After a disastrous launch, the Dept. of Education's new team fixed the FAFSA system, helping 14M+ students. But the GAO criticized their modern methods with an outdated playbook. It's high time we focus on outcomes not broken processes, argues @pahlkadot

I wonder why more academics don't publish their papers with companion websites? I find it so much more enjoyable reading an interactive site! "AI Agents for Economic Research" by @antonkorinek www.genaiforecon.org

I remember meeting Karthik & @singhabhi.bsky.social w/ the Mindspark/EI team when I was working at Global Innovation Fund back in 2017—and being blown away by how they were designing for impact @ scale from day 1. A stellar example of academics + do-ers partnering for scale 🚀📈👇

Impact-focused funders often ask: if it worked here, will it work there? This paper is a small, but impt step toward a generalized approach (grounded in theory + human data) to generalize research across settings—core to putting social science to use at scale.💪

Science faces a replication crisis: billions wasted, progress slowed, policy misled A new idea from @i4replication.bsky.social Brodeur & Barbarioli in @ifp.bsky.social's #LaunchEngine imagines how to build automated replication infrastructure for *better* & *faster* science ifp.org/the-replicat...

Few things I love more than when I see a paper report on how research was put to use at scale!!👇 New study on fixing college admissions. In Chile’s centralized system, personalized, in-platform info helped students avoid common app mistakes & improved outcomes🧵⬇️

Was stunned when I saw these results...👇 In rural Kenya a $1k transfer cut infant & child mortality in ~ *half* with largest drops around delivery & near physician-staffed facilities 😲 Kudos to @tedmiguel.bsky.social @nshankar.bsky.social @eggerdennis.bsky.social & others involved in the study!🧵

Great 🧵 about our recent @science.org policy essay arguing we need an evidence base for effective AI policy—plus support and protections for the researchers doing this important work. Thank you @michaeleddy.bsky.social!

New in @science.org : 20+ AI scholars—inc. @alondra.bsky.social @randomwalker.bsky.social @sanmikoyejo.bsky.social et al, lay out a playbook for evidence-based AI governance. Without solid data, we risk both hype and harm. Thread 👇

Saw this paper presented—another jaw-dropping proof of how AI is accelerating science. Yet nearly all the energy is in bio & engineering. What AI-driven breakthroughs are accelerating the pace of the social sciences? Would love to hear!

UPDATE: Given passage of the new tax law (and implications for SNAP, Medicaid, and other benefits), under Cassandra Madison's leadership, we wanted to move quickly to get this call-for-proposals out the door. Send us your ideas: www.publicbenefitinnovationfund.org/summer-2025-...

AI chatbots are 87% cheaper and 3,107x more data-efficient than web search, helping Sierra Leonean teachers access tailored, relevant info despite low connectivity New 📄 by @dbjork.bsky.social , @paulfab.bsky.social et. al. nber.org/conferences/...

First Father’s Day as a new dad—and I’m still in awe. In the early 90s I doubted I’d ever see marriage, fatherhood, family. Yet here we are: two husbands, one *amazing* son, and a world that has made progress possible. So grateful! 🥰🥰

What does it look like to take government efficiency seriously? New work between Stanford RegLab & San Francisco cuts through red tape to free up civil servants time to focus on what matters most. 🧵👇 www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

How can AI expand access to evidence—so governments can direct limited resources where they’ll do the most good? The World Bank’s new ImpactAI aims to bring evidence to scale. Months of lit review, in minutes. impactai.worldbank.org #aiforgood #devecon

"A study finds stacking bricks differently could help this county fight air pollution" @npr.org www.npr.org/sections/goa... @stanfordimpactlabs.bsky.social @stanfordwoods.bsky.social

Every year South Asia’s brick kilns spew as much CO₂ as the entire U.S. car fleet. Kilns poison the air that 2 billion people breathe—and kill over 50,000 annually A new study in Science shows how simple fixes can clean air, cut emissions & improve public health🧵⬇️

Every year South Asia’s brick kilns spew as much CO₂ as the entire U.S. car fleet. Kilns poison the air that 2 billion people breathe—and kill over 50,000 annually A new study in Science shows how simple fixes can clean air, cut emissions & improve public health🧵⬇️

What makes an idea go from promising to adopted at scale? Spoiler: It’s not just research evidence or funding. This article breaks down why government capability and public partnership matter for real-world impact. ssir.org/articles/ent...

Looking for a new role related to research, civic tech, data analytics, or policy? Visit this curated list of open positions Tobin Center built along w/ @stanfordimpactlabs.bsky.social @j-palna.bsky.social & many others. Browse jobs or submit a job listing here www.publicsolutionsjobs.org

✴️ REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS! ✴️ @navigation.org is seeking bold projects at the intersection of AI and Open Science. We support innovative applications that make science more transparent, efficient, and trustworthy. Deadline: July 15, 2025. os.nav.fund/ai-for-os/ #openscience #AIforScience

With cities across the US struggling w/ how to address severe mental illness, 1 county in PA is testing a new approach w/ @vbolotnyy.bsky.social & @stanfordimpactlabs.bsky.social to ↗️health & ↘️hospitalization New @ifp.bsky.social Statecraft interview w/ Alex Jutca discusses this & other great work

Beating a dead horse here, but higher ed is an incredible source of American soft power The international students we educate at places like my institution, Harvard Kennedy School, bring their educational experiences to their home countries in ways that greatly enhance US interests

“Evaluation” is a vague term in AI — and that’s a problem. This new piece offers a clear framework for sequencing evaluations of AI for good so we can better assess what matters, when, and why.👇 theagencyfund.substack.com/p/an-ai-eval... By @agencyfund.bsky.social w @samicart.bsky.social & others

With University's under attack, its more important than ever to demonstrate tangible ways that Univ's can leverage their core research mission to benefit America & the World Excited to welcome Matt Gentzkow as we chart a future vision of social science R&D at scale news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

What's happening in AI in 2025? check out... The State of AI in 10 charts 👉 hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-inde... Quiz yourself 👉 hai.stanford.edu/news/how-wel... Full report 👇

How to make sense of Trump's tariffs? The new field of "geoeconomics" helps to explain on.ft.com/3YjmhwF @gcaproject.bsky.social w/ @chris-d-clayton.bsky.social @mmaggiori.bsky.social @jesseschreger.bsky.social

Interesting JMP from Youn Baek on how Christian missionaries have shaped America's commitment to international development younbaek.github.io/assets/paper...

As the current admin attempts to renegotiate the social compact w/universities, the launch of @impactatharvard.bsky.social couldn’t be better timed Its a important model for Univ's to demonstrate how research can serve communities across America & the world www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

NIH spending more than pays for itself. It generates about $2.5 for every $1 spent. In terms of research productivity, NIH funding dwarfs the rest of the world. The only long-term potential rival is China. Politicizing the NIH's scientific processes will hand China a huge strategic advantage.

Science is serendipitous🍀 New research finds "~70% of biomedical papers include outcomes that would not be expected from what scientists proposed in their funding applications" What a killer stat!! www.nature.com/articles/d41... #metascience #scienceofscience @sampat.bsky.social

In 2004, it took the world a year to add one gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day.

New @nberpubs on congestion pricing finds increase in speeds and decrease in emissions, with "no significant difference btw neighborhoods w/ different income" By @codycook.bsky.social l www.nber.org/papers/w33584

Want to support the competitiveness of America's farmers? We need more, not less, public investment in R&D. By @arielob.bsky.social @yurouhe.bsky.social, Lobell, et. al

With Ezra Klein's new book on Abundance about to come out, @open_phil is doubling down on metascience & accelerating scientific progress. 👇

How did one county prevent people from falling into homelessness by over 80% & generate $2.47 in public benefits for each $1 spent on the program? and what does this mean for other counties tackling homeless? really impressive work by our friends at Santa Clara County & LEO.

How might the new director of the National Institutes of Health shape science policy? His own research on science policy might provide some clues....

What characteristics predict the success of an innovation? This is a question i've thought about a lot--both as an entrepreneur; and now someone who funds innovation. Here's some data from the field of VC-backed innovation. 👇

Co-Director @mmaggiori.bsky.social joins Stanford GSB's If/Then podcast to discuss geoeconomics and global financial power. Available where you listen to podcasts or bit.ly/4i2HCSy.

Nice PNAS article from our friends at @pewresearch.org & elsewhere articulating why funders support engaged research; and *how* they do it. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our study, the first post-implementation evaluation of the removal of race adjustment from the eGFR equation, is discussed in this Nature feature www.nature.com/articles/d41... We found no change in nephrology referrals & visits Our paper, led by Marika Cusick proceedings.mlr.press/v248/cusick2...

🚨 Excited to share our new article in @annualreviews.bsky.social. Working with Kristin Linn, @5harad.com, Amol Navathe, and Ravi Parikh, we examine the fairness debates of seven prominent and controversial healthcare algorithms.🧵 madisoncoots.com/files/racial...

NEW in Management Science! My coauthors and I came up with a new consequentialist approach to designing equitable algorithms. Instead of imposing fairness criteria on an algorithm (like equal false negative rates), we aim for good outcomes. More in the 🧵 below! (1/)

Civil servants who stop bad things from happening is wayyyyy underrated form of public service. No one gets an award for preventing that disaster that didn’t happen.

Interesting new #metascience program at NIH. Glad to see they'll be given access to internal administrative data! More large federal agencies should do this!! dpcpsi.nih.gov/oepr/pilot-n...

Six years ago, critical US education data was changed to make it less useful in tracking educational outcomes. You now have the opportunity to improve the quality of US education performance data by signing on to the EOP SEDA letter below or submitting your own comment mailchi.mp/d389506a6ac9...

Imagine a education intervention that in 6 weeks in Nigeria achieved the equivalent of 2-years of schooling, was low-cost, easy to scale, improved equity & beat 80% of other education interventions That'd be pretty impressive, eh? Go check it out 👇 blogs.worldbank.org/en/education...

Looking forward to joining #ASSA2025 this weekend, as 1000s of economists descend on my hometown of San Francisco. Lots of exciting policy-relevant work being presented--too much to keep track of! Let me know if you'll be there & want to grab a coffee!!

We knew pollution was horrible for society to being with … now this 👇

The U.S. invests 10s of billions of dollars in R&D to live longer & healthier lives. What if we were to take a similar level of seriousness in R&D against society's hardest social problems? Stanford Impact Labs is aiming to build a scalable model to do just that Learn more👉 impact.stanford.edu