Two minor updates, friends: - As of 1 January 2026, I'm an Associate Professor. - As of today, the first paper I started writing on palm oil, about a decade ago, is in print in the Journal of International Economics. Read, share, cite. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Maybe stuffing university board of directors with businesspeople was not a great idea.

I was one of the USAID officials that the White House called “radical left Marxists who hate America”. These statements are unmitigated trash. My colleagues sacrificed and risked a lot to serve the America they love. Not one of them had one minute for Marxism. Just poisonous logorrhea.

Happy late 40th to me

In a new @i4replication.bsky.social report we replicate Islam (2019). Main issue: the randomized controlled trial was not randomized. And many other things on top of that. See full report for details. (w/ @carlbonander.bsky.social, @nikljako.bsky.social, @flxhlzmstr.bsky.social, Bensch & Brodeur)

This is us. We asked Asad to step aside before we had any results. GDRI was not involved in our data collection (thankfully).

Quite a thread. Vivid demonstration that @i4replication.bsky.social and other mechanisms above individual journals are vital for scientific hygiene

#GDRI_rep Update 4: We have a new report. We reproduced the paper entitled "Parent–teacher meetings and student outcomes" by Islam @ European Economic Review. See below for links to report and author's response.

#GDRI_rep Update 2: I4R sent a report to the original authors for the PLOS One article "“Food insecurity and mental health of women during COVID-19: Evidence from a developing country". All authors have now emailed PLOS One to withdraw their names. osf.io/7tzek/

We have a new report out about the #GDRI_rep. The paper has not been retracted but all three authors have withdrawn their names.

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...

We will provide another update and release two or three reports shortly. See osf.io/23x64/ for more information. And our original thread here: bsky.app/profile/i4re...

I also personally sent a link to this thread to the university's Research Integrity office the next day, and I later sent links to two replication reports along with I4R contact details. The University processes currently underway are described here: publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/docum...

#GDRI_rep Update 1: I4R are now reproducing all published papers that use data from GDRI, or are closely related in other ways. Here is a first update on our work. 🧵

I can't think of a faster way to undermine the country than simultaneously firing government workers, cutting scientific research, rolling back protections on public health & environment, & cutting essential services. It's like the US was defeated in war and is being occupied by a hostile enemy.

Dean Karlan, Chief Economist at USAID, has resigned www.npr.org/sections/goa...

How to write your abstracts in empirical micro:

Wild stuff. How come no one thought of this

After a long wait, the working paper for the Many-Economists Project: The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics. We had 146 teams perform the same research three times, each time with less freedom. What source of freedom leads to different choices and results? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Said it before but bumping because it took me longer than I hoped it would to find to add to my course page for my students: @pmichaillat.bsky.social 's templates are just beautiful, and a wonderful thing to share on his page pascalmichaillat.org/design/

I'm so thrilled to share that I'll be starting as Associate Professor in the Economics department at Macquarie University's Business School in May. Excited for this next step and very much looking forward to getting to know my new colleagues 😊

This makes me very happy. Huge win for both parties

We are looking forward to the responses and will make them publicly available as soon as we get them following I4R protocol. See our other thread: bsky.app/profile/i4re... Post by Prof. Asad Islam: x.com/AsadIslamBD/....

After being alerted about possible misconduct, the I4R are reproducing published papers that use data from a specific NGO (GDRI). This thread releases the first 2 reports and provides more information about the work and responses/statements from authors journals and journals. 🧵

Super happy to see this accepted! academic.oup.com/qje/advance-...

WFH increases productivity by 12% in the public sector. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Abel: I am writing in my capacity as Chair of I4R. Last year, I was contacted by a researcher that alerted me of potential scientific misconduct in a set of papers all using data from a specific NGO.🧵

Last blog in our three-part series on our new survey experiment paper, focused on the RCT itself—“Public opinion on immigration: more malleable than you think” is up today 1/4 devpolicy.org/public-opini...

Is it possible to change Australians' attitudes to migration? Today on Devpolicy @ryanbedwards.bsky.social Alyssa Leng and I report on our survey experiment - part of our broader research on Australians' views about migration. devpolicy.org/public-opini...

Last blog in our three-part series on our new survey experiment paper, focused on the RCT itself—“Public opinion on immigration: more malleable than you think” is up today 1/4 devpolicy.org/public-opini...

Forthcoming in JOLE: "Inference with Imputed Data: The Allure of Making Stuff Up" by Charles Manski www.journals.uchicag... @ChicagoJournals #EconSky

Some weekend reading, ICYMI ☺️

Feelings are so mutual. Actually, I am not sure there is a better human to work with than Terence! But yes, stay tuned for the last one next week, or cut to the chase in the paper if you can't wait :)

I've enjoyed working on this with Alyssa Leng & @ryanbedwards.bsky.social. The average Australian doesn't like immigration much (no news there), but there's a lot of difference as well. And a lot of misinformation. In the next blog we'll look at whether providing people with info changes anything.

2nd blog on our new paper up today: A mixed bag: views on immigration in Australia devpolicy.org/a-mixed-bag-... Paper here osf.io/preprints/so... or devpolicy.org/publications... Pls share. Comments welcome, as are EOIs from top journals that want to publish it!

Excited to share our new paper out today, with Alyssa Leng (her master’s thesis!) and Terence Wood: “Narratives, information and immigration policy preferences”. I’m a bit biased, but I think it’s both interesting and pretty damn important devpolicy.org/publications...

Australians want less migration but oppose cutting international student numbers, study finds

How well do Australians understand migration from the Pacific? Not very well it turns out. First blog post from survey research that my Devpolicy colleagues Alyssa Leng, @ryanbedwards.bsky.social & I conducted. More to come: devpolicy.org/australians-... @rad409.bsky.social @amitam.bsky.social

Excited to share our new paper out today, with Alyssa Leng (her master’s thesis!) and Terence Wood: “Narratives, information and immigration policy preferences”. I’m a bit biased, but I think it’s both interesting and pretty damn important devpolicy.org/publications...

Elon says 90% of US aid never reaches communities. He confuses USAID's 90% reliance on intermediaries -- US companies delivering HIV drugs, WFP delivering food aid -- with waste. Comical if not so dangerous. @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social & I break down where aid goes: www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-p...

Like other economists I'm being asked to comment on Trump tariffs. We should do so - it's our job. But first we should make the point stated eloquently here by @alanbeattie.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c26b...

On Tue 11 March, Alyssa Leng will speak about the new paper on Australians' attitudes to immigration that she co-authored with @ryanbedwards.bsky.social and I. What do Australians really think? Can their views be changed? Find out. Zoom & in person: crawford.anu.edu.au/event/narrat...

PSA! All the de-identified data from the first wave of the Pacific Labour Mobility Survey (PLMS) is now published, open and free for anyone to use. This is a long-term joint project of the ANU Development Policy Centre and the World Bank, generously supported by DFAT. 1/N

Here's a new version of our paper on Australia's pandemic pension withdrawals, our third major revision. This revision brings a new title, a narrative reframing, and a major overhaul of our calibration exercise. 🧵 static1.squarespace.com/static/59b0b...

it is kind of fascinating to watch a segment of the OECD population get into the idea of subsistence agriculture, the thing that our ancestors (and many of our contemporaries) spent their lives trying to escape.

Updated paper: A lot of work on the effects of tracking in education, which is a widespread practice globally. We show 1) algorithms can track students far more effectively than test scores 2) test scores discriminate 3) algorithmic placement has infinite MVPF static1.squarespace.com/static/60d0c...

Non-academic staff increased at a faster rate than academic staff. With a government that regularly adds new bureaucracy and compliance requirements I expect this will increase.