Can pricing algorithms coordinate without talking? This study tests 7 different algorithms, with some achieving supra-competitive profits in <500 periods, 1000x faster than previously thought. Even with no communication, the algorithms are highly collusive. Read more: tinyurl.com/6av2eevt #EconSky

Is it time to rethink the foundation of oil price forecasting? This recent study revisits Baumeister and Kilian (2012), finding that once spurious predictability is addressed, model-based forecasts struggle to beat a traditional random walk. Read more: tinyurl.com/yeytykp4 #EconSky #Oil

Language isn't just identity; it’s economic infrastructure. This paper shows how bilingual education strengthens internal trade and U.S. welfare, underscoring how language policies yield economic benefits that stretch well beyond national borders. Read more: tinyurl.com/yb3r6vzt #EconSky

"Animal spirits" can be sources of productivity growth. This paper finds that positive sentiment shocks can incentivize firms to increase R&D investment. Which can lead to permanent gains in productivity and potential output. Read more: tinyurl.com/34edy43k #EconSky #Economics

The Hot Hand fallacy is expensive. This new study tracked live betting on 1,224 matches. A team that scores a 1-1 equalizer attracts 60% more bets in their favor. However, always betting on the team with momentum leads to substantial negative returns. Read more: tinyurl.com/45pv4tv5 #EconSky

Why can smaller nations now wage cyberwar against superpowers? This paper provides some insights into this question. Cyber conflict gets more intense when the tech capabilities of the two nations are similar. Find out more: tinyurl.com/ycytk3v8 Press release about the paper: tinyurl.com/4hhtcmhv

Did China's anti-corruption campaign work? Research using housing discounts as a proxy for bribes to government officials says yes. Officials' discounts on new homes shrank significantly after the campaign started. Non-monetary benefits also diminished. tinyurl.com/49evhfry #economics #china

Does affirmative action work? New research on India's 4% quota for backward class Muslims found it increased the average educational attainment by 0.54 years. However, the gains were concentrated among men, with no significant impact on women. tinyurl.com/4hetju9z #economics #education #india

Classic Constant Demand Elasticity growth models mute the links between population size, markup and innovation. This paper uses a variable elasticity framework to re-examine this link, finding population growth determines whether growth is semi or fully endogenous. tinyurl.com/4yd998my #Economics

Our 2024 Editor's Report was published recently. Last year, we published 81 papers across diverse topics in economics. The report also includes important updates on journal policy and activities. Read the full report: tinyurl.com/297bpfrs

Publish your latest and greatest research in Economic Inquiry @ei-sky.bsky.social ! Now with lower submission fees in celebration of WEAI's centennial milestones 🥳. Learn more at www.weai.org/ei #EconSky

How do we inspire future generations to pursue science? Evidence from Tanzania showed that a STEM bootcamp increased children’s interest in science, improved academic engagement & self‐esteem, and shifted girls’ gender attitudes and perceptions. tinyurl.com/2kbbwzbc #Economics #STEM #tech

Do differences in innovation drive global income gaps? A new study by @f-mariuzzo.bsky.social, @datanecon.bsky.social & Junjun Zhang, part of our replicability symposium, finds that the answer is yes, but depends on how innovation is measured and which countries are examined. tinyurl.com/3v57yd9n

Present-biased preferences are often thought to lead to under-saving. This paper shows that age-independent subsidies can help biased agents who understand their bias. But for those who don’t, high subsidies may backfire, while lower ones can actually help. tinyurl.com/yn38hu5m #econsky #policy

Does digital competition hurt truthful reporting? Economists @ayushpan.bsky.social l & @icotrombetta.bsky.social construct a theoretical model to provide insights. For breaking news, speed can reduce accuracy, while for investigative work, reputation drives careful reporting. tinyurl.com/mryp99zr

How does regulation uncertainty affect energy markets? Using natural language processing to measure regulatory uncertainty, this paper shows that rising uncertainty reduces oil production and harms both national and state economic outcomes. tinyurl.com/4trpmsfz #Economics #Energy #EconBlueSky

Continuing our replicability symposium, economists @mdrouvelis.bsky.social and Zeyu Qiu revisit public goods games. They confirm existing evidence: cooperation and positive reciprocity are lower in maintenance than in provision stages. Results persist under income inequality. tinyurl.com/4fwkb74a

Are there hidden downsides of expanding government assistance benefits? Through a lab experiment, this research suggests that newly-eligible individuals are less competitive compared to a treatment in which they do not qualify for the benefit. tinyurl.com/2ez46d3j #Economics #EconBlueSky

How do peers affect your undergraduate major choice? This paper finds that students emulate peers when choosing majors. Moreover, the evidence points to social learning, rather than social utility, being the main driver of these effects. tinyurl.com/bdz52w5k #Economics #EconBlueSky #Education

As part of our replicability symposium, authors show that key findings from Baker & Wurgler (2006, tinyurl.com/3aswpjyu) on investor sentiment replicate and extend to recent US and Chinese data, though effects in China are less pronounced. Read more: tinyurl.com/5xrwb4hc #Economics #EconBlueSky

Are connected housing markets influencing monetary policy transmission? This research finds that more synchronized housing markets intensify monetary policy effects through spillovers to connected local markets. tinyurl.com/4udtxtax #Economics #EconBlueSky #MonetaryPolicy #HousingMarke

Evidence from Georgia’s pre-K lottery shows kids enter kindergarten slightly more prepared than peers who didn't attend pre-K. However, gains fade by the end of kindergarten, questioning the belief that pre-K is essential in child development. tinyurl.com/s4ukkj7k #Economics #Georgia #EconBlueSky

Does additional school funding increase or decrease school donations? Among these potential results, this paper finds evidence for a positive correlation between budgets and voluntary contributions when not accounting for their endogenous relationship! tinyurl.com/pmvcc28n #EconBlueSky

Is there a hidden cost to political connections in China? Results using evidence from stock market responses to land acquisitions and a natural experiment in the form of an anti-corruption campaign suggest markets react to potential future political or legal risks! tinyurl.com/7spkj5hf #Economics

This experimental paper shows that competition reveals more information to a principal when costs are high: tinyurl.com/4m3dxk6k How might this result relate to school admissions and job interviews? #EconBlueSky #Economics

Do unconditional cash transfers effect voting behavior? This paper looks at the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program: tinyurl.com/ymh2e553 Interestingly, a 10% increase in cash ($190) causes a 1.4 percentage point increase in turnout! #EconBlueSky #Economics #Voting #Alaska

Indexing minimum wages to consumer price levels increases unemployment! This paper finds evidence from Oregon that establishment employment falls 3.6% after indexing, implying an employment elasticity of −0.18. tinyurl.com/23j5dhad #EconBlueSky #Economics

Is there a relationship between child custody laws and a mother's work decisions? This great paper studies the impact of COVID-19 on labor force outcomes for mothers based on child custody laws, marital status and parental educational attainment: tinyurl.com/4b3pdaur #EconBlueSky

Interested in game theory? This paper explores the estimated revealed-preference Nash-equilibrium's predictive power in contributions to public goods. In the right circumstances, many real-life public-good problems may be solvable! tinyurl.com/mr2dh74j #EconBlueSky #Economics #GameTheory

Is there a causal relationship between housing wealth and consumption? This paper finds that there is using a novel event study. The effect is mostly driven by creditworthy middle-aged consumer. tinyurl.com/yc4bemr2 @wiley.com #EconBlueSky #Economics

Inflation responds differently to persistent versus transient fluctuations in the unemployment gap! This finding shows that the Phillips curve has not weakened, and that some inflation puzzles can be solved. Read more here: tinyurl.com/fs774mvw

How do workers respond to wage increases in for-profit and non-profit firms? These authors find workers are more responsive to higher wages in a non-profit setting, contrary to theories in prior economics research! tinyurl.com/54mtx53k #EconBlueSky #Economics

Estimates of psychological anchoring effects normally fail to achieve a statistical power of more than 30%. These authors greatly improve on this in this replication exercise and achieve a statistical power of 96%! tinyurl.com/4my7uece #EconBlueSky #economics

An exciting new economics paper finds persistent long-run peer effects of working with future executives! They do this using career history data at the Japanese central administration from 1946 to 2019. Read more here: tinyurl.com/y49fju3j #EconBlueSky #Economics

🚨 New Special Issue Alert! 🚨 This special issue of Economic Inquiry on reproducibility & replicability in economics is co-edited by Farasat Bokhari, Michalis Drouvelis and our chair, Abel Brodeur. This is Part I, focusing on methodological advances and key challenges. 🧵👇

Do laws increasing access to the opioid antagonist naloxone increase ER opioid admissions? While earlier research found this to be true, @sergeyalexeev.bsky.social refutes this conclusion with improvements to a prior paper's data, design, estimation methods! doi.org/10.1111/ecin... #EconBlueSky

What is the relationship between asset return heterogeneity and wage heterogeneity? This author uses novel panel-data measurements for returns on household assets. They find permanent wage risks are correlated with transitory asset risks! tinyurl.com/ye22mdjp #EconBluesky

Are neighboring languages more similar when there are inter-ethnic trade gains to be made? Economists @omerozakecon.bsky.social and Javier Gonzales find this is true by replicating and improving on prior research! The paper and information on replication can be found here: tinyurl.com/yxuc3tu3

Would harsher reprimands for false punishments by the police have a positive income? This paper studies this question with an experiment: tinyurl.com/4sedekhf They also find clearance rates suggest police performance is better when it is unambiguously worse! #EconBlueSky

Our Editorial Board has chosen our Paper of the Year for 2024. This paper presents important results regarding the trustworthiness of economic research. Congratulations to Anna, Magnus and Yifan! doi.org/10.1111/ecin...

As a small way of thanking our referees for their work, we give awards for Outstanding Referee Service. For 2024, our editorial board has given these awards to Geoff Schnorr of West Point, @GeoffSchnorr, and Matias Cortes of York University, @cortesecon.bsky.social . Thanks for the support of EI!

Does growing up in a risky environment make one more likely to take risks in the future? In some cases, yes! This paper provides evidence from Chile, Norway, and Tanzania. Find out more here: tinyurl.com/ya4a4vna #EconBlueSky

Why do studies answering the same question often find differing results? Minor changes in research approach and differences in 'flexibility' between researchers may be driving this! This paper shows this effect for papers studying the impact of Covid 19-era policies! tinyurl.com/ykrkunky

How can we increase organ donations? Researchers in the paper below provide a framework analyzing organ donation behaviors and trends. Using novel data sources, they find dynamic trends explain most of organ donation sign-ups! Find out more here: tinyurl.com/3fk5t6at #EconBlueSky

This paper finds technology spillovers from North-South licensing harm both regions. Stronger spillover effects reduce innovation in advanced nations and adaptation in developing ones! tinyurl.com/4kdr4fvu #EconBlueSky

Does giving tax debtors a break improve compliance and income? This paper uses an interesting quasi-experiment to show that breaks do not improve future compliance. Read more here!: tinyurl.com/4kn8rytj #EconBlueSky

Are you interested in lexicons for natural language processing, how gambling markets include new information in prices, and how underground economies effect macroeconomic policy? The January issue of Economic Inquiry is available online! Read more here: tinyurl.com/bdhv6aez #econbluesky

Why wasn't optimal lock-down policy implemented during the pandemic? This paper explores the impacts of frictions regarding implementation, and the constraints reality brings to this problem! tinyurl.com/mr37apxf #econtwitter #econbluesky

These authors find that only 6% of publications in the German Socio-Economic Panel contain replication code! Incentives to increase code provision are driven by technological advances, individual researcher initiatives, and journal policies. tinyurl.com/vk6c56z7 #EconSky

Having children exacerbates the downward-sloping age-occupational-mobility profile! Parenthood can explain 22% and 12% of the declines in occupational mobility for working men and women. This effect is even greater for workers in disadvantaged groups! #EconSky #Parenthood tinyurl.com/3mbvhaws