Popular discourse attributes falling college enrollments to the rising cost of four-year college. That story is wrong in multiple ways, as @mattbarnum.bsky.social points out in his latest roundup of the evidence (citing a new working paper of ours): www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/11/i...

Don't forget that the deadline for SOLE is coming up. The meeting will be in Denver on May 1-2 this year. I am a big fan of SOLE and will be on the program committee reviewing higher education papers, so *definitely* submit if you have papers in higher education. Link below

If you know of a student who is looking for a education post doc (now, odd timing I know), I may have an opportunity for them. They would be working Texas admin data so experience with that would be a big plus.

First time being on the receiving end of this

Nothing makes me feel more like a professor than checking out a dusty old library book for research. Economics rarely looks like this—but it’s exactly what I thought professors did when I was a kid

One of the best feelings in research is coming up with a great title. I may have come up with my favorite yet, stay tuned

Just published in @jpube.bsky.social: "The graduation part II: Graduate program graduation rates" By @jeffdenning.com & @lesleyturner.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #econsky #publiceconomics

Done fishing for a while

🎣

Had to make sure to catch a bow on this trip too

Nice cutthroat today

IES REBORN? On today's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Fordham's Amber Northern (of "Amber's Research Minute" fame) announces that she's joining the Trump Administration for six months to help develop a plan for a new IES. Listen now (starts around 24:30): fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Happy surprise to see this discussion of our paper in Jessica Hoel's substack (which is good generally!) liberalartsledger.substack.com/p/day-14-gra...

My intermediate micro students would be proud

We're thrilled to announce three outstanding researchers are joining the Upjohn Institute: Chloe Gibbs @chloergibbs.bsky.social and Monique Davis @monique-e-davis.bsky.social in August and Ethan Jenkins June 2. Welcome! #laboreconomics #econsky

Next year I'll be joining the LBJ School of Public Affairs and College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. It's a dream come true to be back at UT. I want to thank @ndecon.bsky.social for the last two years--it has been a great place for me and my family.

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but 2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but 3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So 4. Now the LLM code points to malware.

Mississippi State Univ. is hiring a tenure-track Econ Assistant Prof w/ August start! Open field; pref. for applied micro & teaching PhD Micro I & II (Micro II this fall). Apply: MSU site & www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.php?JOE_ID=2025-01_111475768 Please repost—it's an off-cycle search. Thanks!

At the district spell bowl, a night for the nerds. Let's get ready to rumble!

Thanks to @chloergibbs.bsky.social and @jeffdenning.com and others for a great visit to Notre Dame (and great feedback on our paper studying the past 15 years of declines in community college enrollment). Among many highlights of the visit was the branded waffle I just made myself for breakfast.

Happy to contribute this chapter on student loans in the United States to the @aefpweb.bsky.social live handbook. I try to summarize what we have learned in student loan research recently. livehandbook.org/higher-educa...

I was just informed that the Department of Education has taken down all its Civil Rights data. If you need it, alternative sites are now hosting it for the public. See links in this thread. ocrdata.ed.gov/notfound

Anyone have cites for the effects of graduate school tuition on enrollment? I can't think of any offhand but could use one. Thanks!

How are parents affected by their kid going to college? How are they affected when their kid gets a scholarship or grant? New working paper with @palaashbhargava.bsky.social @econsandy.bsky.social @odedgurantz.bsky.social and Rob Fairlie www.nber.org/papers/w33497

In a moment of weakness this morning I looked up flights to Florida *leaving today* Pretty ready for mornings that start with temperatures in the single digits to be over for the year

Should be on every econ of ed syllabus (and labor too imo)

Back by popular demand! We just released another call for proposals using RCTs and quasi-experiments. 3-page LOIs are due March 14. Details here: bit.ly/4ambjv3 (1/2)

The @arnoldventures.bsky.social Criminal Justice team will soon launch a monthly newsletter! Subscribe here to get fresh CJ research, policy, and advocacy developments delivered to your inbox. I promise we'll keep it interesting.🥳 www.arnoldventures.org/subscribe

I know lots of stuff is off the rails, but just got another R&R, so for now, we celebrate 🎉 🎉 🎉

I have a project where one of @cdechaisemartin.bsky.social 's papers is relevant. He has slides posted which were very helpful in understanding what is going on etc. I like this convention and hope others adopt it. Not sure what is says about me that i find slides easier to digest than a paper...

It's the time of year when economics-trained faculty can be nominated to become NBER affiliates. If you primarily work on the economics of education and would like me to nominate you, send me an e-mail. Though budget constraints prevent all nominees from being chosen, it's worth trying!

Go Irish!

It was a great to celebrate Sandy Black's accomplishments with family, friends, and colleagues at #ASSA2025! @econsandy.bsky.social

National Student Clearinghouse just emailed a big correction to ed reporters: freshman enrollment did not fall by 5% in Fall 2024, it INCREASED. We all blamed the FAFSA roll out fiasco with tamping down college going. But that was wrong. Revised figs to come out Jan 23

In an ideal world we would have a government statistical agency doing this work of counting college students However Congress has banned the existence of a federal “unit record” data system bc higher ed lobbyists pressed them to Wouldn’t want transparency and accountability after all

Researchers who use credit data--how did you decide which credit bureau to use?

I'm hiring RAs to work on data analysis for projects on education, infrastructure, and political economy in Latin America. Spanish/Portuguese language helpful; remote work possible. Please share, and/or apply! Links in next tweet. #econra #econ_ra #EconSky

Researchers who use credit data--how did you decide which credit bureau to use?

LA fires are a good reminder that the only difference between me and any refugee is luck.

My third grader made the spell bowl team today, and she's trying to beat the rival schoolb that shares a parking lot, they apparently have a 7-year win streak. Sounds like the plot of a Disney Channel show

**Professional/Personal Update** I am happy to share that, come Fall 2025, I will be (re!) joining the Department of Economics at the University of Texas. Hook 'em!🤘

I was incredibly honored to be awarded the CSWEP Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. When I accepted the award, I talked about the importance of mentoring. The lessons I pass on are kind of obvious. But they are important, so I am going to share them yet again. (A🧵)

By far the high point of my career—thank you to everyone who made this happen!❤️

Sandy Black accepting the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award at the CSWEP business lunch #ASSA2025

Is there a consensus on the use of LLMs to help write research papers? Fine to use? Use but cite? Don't use? I have something in mind like, "help me improve the flow of this paragraph" etc I have not done this but I am curious if people have thought more deeply about this than I have

The Texas game as measured by my heart rate

Here are the first five sets of slides: 01 Introduction: psantanna.com/DiD/01_Intro... 02 Classical 2x2 setup: psantanna.com/DiD/02_two_b... 03 Clustering issues: psantanna.com/DiD/03_Clust... 04 Functional form: psantanna.com/DiD/04_Funct... 05 Covariates: psantanna.com/DiD/05_Covar...

River of January

I was going through some of my stuff from the rookie market (after talking with some students here) and saw the names of my interviewers at ND. It turns out my good friend (and now coauthor) Ethan Lieber and I first met then. Of course, neither of us remembered.