The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability and quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Never forget, car dependency isn’t freedom. Some might ask “what’s more free than cars?” Choices. Choices are more free than car dependency. It’s not a hard concept. I’m not pitting cars against any other single mode of transport. I’m rejecting design that creates dependency on just one mode.

Is your transit agency "succeeding"? It depends on the definition of success, and not everyone agrees on that. Here's my timeless article on this, just now updated a bit. humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...

Interesting chart on the fall and rise of Asia in the global economy (and the rise and fall of the "West") courtesy of @data.ft.com

New @nberpubs: "The Economic Impact of Brexit" www.nber.org/papers/w34459 "by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time." 😲

This is very cool research on how the built environment may affect political behaviour

Govt promised to help Palestinians get to UK to study- but I'm in touch with 7 young Palestinians with scholarships at @bristoluni.bsky.social who are trapped in Gaza because the Home Office isn't doing what was promised Shocking neglect putting lives at risk www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

It’s party conference season – and bombastic statements on immigration are at the top of playlists. I for one am tired of hearing the same old emotionally charged promises that just don’t relate to reality. You too? Here are five things you should be hearing about immigration, but won’t be.

🌍📢 Call for Papers!! Urban Studies seeks submissions for a special issue on Climate Urbanism, Resilience & Justice — exploring how cities confront the climate crisis, risk, & inequality. @urbanstudiesjournal.com @acuto.bsky.social  www.urbanstudiesjournal.com/callforpaper...

New in Demography: ‘How Is Fertility Behavior in Africa Different?’ Using DHS/MICS data, SSA–other-region fertility gaps rise through primary school and narrow at higher schooling; little difference among women with secondary+. doi.org/10.1215/0070... @readdemography.bsky.social @seattleu.edu

Really enjoyed taking part in this conversation with Divya Gupta & Gregory Randolph on #urbanization and #inequality in India on the In Common Podcast: www.incommonpodcast.org/podcast/136-...

Deadline is June 1st (23.59).

"oral contraceptives may be lowering all-cause mortality in women: either through the modification of mortality risk at all ages or, possibly, by modifying aging rates and mortality rate doubling times through the synthetic modification of adaptive pathways" www.nature.com/articles/s44...

This is interesting — a recent study of mode share (the % share of transportation trips by car, transit, walking, biking etc) relative to city size and income levels in almost 800 cities in 61 countries. Interesting results. HT @davidzipper.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

BRIEFING | The myth of “left behind” ❓How should government respond to the political discontent signalled by the vote to leave the European Union and the more recent rise of Reform UK? buff.ly/g8K7EDQ 👇

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 New paper by K. Karaman, A. Henriques, & myself. Contrary to conventional wisdom we find that constrained government & state capacity were not systematically related. England stood out for combining both which helps explain its take-off

From state legislatures to community groups, from tribal lands to city parks to postage-stamp backyards, people are doing quiet, vital work to confront climate change and biodiversity loss. All year, @carabuckley.bsky.social and I will be writing about these efforts. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Andy Tatem & Jessica Espey @worldpop-uos.bsky.social report on the growing global crisis in #population data in @theconversation.com. Please share across your networks 📨 "When people vanish from data, they vanish from policy... causing political underrepresentation & inadequate resource allocation"

Sewer access shapes developing world cities. New research shows effects on population density as large as for highways, but little on demographics, from Sean E. McCulloch, Matthew P. Schaelling, Matthew Turner, and Toru Kitagawa https://www.nber.org/papers/w33597

Nice article on population projections, making the point that one problem with population panics is that it’s incredibly difficult to predict population trends. Implementing drastic policy solutions on the basis of long-term population projections is therefore not a good idea

My semi-regular reminder of a really important reality about cities, density, services and taxes. Any questions? Graphic recently cleaned up by @kathrynmathias.bsky.social. #CityMakingMath

We got two in our ward and they got snapped up so quickly. I hope the combine authority take note of this and work hard to get more installed. Think how much space is dedicated to people parking cars in our streets, and how quickly a handful of cycle spots get snapped up when hangers are put in.

Nice to see our paper on integrating social vulnerability into global flood risk mapping hit the top 25 Social & Human Behavior Articles of 2024! @naturecomms.bsky.social www.nature.com/collections/...

Hey all, I started a substack, as I belive is a legal requirement for middle aged men. Warning: contains science, snark, light swearing. All free, for now. open.substack.com/pub/arutherf...

NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated. The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west). My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...

The demographic crisis has huge implications for economic dynamism, pensions & the welfare state But currently this discourse is dominated by speculations, frustrations & nasty slurs. I’ve been interviewing people all over the world. This is what I’m finding 👇 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

In many ways it's fitting that the showdown between monarchy and democracy ends up being over NYC congestion pricing. Cities are where the power of kings were first challenged, and few things are more fundamental to government than control of public space. The cameras are staying on!

FANTASTIC ICPSR at U Mich is coordinating the archiving of at-risk federal data (all of it?) You can upload data you have & search for data you don’t have www.datalumos.org/datalumos/

This is very interesting and more data-driven than you might think from the title. Also comes up with an actual idea what centre-left parties could do to build a new coalition. No idea if this would work, but at least it's something constructive #farright #Germany #btw25

👏 “After one year of the zone, nitrogen dioxide from traffic was lower, GP visits for respiratory illnesses were down by 25% and those for heart problems decreased by 24%”

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A big debate in economic policy: Should policy support already strong places to grow further, or help the strugglers turn themselves round? Here are some numbers to show what each choice would mean 👇

🛎️Job Alert!!🛎️ We're hiring a permanent Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Global Development & Environment! More information on the post and how to apply here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLL735/l...

🚨 WOW, @mikhailsirenko.bsky.social @trivikrama.bsky.social and I won the Michael Breheny Prize for cityaccessmap.com 🤯 We calculated accessibility for *any city in the world and revealed stark inequalities. journals.sagepub.com/page/epb/col... Lookout for a V2 of the app later this year 🚨

As Bluesky is growing 🥳, I have updated this starter pack with more people who post about cities, science, and policy. go.bsky.app/Gf7viP1

Re-upping this thread as this paper on what makes a place "urban" is now officially in print!

🛎️PhD opportunity!!🛎️ High-resolution modelling and geo-visualisation of socio-spatial inequalities in infrastructure access in England working with the brilliant Dr Felix Agyemang & Prof Ceclia Wong @officialuom.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I'm extremely grateful that "Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education" (@princetonupress.bsky.social) had such a strong 1st week! What is this book about? Why did I write it? Why should you care? A thread: 1/n

This report on how emissions could be recalculated with colonial rule in mind by @carbonbrief.org came a year ago. Definitely worth rereading to put the COP outcomes into perspective and ask questions about responsibility. www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-how...

1 Postdoc (3 years) in my ERC DIGINEQ project! At Centre for Demographic Studies & Dept. of Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona "Adolescent Well-Being; Social/Digital Inequalities; Computational Social Science" Deadline: December 3 Apply & share!! ❤️‍🔥🔝 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKO526/p...

Check out this episode of the Rocking our Priors podcast hosted by Alice Evans and listen to @aspaglayan.bsky.social discuss her new book Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education: youtu.be/fCUQJkEkRNA?...

Going to give this website a try - with a new profile picture! Definitely feels like an econ bubble, but I guess that’s the point. Expect a thread on my newest work, Malthusian Migrations (with @romainwacziarg.bsky.social), soon! 🚨 www.guillaumeblanc.com/files/theme/...

Humanity’s history is a battle against infectious diseases. And for most of our history we were losing very decisively. From my article about vaccines: ourworldindata.org/microbes-bat...

I finally found the energy to make a transition this platform. Twitter is gone as you may know for a while! For this first post I’d like to introduce the work we do at the @geodatascience.bsky.social using geographic data science to study cities 🏙️ Give us a follow ☝️⬆️ youtube.com/watch?v=xvG7...

My (draft) starter pack for my Topics in Regional and Urban Economics module (that one day will exist!) 🙏flag more to add, I know I'm missing loads go.bsky.app/LHQB6NW

In 2021 I did a long thread at Twitter called "Why the Service Sector was HISTORICALLY the key to Development!" and it's almost as if someone did his JMP on all my hobbyhorses -- intersectoral productivity dualism, tertiary sector modernisation as a very underrated factor in development, etc.

🔔Cool Job Alert!!🔔 3-Year postdoc to work w/ my brilliant colleague Laurence Hawker on his exciting new FuturePop project in partnership w/ @WorldPopProject #DataScience #demography #Geography www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKN532/s...