sociology policysky

The impact of the USAID shutdown on Africa, as seen from space and on the ground. M. Nicolini and I study the effects of the aid cuts by linking GODAD data on USAID projects to satellite-based measures of economic activity and IPC food insecurity indicators. 👉 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... 1/11

Alan Milburn's important interim report has attracted welcome attention to the plights facing the more than a million 16 to 24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Hi All. Perhaps something useful from me. I'd like to announce that drlate, a Stata module for doubly robust estimation of the local average treatment effect (LATE) and the local average treatment effect on the treated (LATT), is now available in SSC.

For this paper we took 1760 samples from 44 farmhouse yeast cultures, and found 577 unique yeast strains. www.garshol.priv.no/blog/440.html The question of how many strains there are in there that we never found has bothered me for years. By chance, I found a way to get at the answer. Thread.

I’ve seen some poorly understood summaries of the Manchester story, so I thought I’d explain what was going on when Burnham arrived, the politics of it, and a little about what’s happened since as.ft.com/r/d7e11a31-2...

Young people are not a “snowflake generation”, they face deep and systemic barriers to work, education and training. The evidence heard by the #WorkandPensionsCommittee is clear: young people want to work, succeed and contribute, but too often the support they need simply isn’t there.

More mental health in young people has risen from around 15-17% in 2000 to as high as 27% in 2026. That more than a an alarming 1 in 4 young people. This mental health crisis among young people should be top of the government agenda. wecovr.com/guides/uk-yo...

What @sundersays.bsky.social is politely saying here is that Michael Gove's Spectator is running puff pieces for neo-Nazis.

Last week, there was widespread indignation at the revelation that some researchers in STEM might not be reading the papers they cite. Here's a recent example of the standard state of affairs in Medicine and Health, published in @bmj.com, one of the world's leading medical journals! 1/5 🧵

My piece in @theconversation.com - on the study of arts engagement & aging - was heavily delayed to give the authors a 'right to reply'! Their rebuttal (see pic) appears directly below my piece. I didn't know this would happen & was not given a chance to respond, so I will respond here! 1/10 🧵

Britain’s voting system is broken. 70 MPs are backing an amendment to finally review it. But to make an impact, we need many more. I’ve urged my MP to support it with this tool. Can you contact yours too? actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-...

***How to get disability statistics you can trust*** New post on Inequalities: My last post described the 'disability statistics disaster' - now I explain how to fix it inequalities.substack.com/p/disability...

"Everyone needs food" A collaborative exhibition Digital story by SPHR trainee Cat Jackson. Photographer Jane MacNeil www.youtube.com/watch?v=4svJ...

Sixty six Labour MPs have tabled an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling for the Government to "get to grips with the broken First Past the Post voting system" Tabled by Alex Sobel MP, the amendment would push the Government to set up a National Commission on Electoral Reform

Kudos to whoever made this.

This is my chart, and yes it was made to illustrate the opposite point made in that article. www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/is-w...

Brilliant!

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote

Much of the global mortality remains invisible. Of the estimated 61 million deaths worldwide in 2023: - Only around 21 million were reported to WHO with cause-of-death information. - And just 12 million reported deaths included sufficient data for public health analysis.

Does engaging with the arts help to slow the aging process? According to this new paper from Fancourt et al the answer is yes! Alas, the paper is actually unsuitable for such claims. Let’s examine by discussing how you'd establish whether arts engagement actually caused future health! 1/18 🧵

With thanks to @dannydorling.bsky.social for his insights on the UK's public spending compared to Europe: www.dannydorling.org/books/peakin...

🩺 Ageing, behaviours, NHS pressures, flu seasons & covid all matter, but they don’t fully explain the timing, scale or unequal impact of the UK’s worsening health. ‼️ What isn’t named can’t be tackled. We need to talk about public spending, welfare, and the political choices hurting people’s health

📉 Lots of discussion on @healthfoundation.bsky.social dn.bsky.social’s analysis of the latest UK healthy life expectancy figures. In our @bmj.com opinion, @martinmckee.bsky.social and I argue a key part of the story is still missing: austerity. �� https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj.s9s923 🧵

@felly500.bsky.social @adphuk.bsky.social #publichealth #healthinequalities bsky.app/profile/livu...

Westminster needs to WAKE UP and get electoral reform set in motion. We desperately need Proportional representation. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

New paper-Public and patient involvement: exploring public partnership in pathogen whole-genome sequencing research and its data visualisation Open Access by Suzanne Rotheram, Hannah Trivett, Jane Whitehurst, Caitlin Collins, Jake Carson, Sophie Staniszeweska, Xavier Didelot doi.org/10.1099/mgen...

@felly500.bsky.social @adphuk.bsky.social #publichealth #healthinequalities bsky.app/profile/livu...

New paper-Increasing community vulnerability to gastrointestinal infections in austerity’s shadow: a comparative study of two English local authorities authors: Suzanne Rotheram, Stephen Clayton, Dan Hungerford & Ben Barr read the full paper online: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

These how-the-sausage-gets-made papers are invaluable. No one ever writes them, but they're exactly what policy makers need to take action.

As the father of a 4 month old, this piece was one of the most personally intriguing ones I've written. Does sleep training work? Kind of. slate.com/technology/2...

Though not without their flaws, Universities they have *already* done more to drive economic development and innovation than pretty much any other human institution, and that's in addition to creating informed citizens and otherwise enriching the human experience. The evidence for this is...

Excellent piece from @benbgeiger.bsky.social the problems with disability and employment trend day and international comparisons. open.substack.com/pub/inequali...

I stand corrected! Descriptions of brewing beer go back 3000 years. Beer itself, 13,000.

I certainly agree that AIs can't be conscious, but if you have to experience the passage of time to be conscious, this is bad news for angels in the aevum and discarnate souls enjoying the Beatific Vision

The #LabourParty was founded as the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, a vehicle to challenge vested interests and bring about a society that works for all. Today, on #InternationalWorkersDay, the entire Labour movement celebrates our founding mission, striving for a fair deal for workers.

NHS data should be driving innovation & improvement – it’s an amazing resource We just published the sequel to our 2021 "Road to Hell" paper on using NHS data for research... things are worse! Buckle up for a long 🧵about *how COMPLETELY mad* system is for accessing NHS data for research 1/20

***The Disability Statistics Disaster*** I don't trust the official UK statistics on trends in the disability employment gap, and neither should you... -> New blog post at inequalities.substack.com/p/the-disabi...

It's not a confession! It's just output! This kind of anthropomorphication just confuses everything! If you wipe a hard drive by leaving a bag of fridge magnets on top of it – does it mean anything if you spell them out to say "sorry" afterwards?

Reminder that there is no scientific definition for "ultra-processed food", and no theory for the mechanism by which it is supposedly uniquely harmful.

NEW - Skills, Spatial Polarization, and the Politics of the Knowledge Economy: Introducing the Regional Human Capital Database - https://cup.org/42ztudJ - Jane Gingrich, Daniel McArthur & Mihnea Cuibus #OpenAccess

🐣 Earlier this month, with Afua Durowaa-Boateng and @anne-goujon.bsky.social we published our extended education- and age-specific fertility estimates in Scientific Data 🚼 We combined DHS data and UN ASFR to create a harmonized dataset. ➡️ lnkd.in/gxbXT9dh @iiasa.ac.at @demographyvienna.bsky.social

The @healthfoundation.bsky.social have now looked at how this compares with 20 other high-income countries: health.org.uk/reports-and-.... Picture is grim. The UK saw the second biggest fall in healthy life expectancy over the decade to 2021, beaten only by the US.

In today's Work and Pensions Oral Questions, I asked the Secretary of State about the implication of today's @healthfoundation.bsky.social report on the UK’s declining healthy life expectancy.

Story from the BBC here reporting the results of our new study, just published in BMJ Public Health, looking at changes in criminal offences and ambulance callouts when Aberdeen extended late-night opening hours for pubs. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/4/2/...

1/2. Do English devolution, strategic authorities & mayors hold promise for tackling health inequalities? We @thekingsfund.bsky.social @clesthinkdo.bsky.social think so. And below is why, a series of pieces from health duties to practical actions (more to come). www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

✨✨✨New from the @healthfoundation.bsky.social Over the past decade healthy life expectancy has dropped by ~ two years to just under 61 for both men & women. The UK is 1 of only 5 of the richest 21 countries to see HLE decline and its fall was the second steepest. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New preprint! "Testing is a cornerstone of epidemic response [...] However, testing interventions are inherently complex [...] We propose a data-driven framework to guide effective and equitable testing in epidemics." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Health, poverty and employment effects of cutting income replacement benefits for the disabled: a difference-in-differences analysis of the 2017 welfare reforms jech.bmj.com/content/earl...