival, with increased risky behaviors being one likely mechanism. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Good news alert! The 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year files is now available on IPUMS USA. Join us in our data joy 🎉 usa.ipums.org