NEW: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act imposes stricter food stamp work requirements and shifts a larger share of the costs to states. Arizona’s swift implementation has made it more difficult to apply and caused nearly half of recipients to lose benefits.

Chatted with Jenny Ifft this week about the food assistance landscape, overviewing our public and private programs and where they're going open.spotify.com/episode/26lX...

SNAP work requirements reduce participation by increasing procedural denials—a direct marker of administrative burden. Exploiting age-based exemptions for able-bodied adults without dependents, from Jason B. Cook, Elizabeth Cox, and Chloe N. East www.nber.org/papers/w34698

Wait, it gets worse. The team of economists and researchers responsible for the USDA survey that measures food insecurity and hunger were put on indefinite paid leave today. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

🧵 of my favorite new papers that I saw at #ASHEcon2025 First up is “Stigmas and Social Safety Net Participation” from @kpukelis.bsky.social and Michael Holcomb which finds interesting stigma difference along political lines

Coming soon to Zoom rooms near you! We're excited to announce a reboot of the Chamberlain Seminar, five years after its 2020 debut We'll kick things off on 3/21 with a tribute to Gary. More info and future seminars here: chamberlainseminar.org Register here: stanford.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I am hearing that PEPFAR programs are still being stalled, and medication appointments cancelled, despite a waiver in place to allow life-saving programs to continue. Thus, @belindaarch.bsky.social and I are sharing the letter we wrote, signed by 110 economists, urging its continuation. 1/4

We are now on Bluesky! Follow us for the latest news and updates from JPAM. #EconSky #PolicySky

@belindaarch.bsky.social and I have written a letter from economists regarding PEPFAR. Please sign and share with your network. Only economist signatures right now (for more focused impact). Once signed, we will share with the administration, congress, + the media. #econsky forms.gle/C5roVX5sFF14...

Broader agreement that it to applies to discretionary spending payments (Head Start, WIC, etc).

📈📉 New Census Working Paper: "Food Security Status Across the Rural-Urban Continuum Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic" by Patrick J. Brady, Melissa N. Laska, Rachel Widome, and Sruthi Valluri www.census.gov/library/work...

Hello World! The Editorial Board of Health Economics is pleased to announce that we are now live on the happier, friendlier, and all-together Blue-er place. Please follow us (and repost) for updates on articles and journal issues as they come out.

PSA to job market candidates: if you didn't get a particular flyout, it may have had nothing to do with the quality of your interview. Departments have a myriad of internal constraints and goals that are unobservable to you, and the process is a lot more complex than you think.

Excited to start the year off sharing some memes made by my students in Intro Econometrics for extra credit on their final. The prompt is to make a meme about an econometrics concept, and then explain to me, as if I am your less econometrically savvy relative, why the meme works.

Judith Liu presenting research with our Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, and Norbert Wilson, on disparities in food insecurities between foreign-born and U.S.-born-headed households. #ASSA2025

🚨Closing out 2024 with a new paper with @hristakeva.bsky.social and @leofeler.com: How GLP-1 medications like Ozempic are reshaping food demand and changing the rules of the game for the food industry.

New statement from Ty Jones Cox on the continuation of #SNAP benefit theft protections in a proposed farm bill extension: www.cbpp.org/press/statem...

The technical term for this move is “some BS” … the only tax program that scored higher in reviews from users was the pre-populated tax return pilot in California … also targeted by massive for-profit tax preparer lobbying …

🚨 New @apsrjournal.bsky.social Paper! 🚨 In “When Migrants Mobilize against Labor Exploitation: Evidence from the Italian Farmlands,” I study how empowering undocumented migrants can reduce labor exploitation and even weaken organized crime. Thread : 🧵

🚨 new policy brief 🧵 poverty.ucdavis.edu/post/snap-pa... Farmworkers have high food insecurity AND low SNAP participation (even if eligible). We show big correlations between harvest timing and farmworkers leaving then re-entering SNAP. This pattern hurts both households and state budgets. 1/3

Mandatory interviews with a fixed interview time are a critical administrative checkpoint for SNAP applicants. Giving them flexibility in scheduling interviews helps them get past this checkpoint. We ran experiments to increase interview flexibility with Code for America in LA and Boulder, CO.

Sometimes the combination of arrogance and ignorance is breathtaking. Yes, US health care has high admin costs; that's because it relies so much on private insurers. Govt-run health insurance has much lower overhead

Fun fact: “The average American eats about 20 pounds of fresh tomatoes per year, two-thirds of which now come from Mexico.” asmith.ucdavis.edu/news/mexican...

@ #SEA2024 tomorrow and Monday. Tomorrow I’m presenting new work on the effect of SNAP retailer disqualifications on participation in “Food Insecurity and Food Assistance” from 4-5:45p in Georgetown East Looking forward to meeting/reconnecting with folks Come say hi!

UMN APEC is hiring in ag business! Come work with us, one of the best ag econ depts in the US, excellent colleagues and students. Twin Cities amenities - great for food + 🎸🎹🎻 + 🚲 + 🛶 Apply by December 15 aaea.execinc.com/edibo/JobBoa...

Hello, hello! I'm officially back on here. Who should I be following? Where are the food/agriculture policy nerds? Help me out!

For #FarmBill & #EconSky followers gearing up: @chloeneast.bsky.social & I wrote a comprehensive explainer on SNAP work requirements: the rules, the research, and our recommendations. www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...

One of Trent Turkey's favorite fire safety songs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqB...

Sharing another UMN APEC #EconJMP! Jiuchen Deng is a labor economist studying how children’s personality traits & cognitive skills develop (mediated by kid’s environment) and effects on labor market outcomes. Jiuchen’s JMP finds that the Big 5 and cognitive skills matter for adult earnings.

To all the new #EconSky people whi may be dealing with the Econ Job Market: *There is an #EconJMP feed *I have a PhD Job Market Starter Pack go.bsky.app/4icnwxi. If you are a candidate or an institution posting *many* openings, reach out and I will add you.

Hey all, I created a starter pack with a list of Black economists and academics for an easily accessible list of folks doing research that we can all follow and cite #Blacksky #AddtoBlacksky #Econsky: go.bsky.app/RyKSzcb

Check out @yanxulong.bsky.social's #EconJMP! Yanxu shows that rural poverty alleviation in China increases forest cover, with benefits from carbon storage 5x the cost of the policy. The main mechanism? People move away from rural areas as poverty falls. Find out more at yanxulong.github.io

🙋‍♀️

The AEA Job Market Committee has posted a video providing information and guidance on the job market. View the 2024 Webinar on the Economics PhD Job Market at aeaweb.org/joe/communic....

Didn’t want anyone to miss a photo of Janet Yellen with a toddler dressed as Janet Yellen

The research is clear -- the best way to encourage work among low-income adults in the US is to GIVE them SNAP Taking it away or imposing work requirements does not help people find steady work -- see references below.

New Orleans students Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson, credited with solving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, have discovered nine more solutions to the problem

I have a joke about IV but it’s too LATE to tell it.

I guess it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president wapo.st/3UqHWRM

Exciting work from Monique Davis - an applied micro & labor economist focusing on the economics of race (UMN APEC PhD, Minneapolis Fed RA). Her #EconJMP shows that race-neutral school policies do not reduce racial gaps in discipline, and worsen them in majority Black schools. www.moniqueedavis.com

Work on benefit cliffs is SO important. Doing some outreach this summer I heard from people who were really struggling after small increases in income meant they were no longer eligible for SNAP. This is great policy work.

Check out @lingyao314.bsky.social's #EconJMP! She web-scraped data on machinery purchases in China to study mechanization and labor. Ling finds that ⬆️ mechanization ➡️ different effects for men and women – men go back into ag while women leave the labor force. Read more: lingyao314.github.io

Have we discussed Taskmaster? Have you watched it before? I find it the most stress-relieving program ever. Funny, silly, low-stakes, great. It's five good-natured British comedians competing at ridiculous tasks. Please give it a try if you haven't before! It's also easy to start and stop

Qingyin Cai is on the market! She works at the intersection of ag, food, and enviro, asking how climate change and other shifts in food markets will affect ag supply chains. Check out her website (www.qingyincai.com) which includes her JMP on drought and CA fruit and veg production. #EconSky

Hey #EconSky! We've got some great JMCs in Applied Econ at UMN. I'm going to be posting about them over the next month-ish, so you can get to know their work. Look out for these folks if you are on the market - they have great training and interesting ideas.

🚨 ATTENTION GRAD STUDENTS 🚨 Join us for an exciting Virtual Mentoring Event! 📅 Monday, October 14th 🕛 Noon-1:30 PM (EDT) on Zoom 🎓 For grad students pursuing non-academic careers in economics (1/3)

Thrilled that Monique Davis is featured on the CSMGEP page! Monique is a terrific candidate - capable, productive - and will make a fantastic colleague. Check out her website for more about her work on the economics of racism, racial equity, and intergroup inequality: www.moniqueedavis.com

A top-tier seminar series. Looking forward to Aaron's talk - thanks to @luciegschmidt.bsky.social and Tara Watson for coordinating another year of VEPPS

Presumably the count follows a Poisson distribution?

Two things are true right now for the U.S. economy, says EPI's Elise Gould: 1️⃣ The labor market is extraordinarily strong 2️⃣ The Federal Reserve is behind the curve in cutting interest rates and should start cutting them at their meeting next week 🧵1/5 www.epi.org/blog/the-lab...