The Federal Trade Commission is hiring PhD Economists (very late, because shutdown)! Please repost/quote so JMCs can see. - no experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851497400 - some experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851497300 - much experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851496000 #Economics #EconSky

Update: September jobs report is coming out on Thursday! www.bls.gov/bls/2025-lap... #NumbersDay

I have a new essay in Bloomberg Weekend about how important government science is to advanced tech like SpaceX's Starship, and what we can expect from big cuts to government R&D: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

in which one of my favorite modern econ papers is referenced: government nondefense R&D accounts for about a fifth of post-World War II business-sector productivity growth in the US

I really enjoyed speaking with David Rotman for this excellent new piece in the MIT Technology Review, which cites two of our papers on the returns to government R&D investments: t.co/YjTsXgopVp

I don’t think I have ever publicly criticized any Presidential nominee before. But E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise. He would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats.

In my column yesterday about the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I explained the agency needs a leader committed to the data and its reporting, not the president. I called it the difference between a watchdog and a lapdog. Prime example of the latter: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Great piece on the centrality of federal science & technology funding for U.S. national security by Frank Rose, former Principal Deputy Administrator of the NNSA, in @defenseone.bsky.social: www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/0...

I really enjoyed doing this interview w/ @faculti.bsky.social about my recent papers 'The Social Returns to Public R&D' and an earlier paper 'The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks', both joint with Karel Mertens (Dallas Fed)

If government-funded research delivers such enormous economic returns, why does Washington keep cutting it? @fieldhouse.bsky.social , Mays Business School , @tamu.bsky.social , discusses: lnkd.in/d9sJKNvs #finance

If government-funded research delivers such enormous economic returns, why does Washington keep cutting it? @fieldhouse.bsky.social , Mays Business School , @tamu.bsky.social , discusses: lnkd.in/d9sJKNvs #finance

This also includes some provisions that the parliamentarian advised violate the Byrd rule. Some will get cured, but the cost will go up by as much as $450 billion (my guess is maybe around $250 billion, but that's a rough estimate).

CBO cost estimate of the Senate GOP bill is out! But this is the version where they pretend $3.76 trillion of tax cuts are actually free. When you account for that CBO estimates that their bill will increase deficits by $3.3 trillion over the decade, much more expensive than the House.

Slashing government R&D (Research and Development) isn’t just a budget cut – it’s a blow to U.S. innovation and long-term growth. A recent study finds that federal science funding has driven over 20% of productivity gains since WWII. buff.ly/dPSrknT #innovation #science #USPolitics

NEW FROM CBO: brutal distributional analysis of House GOP "Big Beautiful Bill" On avg the bottom 30% of households get poorer under the GOP bill Avg gets little - and are worse off if you include tariffs This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

Short piece but BIG picture.

I have a new short piece out this morning in the @us.theconversation.com summarizing my research w/ Karel Mertens (Dallas Fed) on the economic benefits of government-funded R&D: theconversation.com/federal-rand...

this is quite the axe and i would be surprised if congress is happy with it

The Presidents Budget Request for NASA is out. It’s a bloodbath Canceled are DAVINCI, VERITAS, Juno, OSIRIS-APEX, US participation in ExoMars and EnVision… Huge cut to R&A. No funding to begin development of the Uranus Orbiter. If you’ve ever cared about NASA, time to contact congress.

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

I really enjoyed being interviewed and chatting with Wendy Zukerman about my research on the economic benefits of federal science and R&D funding for this latest @sciencevs.bsky.social podcast episode:

If enacted, this would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.

New from CBO: the Republican budget reconciliation plan would hurt the poorest Americans while helping the richest Americans

Fantastic thread on an important paper. Andrew's previous paper ("The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks") also worth a read.

Very excited about our new paper on the large social returns to public R&D spending, which was prepared for the @NBER Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy Conference, 2025

Recent evidence finds a strong causal link between public research and development and private-sector productivity growth. A study on the potential productivity effects from the CHIPS Act, from @fieldhouse.bsky.social and Karel Mertens https://www.nber.org/papers/w33780

Really enjoyed chatting with @gbrumfiel.bsky.social about our research on the economic returns to federal R&D funding for this story

great quote from @fieldhouse.bsky.social

Letter from tons of us, including 3 former Senate Budget GOP staffers and 3 former Senate Budget Dem staffers all say that what Rs are doing is breaking budget enforcement. "There is no point of budget enforcement if Congress gets to pick the score it wants." www.politico.com/live-updates...

“What they are doing to suggest extending tax cuts doesn’t cost anything defies economic reality. This is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated in the Congress” ~Kent Conrad

Unreal. Such a self inflicted wound. A generational mistake

Genuine question: Is there any serious argument for why "trade deficit/imports" is a reasonable way to estimate bilateral trade barriers? (I'm not just looking for dunks here -- I'm trying to understand if there's any validity to this approach.) #EconSky

Started Going 2024 2025

“.. A recent paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that government investments in [R&D] accounted for at least a fifth of U.S. productivity growth since World War II. “.. ‘Sometimes you don’t realize the value of something until it’s gone.’” @bencasselman.bsky.social

If you're going to read 1 newspaper article this week, I suggest this one. "Since World War II, US research funding has led to discoveries that fueled economic gains. Now cutbacks are seen as putting that legacy in jeopardy." By @bencasselman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/b... #econsky

Really enjoyed talking w/ @bencasselman.bsky.social for this piece, which was well researched and does an excellent job surveying recent studies on the benefits of federal R&D funding + support of scientific research www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/b...

Quite the striking figure from Stock and Watson at @brookings.edu #bpea S2025: The U.S. recovery from Covid was the first trend-reverting recession recovery on record

Predicting the Next Recession www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/02/pred...

Fieldhouse and Mertens, "The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks" "... government-funded R&D accounts for one quarter of business-sector TFP growth since WWII ..." andrewjfieldhouse.com/wp-content/u...

Looking forward to presenting "The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks" at #SEA2024 'Firm Dynamics and Innovation' session, 8am tomorrow! (3.A.17)

Two new appendices (E.6 and E.7) perform additional checks on the extent of the possible bias due to mismeasurement of the growth contribution of private R&D in Fernald’s TFP measure; neither suggests meaningful bias

Karel Mertens and I have an updated version of our paper “The Returns to Government R&D: Evidence from U.S. Appropriations Shocks,” short 🧵on what's changed:

Karel Mertens and I have a new, accessible, and short summary of our recent working paper up the Dallas Fed's blog: www.dallasfed.org/research/eco...

New to Econ bsky, here we go!