I have added my name to this open letter from economists supporting Federal Reserve independence and Governor Lisa Cook. Thank you @tderyugina.bsky.social for facilitating this!

The letter is ready, thanks to all those who helped out! Starting to gather signature now, please consider signing (link at top of letter) & spread the word. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Seems like if we want to increase a culture of work etc etc, this might be more promising than taking food benefits away from 60 year olds or parents of 9 year olds. Of course funding things like this wouldn’t open up budgetary space for tax cuts for rich people.

1/ Want to help US workers? Enforce labor law, not deportation orders. Undocumented immigrants are not the problem. The problem is the govt’s inadequate response to structural shifts in the economy that undermine worker power. NEW REPORT: smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...

Who do work requirements penalize? @lizananat.bsky.social‬, ‪@agpines.bsky.social‬, and Olivia Howard offer findings on low-income service sector workers whose unpredictable work hours are largely driven by their employers and not by choice. www.brookings.edu/articles/wor...

One of grants frozen at Cornell: $6.7M (4 yrs) to develop heart pumps for babies born w/ heart defects. It took decades of work to get to point of prepping device for in-human clinical trials. No private company could do this. The cruelty of the Trump administration is heartbreaking. So to speak.

This makes me so sad. My first thought is this is yet another casualty of the "smart phones ruined everything" hypothesis. But I wonder if it's also downstream effects of education policy last few decades treating reading as a skill for standardized tests rather than something fun

While you highlight it, please note is the product of local journalism, which has been carrying a lot of the burden in an environment where national outlets simply can't cover everything everywhere all at once. Support your local journalists!

Alert--one heck of an opportunity to measure the tax incidence of tariffs! (That is, if Amazon measures/announces incidence correctly...)

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants,” winks Louis Brandies at us.

For your enjoyment: here is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon talking about implementing AI in schools, but pronouncing it "A1," as in "A1 Steak Sauce" www.youtube.com/live/lxrg28z...

I know you have a million things on your plate. Take 5 minutes to call your senators and your representative to demand that they speak out against this abhorrent and un-American action by the Trump administration. North Carolinians: a staffer picks up at Budd's office; you leave a message for Tillis

Here’s the reality: This government—despite what they’d have us believe—cannot simply do whatever it wants. The moment we accept that bullshit, we become complicit in this blatantly authoritarian move by the president and his administration. With a loud, collective voice, we must say: fuck this!

If you think empathy is weakness, you're revealing yourself as a psychopath.

Fellow North Carolinians: I just left a message for our Republican Senator Thom Tillis--with whom I rarely agree but who has spoken out in support of Ukraine. Let's rattle our elected representatives to not just sit back as this slide to authoritarianism continues.

The media should relentlessly be explaining three facts: 1. Payroll is a very small part of govt. spending 2. It is possible to cripple govt. and save little 2. In addition to being illegal/unconstitutional, DOGE cuts are a rounding error compared to numbers in budget resolution

In 2024, the NLRB filed a complaint against Tesla for interfering in a union drive at their Buffalo, NY assembly plant. Today:

I am ecstatic to share that I got tenure!!! The job security is great, but honestly the reaction from these two may have been the very best part. Please indulge me in a few musings / ramblings about the gratitude—and other feelings—radiating through me right now….

if you work at OSHA or the Department of Labor and wanna share a tip about what’s happening with a friendly labor reporter, I will protect your privacy and am ALL ears I’m on Signal (kimkelly.666) and you can email me securely at [email protected]‬

super interesting paper that probably is relevant for interpreting results from **MANY** RCTs.

Has there ever been a better description of the concept of opportunity cost? Thoreau--the transcendental economist!

Come to our ASSA LERA session on Compliance and Enforcement of Labor and Employment Law: - New survey data on labor standards compliance - Management practices & workplace injuries - Wage theft by demographic group - Compliance incentives Sunday, 1-3pm #ASSA2025 #LERA2025 #EconSky

Attention: PhD students and early-career researchers interested in the fiscal and economic effects of productivity policies -- particularly R&D, immigration, and infrastructure permitting. Consider applying to this Sloan Foundation NBER fellowship: www.nber.org/graduate-fel...

My fantastic PhD advisee Nikita Kohli (on the market!) has a killer JMP: she finds that weakening union power in Brazil REDUCED formal employment. Key mechanism is unions aided scarce enforcement of labor regulations. Check out her summary on Development Impact 👇and her website www.nikitakohli.com

This could be a nice basis for a game theory application in intro econ. Game is btwn two ivies (or two depts within an ivy). Choice is be tough/lenient w/ grades. Individually rational for all to be lenient, but leads to prisoners dilemma b/c signal of ability muddied for all when all choose lenient

✨ Call for papers! ✨ The next edition of the Nebraska Labor Summit will be held on March 28, 2025, with keynotes by Jesse Rothstein and Marika Cabral. Danny Tannenbaum, Rebecca Jack, and I are excited to review submissions, so submit your work by December 1, #EconSky ! tinyurl.com/NebraskaLabo...

Spending September and early October of my sabbatical visiting University of Bologna’s Economics department! A wonderful research community here, located in a truly fantastic city.

This paper sounds very cool—workers dislike inflation because negotiating w/ employers entails costly conflict, even if real wages perfectly adjust. I think a corollary would be unionized workers care less about inflation b/c their “conflict costs” are lower urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

pretty wild that these two papers showed up back to back in my NBER WP email this morning:

Thanks to MSNBC for getting my newest piece out with Sam Sommers about Trump’s recent comments about Kamala Harris’ identity! www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Happiest place on Earth!

Had a fantastic visit to Cornell Econ for the labor/public workshop! Incredibly vibrant group. Engaging meetings w/ @danielascur.bsky.social & many others whose #econsky handles I don’t know. And what’s that clever thing people say about Ithaca being Gorges?

😱

To all Econ PhD students: Want to spend the summer in San Francisco, while making rapid progress on your papers? Apply for the SF FED Dissertation Fellowship! Deadline: March 25. Please like/RT! #EconTwitter More info here: www.frbsf.org/our-district...

#econsky what's your favorite Regression Discontinuity (RD) paper that's accessible/digestible to advanced undergrads? Ideally one in (broadly speaking) labor/public.

NBER training opportunity led by Jetson Leder-Luis (BU) and Sebastian Tello Trillo (UVA, @sebastiantt.bsky.social) for grad students who want to study health and aging economics, and who come from an under-represented or non-traditional group. See the link for more info: www.nber.org/calls-papers...

#econsky A student asked a question in my labor class that gave me pause. Would progressive taxation plausibly *increase* labor supply for high-earners, b/c of backward bending labor supply curves? (at high wages, income effect dominates substitution effect of wage increase-->⬇️ wage ⬆️ labor supply)

📚🚨 My book, "Governing After War: Rebel Victories and Post-war Statebuilding", will be out on Feb 22 and avail for pre-order! bit.ly/govafterwar ❓: how does rebel governance & social control shape rebel victors' post-war strategies for consolidating power?

Higher prevalence of co-authorship in research over time reveals the gains from collaboration in advancing knowledge. Yet teaching is still nearly always a solo endeavor--co-teaching courses is rare to non-existent. What explains these differences? Technology differences? Institutions frictions?

We launched this last year and it was a great success. Any advanced PhD students interested in relevant topics whom you know will want to know about it & they probably haven't heard because it's still quite new.

I'm excited to be discussing awesome papers in two (!!) session on the economics of labor unions this weekend at #ASSA2024! Session 1: Economics of Union Representatives (Fri at 10:15) Session 2: How Do Firms Respond to Unions? (Sun at 1:00pm)

The problem is not too many academics running universities, the problem is too few. What we see now is the result of the corporatization of universities. stop with the idea that running universities as if they are businesses is good for anyone. It’s bad. Let academics do academia.

Today.

White House CEA kicking out amazing research today. The March 2021 (2 months after Biden became POTUS) American Rescue Plan authorized $24 billion in childcare stabilization grants. Once $ arrived in counties, mothers of young children gained employment. www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-...

Hi #EconSky 📉📈--Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke is hiring 3 (!) tenure-track positions in wide range of policy areas. Wonderful colleagues, great applied micro community, Durham = fantastic place to live. Email/message me with questions! Job ad: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/25832

Diff in diff 🤝 life-saving policy www.inquirer.com/transportati...