To be useful in my government-shutdown time off, I've worked on public-use analogs to tools that have been useful at work. jrothbaum.github.io/survey_kit/ - a package for complex survey data, handling nonrespresentative samples in surveys/polls, properly handling missing data, etc.

Come join us at the @capolicylab.bsky.social as our new policy director in Sacramento!

This is unacceptable. www.wsj.com/economy/trum...

“a university, non-profit, or media outlet that engages in union-busting in 2025 is making a strategic mistake, prioritizing limited short-term benefits over the big picture.” www.acslaw.org/expertforum/...

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

From @hshierholz.bsky.social: Trump's firing of BLS commissioner is undemocratic and economically dangerous. Between illegal firings, starving data agencies of resources, and now political intimidation, the US looks set to run into the next economic downturn flying blind www.epi.org/press/trumps...

👇👇👇

A timely and trenchant piece by Suresh Naidu. When future generations sift through the wreckage of our era, they’ll find it strewn with the institutional and personal failures of leaders both great and small. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

I hope Pope Leo continues to speak against starvation and barbarity in Gaza and U.S. bishops continue to defend those targeted for arrest and internment here. The Church has a unique, non-ideological voice on behalf of the dispossessed and displaced, like Jesus himself was.

BLS and Census are planning to put the CPS online within a few years to help address these nonresponse issues, but currently have nowhere near the funding they need to test the new internet instrument or study how that transition will impact official statistics.

Do you remember when child poverty fell to a record low in 2021 thanks to the expanded CTC? It turns out that the SPM for kids was just as low in 2020 thanks to historically generous unemployment benefits. We missed it because UI is so under-reported in the CPS ASEC.

Senate Parliamentarian advises several more GOP provisions violate the Byrd Rule, including the provision to mandate states cover a portion of SNAP benefits.

Powell says he is concerned about the impact of cuts at the statistical agencies. High-quality statistics are "a huge public good," he says. "I hate to see us cutting back on that... I would want to continue investing in that for the good of the general public." #EconSky

Military style ICE raids in our communities. David Huerta was beaten and dragged away. Because he saw them and stood up for justice. Because he’s not afraid. Neither are we. On MONDAY let's #FreeDavidHuerta, #FreeThemAll 11:00 AM @ Grand Park in Downtown LA (200 N Grand Ave)

If you use Stata and parquet files, I developed a stata plugin that could help: ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode.... You can read/write parquet files directly from stata (Caveat: tested on windows and linux, but not mac)

I was curious how the Medicaid cuts the House passed stacked up historically. That's a big lift, but @standorn.bsky.social did the numbers. It's the largest on record, twice the size of the early 1980s Reagan cuts. Same is true for SNAP. Here's my write-up: mikekonczal.substack.com/p/the-house-...

The reconciliation bill passed by the House GOP yesterday alters the social safety net in many significant ways that are easy to miss if you blink. Let’s take, for one, SNAP, a program where the federal government currently pays 100% of benefits.

Not a good idea to convert the leaders of the federal statistical agencies into political appointees. It would undermine trust. Send in your comment today to object to this change in the federal civil service. This article has the link. #econsky

IRS Direct File is clear-cut government success story, a shining example of efficiency and social value Every year it will save Americans billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of hours in tax preparation costs So of course Trump and Musk want to kill it

In a nuts-and-bolts sense, I think I have a good sense of how this happens. But in a much more important sense, it’s incomprehensible that schools are still taking this stance when democracy is on the line

Hard to overstate how mean and misguided this is.

NEW: The Census Bureau hasn't been recruiting and retaining enough interviewers for three key surveys, including the source of the monthly job report, and lacks a plan for building up a field representative staff, the bureau's internal watchdog, Commerce OIG, finds www.oig.doc.gov/wp-content/O...

NEW: The Commerce Department is giving federal employees at the Census Bureau and most other parts of the department until April 17 to apply for a voluntary early retirement authority or voluntary separation incentive payments offer if they're offboarded by May 3, according to emails shared with NPR

The Society of Government Economists is holding back-to-back mentoring workshops on transitioning between sectors The first one is on March 4th at 6pm EST The second is on March 13th at 7pm EST mailchi.mp/a681e5651456...

"To target this tiny portion of the federal budget in such a haphazard and irresponsible way is going to cost people's lives and livelihoods," Colecchi said. "It is not a thoughtful or humane way to go about treating programs that help the poorest of the poor all over the world."

And now these data have been taken down again! Where's the public statement clarifying what data is being made unavailable, for what reason, and when it will be restored?

Most of these public use files now appear to be back online. ACS still seems to be down.

What Census research is now unavailable? All CES papers are down: www.census.gov/library/work... All SEHSD, CED, ADEP, POP working papers published before 2024 appear to be down: www.census.gov/library/work... Some 2024 and 2025 papers are still up.

Check out our new and improved estimates of post-tax + disposable income and poverty -- produced by some very hardworking and dedicated federal government workers.

It's such a weird thing to hear the news and think "that's bad, but also I have a paper about (an aspect) of that" Funding delays are really not great for people who work in science. Funding delays of > 30 days lead to: - 40% increase in scientists exiting US labor force - 20% decrease in wages

This is ultimately the same old argument against any type of redistribution. No different from "We have to cut SNAP to stop surfers from buying lobsters." But it's shocking to see it applied to this example.

Whether you care about fairness or fiscal responsibility, cutting the IRS’s enforcement budget (as many Republicans have proposed) would be an absolute disaster. New evidence from back-to-back studies in the latest @qjeharvard.bsky.social ... (1/4)

Read @shirkandsteal.bsky.social @jennifercohen.bsky.social & me. We discuss pros, cons, whys, & hows of moving. If you make alternative arrangements, register them with us. We will publish a directory of these if the strike continues, so folks can find you. aaronsojourner.org/hotel-worker...

We extended the Environmental Impacts Frame backward to 1940 using the Census Bureau's historical decennial and IRS 1040 data! Looking forward to working with and seeing what others do with these cool new (old) data!

📈📉 Just published in @jpube.bsky.social with @laurenhlb.bsky.social & Diane Schanzenbach: We examine how 1-time, in-kind food vouchers thru Pandemic EBT affected family well-being 1/N www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New OIRA guidance outlines how agencies can do ‘user research’ w/o triggering the PRA. Major steps towards implementing human-centered design practices in govt! www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

Raheem's on the policy and #econjobmarket this year. You can read his #JMP below and find his other research here: raheemchaudhry.com He'd be a fantastic colleague. Check him out. #PolicySky #EconSky

Are you at @appam.bsky.social #APPAM2024? Come see our brilliant USC PRICE and CLEAR Initiative doc students present work tomorrow! Both papers have direct implications to Musk and Ramaswamy's hamfisted DOGE plans. Details below! @usc-clear.bsky.social @uscprice.bsky.social @elilee.bsky.social

- Deborah Stone, Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas, 1989.

Congratulations to the Upjohn Institute 2024 Dissertation Award winners! First prize goes to Angela Wyse for the University of Chicago. Honorable mentions go to Agostina Brinatti for the University of Michigan and @saraspaziani.bsky.social for Brown University.

And much, much too credulous of an ascendant "pro-family" Right.

I think about this one everyday.

Discussing recent books on the causes of persistent US poverty, building on their arguments and proposing new areas for research on anti-poverty policy, from Elizabeth Ananat https://www.nber.org/papers/w32967

It's Sunday. I am NOT at work. 2 additional insights about what's going on the the CPS: (1) The threat to the CPS is the INTERACTION of declining response and flat (nominal) funding. When people are less willing to respond, it takes more time and effort per response--and staff time costs money.

Except that nonresponse bias wasn't just a problem in 2020. We've seen a serious level shift since the pandemic. www.census.gov/newsroom/blo...

New research: An entire issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science examines the expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Open access. journals.sagepub.com/toc/anna/710/1