My three favourite papers on the political economy of zero-sum politics (aside from the well-known Chinoy et al. paper). 1. @snageebali.bsky.social, Maximilian Mihm, and Lucas Siga. 2025. ‘The Political Economy of Zero-Sum Thinking’. Econometrica 93(1): 41–70. t.co/LoCepP3L1L

An inspiring and lovely read: www.sfu.ca/economics/co...

Come join us at Penn State Econ for the Midwest Trade & Theory Conference in mid-November. Submission deadline is September 6. Details here: sites.google.com/view/midwest...

New paper! Strategic Complexity Promotes Egalitarianism in Legislative Bargaining, with Marina Agranov, Doug Bernheim, and Tom Palfrey The paper shows theoretically and experimentally that egalitarianism can be a strategic response to complex bargaining situations. sites.psu.edu/nageebali/fi...

Cookie banner design matters for privacy choices, but browser-level settings improve welfare far more than better banners or defaults, from Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, and Tesary Lin https://www.nber.org/papers/w34025

You can trust a theorist to write a self-referential ChatGPT acknowledgement.

Forthcoming in the AER: "Robustness Measures for Welfare Analysis" by Zi Yang Kang and Shoshana Vasserman. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Exciting!

We are sad to announce that former faculty member and Minnesota Econ Ph.D. alum Patrick Bajari passed away on Monday. cla.umn.edu/economics/ne...

It was a fantastic conference and an excellent way to remember an economist who left us too early

Having worked with Sunil Kumar while he was provost here at Johns Hopkins, I am not surprised that he’s showing this kind of leadership as Tufts president. An example to be followed.

Time to work on the follow-up paper, “The Political Economy of Zero Thinking”

I’m at UNC for the Triangle Microeconomics Conference and look whose picture is right next to my hotel room!

I am profoundly saddened and alarmed by Columbia University and Paul Weiss law firm’s capitulation to the increasingly dictatorial Trump administration.

@austinkocher.com: In one of his most dangerous orders so far, Trump instructed the DHS and the DOJ to use "professional ethics" as a mechanism for silencing lawyers who challenge him in court or represent immigrants. austinkocher.substack.com/p/trump-decl...

Ordered. Let’s get the Streisand effect going.

My UCSB econ colleague Ryan Oprea posts a response to critiques of his "Decisions under Risk Are Decisions under Complexity" AER paper. #econsky

🧪The entire staff of the Department of Education’s NCES-a vital independent statistical agency - has just been RIFed. The continued erasure of data and evidence allows for the Trump administration to hide the impact of their corruption. #EduSky #Scisky @aeraedresearch.bsky.social @cossa.bsky.social

I found this to be an inspirational read and an impressive call-to-action during these dark times. www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

This is exactly what the paper should be reporting! This aid was determined by a law last year. It is not discretionary, and withholding such funds was the reason for Trump’s first impeachment. He is very much breaking the law, and it’s being reported as if it’s up to his judgment.

If one person gives a euro to Ukraine, the result is €1. If two people give 2 each, it is €4. If 3,000 give 3,000 each, it is 9 million. Let’s coordinate, here 👇 and please re-post to spread the word. yourcontributionsquared.eu/en/

We have just advertised a one-year postdoc in Oxford for anyone interested in economic theory and especially market design: econjobmarket.org/positions/11.... Feel free to reach out for more info! Applications from folks on the current job market and those planning to go next year are welcome!

Maryam's speech is NOT to be missed. Her story (and courage) is completely inspiring!!! (As my sister said at the ceremony, "Well, aren't you glad you didn't have to follow her!")

Good to see "Robust Monopoly Regulation" by Yingni Guo and Eran Shmaya published. It has sentimental value to us because this was the first VSET presentation with a dedicated poster! Back in 2020, scroll through: sites.google.com/view/vset/pa...

It's not often that a theory paper piques my interest these days*, but this by @snageebali.bsky.social and coauthors, on the logic behind zero-sum thinking by voters, is just brilliant -- and so relevant and urgent! www.econometricsociety.org/publications...

My op-ed: "Colleges and universities ... seem to be hoping that their muted responses — and affirmative acquiescence — will spare them. ...This sort of acquiescence will not only fail to protect institutions, but will expose all of us to further repression." stanforddaily.com/2025/01/28/f...

Every few weeks, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots host a stimulating discussion on his Our Long Walk podcast. I was fortunate to join recently, where we talked about culture — covering topics from pastoralism in Africa to zero-sum thinking around the world and its connection with U.S. politics.

Can’t help but think that part of the US media’s unwillingness to straightforwardly describe Elon Musk’s behavior is fear of having someone with unlimited resources come after them. That in itself illustrates the problem with the concentration of money and power in the hands of connected oligarchs.

Why fund highly novel research? It can improve the evolution of knowledge by guiding future researchers. We propose a model in which researchers decide which questions to address and at what intensity to search for the answer based on existing knowledge. https://buff.ly/3Pxv5uk

Markus’ Academy has been a game-changer in making high-level economic discussions accessible to all. Yesterday, I had the honor of presenting my research with @enriqueide.bsky.social there—a dream come true! Watch the webinar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2VX... #MarkusAcademy #AI #Economics #Research

**New working paper** How does the under-representation of females in Economics affect the career trajectory of female Ph.D. students? Sahar Parsa and I look at this in a new working paper by exploring sabbatical leaves taken by female professors at top-50 US Econ departments.

I was incredibly honored to be awarded the CSWEP Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. When I accepted the award, I talked about the importance of mentoring. The lessons I pass on are kind of obvious. But they are important, so I am going to share them yet again. (A🧵)

Relevant to the debate on fact-checking amidst Meta's decision, Adam Szeidl and Ferenc Szucs tell a clear and terrifying story about the power of misinformation and propaganda, and its effects on democratic accountability. drive.google.com/file/d/1M2Nx...

Bank customers rang up over £2 billion in checking account overdraft charges in the U.K. in 2017. What if banks had to alert customers when their accounts ran low? We ran an RCT with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 2 large banks, and over 1 million customers to find out. #EconSky

Forthcoming in AEJ: Microeconomics: "Social Learning and Strategic Pricing with Rating Systems" by Chia-Hui Chen, Kong-Pin Chen, and Junichiro Ishida. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Very nice podcast indeed. I also gave my modest contribution discussing kidney exchange at the time of the French reform: open.spotify.com/episode/2vJg...

For those interested in hearing more game theory, here is a terrific podcast series, featuring @jeffely.bsky.social, @arielrubinstein.bsky.social, @shengwuli.bsky.social , and many others. open.spotify.com/show/4XlSrTG...

The home of @arielrubinstein.bsky.social knows how to play the email game

It was a *lot* of fun editing this Special Issue in honour of Vince. The topics covered in these papers barely scratch the surface of Vince's wide-ranging interests and contributions. But I think they nicely reflect Vince's early research interests going back all the way to his PhD...

Do coordination failures constrain financial technology adoption? In my paper last month's @aeajournals.bsky.social American Economic Review, I explore this using the Mexican gov's rollout of debit cards to low-income households and look at effects on retailers and other consumers 🧵 1/N

Forthcoming in AEJ: Microeconomics: "Optimal Trade Mechanisms with Adverse Selection and Inferential Naivety" by Takeshi Murooka and Takuro Yamashita. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

What is known about the distributional + welfare effects of tariffs when production is mobile? The rhetoric of tariffs emphasizes how it encourages multinational corporations to locate and manufacture in the US, and I was curious what we know from trade models + empirics.

Looks like a very cool paper; also poignant to see John Morgan’s name.

I'm on the Econ Job Market this year 🤓 I am an applied economic theorist, with a focus on political economy and information economics. My JMP, "Environmental Policymaking with Political Learning", is available here: doi.org/10.31235/osf... #econsky #polisky #econjmp

Research wrecks work-life balance but it’s not obvious which one is being wrecked.

the fallout from the Francesca Gino research misconduct scandal isn't over. @engber.bsky.social writes about how an effort by some of her colleagues to self-audit their work with her ended up raising even more questions — for them personally and their whole field www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

A propos tariffs… It’s job risks, not cheaper goods, that shape how people feel about trade. Most doubt that trade has lowered prices on what they buy, but many see it as boosting the variety of goods available. See this recent paper on trade socialeconomicslab.org/research/wor...

Today's edition of "📈📉 papers you should know" is Amanda Friedenberg's @econometric.bsky.social paper, "Bargaining Under Strategic Uncertainty: The Role of Second-Order Optimism". It's a wonderful example of a paper that delivers new insights from studying an old game.

I wrote an intro to the literature on simple mechanisms. Out now in the JEP. It’s a short (14-page) plain-language summary, designed to get students to the research frontier. 📈📉 pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...