Normatively deeply wrong and economically stupid! Question to political economists/Americanists: What is the best explanation for this move? on.ft.com/41XluDG “Trump to add $100,000 application fee to H-1B foreign worker visas”

The past week has shown us something scary — the concrete and specific outlines of a durable authoritarian state in America. Here's what this state would look like, and the precise policy levers Trump is pulling to get there from here. www.vox.com/politics/462...

👀

👇

This has been a tumultuous week in Australian climate politics! And a good example of how target setting becomes a focal point for agenda-setting on climate, as per @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social, @chflachsland.bsky.social and my paper (below) www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

“The Economics of Carbon Dioxide Removal” www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The new edition of Weber meets Kafka is out! @grattonecon.bsky.social, Luigi Guiso, Claudio Michelacci, and Massimo Morelli. 2021. ‘From Weber to Kafka: Political Instability and the Overproduction of Laws’. American Economic Review 111(9): 2964–3003. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Fascinating paper

In this @stiglercenter.bsky.social ProMarket piece, @grattonecon.bsky.social and I provide a verbal summary of the argument and spell out its broader implications. www.promarket.org/2025/05/14/b...

again, understanding the government as the information collector of last resort brings a lot of other political economy issues into sharp relief

Nice framework. And the normative complement would be that it is OK for majorities in power to delegate to technocratic bodies when they fear their future selves (the usual time inconsistency argument), but not OK when they want to lock in policy because the opposition might rule in the future.

Interested in a take that situates the Cook saga -- and concerns about the erosion of Fed independence -- in a broader theoretical framework? Then, check out the updated version of this working paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social and myself. gratton.org/papers/Techn...

Cool paper by two authors who have done some really interesting work on this important question. cepr.org/publications...

*However* in looking specifically at Labour's Lost Voters, @jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social makes a strong case that you can Fix The Centre Left with Good Economic Policy (or, I guess, Bad Economic Policy that they perceive/experience as good): jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com/p/what-happe...

The new edition of Weber meets Kafka is out! @grattonecon.bsky.social, Luigi Guiso, Claudio Michelacci, and Massimo Morelli. 2021. ‘From Weber to Kafka: Political Instability and the Overproduction of Laws’. American Economic Review 111(9): 2964–3003. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Would the quality of politicians, all else equal, improve if they were paid more? Here is the sketch of my tentative conceptual answer. I'd argue that higher wages have two countervailing effects. They raise competence (by reducing opportunity costs), but may lower morality (by crowding out

Exceptionally informative.

Charlie Kirk's murder has plunged us into a democratic crisis www.vox.com/politics/461...

Great piece by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com — many thanks for linking to my Substack! “The end of the gatekeepers” on.ft.com/41GoWSZ

Explaining the emergence and consolidation of right-wing populism: Part I open.substack.com/pub/jacobede... @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Theoretically, the paper questions the usefulness of the ubiquitous principal-agent model and instead focuses on the basic democratic challenge of stabilizing the political executive in the face of unstable electoral and/or legislative majorities. Forms of government respond to this challenge. 6/6

👇

What constitutional forms of democracy exist in the world today and what’s their rationale? A forthcoming paper of mine in Global Constitutionalism @globcon.bsky.social gives some new answers to these questions. Short 🧵https://shorturl.at/iWAeg

Incredibly important thread. Constitutional Courts are basically wizards that caste legal spells. Everyone else will tolerate them so long as these spells follow precedents and public reasoning. When they conjure spells without such reasoning, eventually people will simply stop listening to them

The center-right CDU/CSU made migration issues the centerpiece of its 2025 election campaign. Yet data new data from the German Longitudinal Election Study indicates that only a minority of remaining & newly won CDU/CSU voters regard migration issues as the "most important political problem". 🧵👇

More stuff on this here 👇 bsky.app/profile/jaco...

Enjoyed this episode. House price [and rent] differentials inhibit spatial mobility, preventing people from moving to opportunity and privately internalising the spatial externalities of local economic shocks. This is also a major problem for climate adaptation. podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

As EU leaders are expected to talk climate shortly, ICYMI: France has pushed to delay discussions on the 2040 climate target, threatening the EU's Paris Agreement ambitions, five officials told us — though 🇫🇷 insists it doesn't want to decouple the two linked goals. www.politico.eu/article/fran...

Didn’t know that Badenoch has read Hans-Werner Sinn’s “The Green Paradox” — for all of its faults, I don’t think he intended for his idea to be interpreted normatively. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Very interesting work by @dlangenmayr.bsky.social et al! www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo...

Seems like a good time to read this beautiful paper! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

✈️Off to Melbourne to present "Adding Fuel to the (Gun)Fire" at Deakin. 👇

Today at @sioecon.bsky.social 2025. How politicians polarize the public debate.

Shitcoins or stablecoins? Replacement for fiat currencies or rival? How can we understand the political economy of cryptocurrencies & its implications for global finance, state sovereignty, & the international system? 🧵 & our new paper with @tompepinsky.com: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....