Has someone studied this? It seems eminently feasible!

The other outcome that I've seen - when there are so many As students at the very top can't distinguish themselves through their classwork. Going really deep on a class and writing a truly superb paper won't change grade --> increased incentive to distinguish through extra curriculars.

One of the worst outcomes of grade inflation is that it discourages students pushing themselves. College should be about taking a class that's a bit too hard for you, or in a field you don't know much about... but the risk of a B when so many get straight As is real. Safer to stick to what you know.

I will be enthusiastically supporting faculty legislation to cap the number of A's at Harvard at 20% (plus a bit). The collective action problem that has driven grades higher & higher over time is increasingly problematic. I hope other institutions consider similar steps.

Labor Market Competition symposium in the JEP-- all articles look like a must-read.

A new WP that uses data from U.S. academic jobs shows that a person's socioeconomic background is an important determinant not just of their career starting point, but of their career progression. Read the WP on the academia class gap by @annastansbury.bsky.social & Kyra Rodriguez. bit.ly/4ab6xRs

Great new paper! A similar study in the U.K. is long overdue. A lot of elite employers in the U.K. have begun to take class background seriously, but universities remain woefully behind

Only tangentially related to your work Anna, but here's a neat paper on "following parents" and the economic returns to it, using siblings as a comparison onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Yes, class is insufficiently studied and compensated for, compared to race and gender.

"How do class gaps compare to race and gender gaps? Strikingly, we find that the class gaps in tenure-track academia are as large as or larger than analogous race or gender gaps."

📢now forthcoming in ECMA! The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations. Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

📢 🏹 Call for Papers 🏹📢 3rd workshop in Labour Economics at Nottingham GEP When: June 1-2, 2026 Keynotes: Gordon Dahl (UCSD) and @annastansbury.bsky.social (MIT) Small, in-person workshop; plenty of interactions! 🗓️ Submit by March 1 🗓️ Link: tinyurl.com/3kdpb64a #EconSky #EconConf

This should be a super workshop. Submit below

I am very much looking forward to the Nottingham Labour Economics workshop this summer! Submissions invited 👇

very cool job opp!

I think @annastansbury.bsky.social empirical work on the top-heavy socioeconomic makeup of the economics academy is bar-none the most important inward-facing conversation we have as academics; and is the most illuminating work in explaining the status quo policy preferences of economists. #EconSky

The *hidden curriculum* was a VERY frequently mentioned topic here, including: how academic publishing worked, how to negotiate contracts, get pay raises, how tenure worked, how to approach faculty, how to apply for awards, how the academic hierarchy worked...

While many, many respondents from less advantaged backgrounds talked about these factors, most academics from advantaged backgrounds did *not* identify cultural capital as a privilege. Shout out to sociologists and poli sci who were (unsurprisingly) the most frequent exception

One key theme was **cultural capital** Norms of speech, dress and behavior were very often raised. These "upper middle class" or "elite East Coast" norms were factors that made people feel excluded not just from first-gen or low-income backgrounds, but also from middle class

Really interesting (and necessary) thread!! It seems that good mentorship can significantly reduce barriers for many low-SES PhD students. We, as postdocs, can also help reduce these barriers by informally sharing our knowledge about norms and customs in academia with our younger colleagues.

In our research on socioeconomic background in academia, we ran a survey. Over 2,000 faculty members responded (thanks if you were one!) Social & cultural capital showed up time and again as key issues. A few findings you might be interested in...🧵

One thing I haven't seen in discussions about the UK minimum wage increase: the higher the bite, the greater the incentive for non-compliance In research w @resolutionfoundation.org in 2020 we found that the current system of penalties and enforcement was insufficient to ensure compliance

Tight labor markets in the last decade reduced US community college enrollment. Super interesting pic here showing just how countercyclical community college enrollment is (as compared to basically non-cyclical 4 year college enrollment) From @joshua-goodman.com & Winkelman new NBER WP

When I was in high school/undergrad I found these particularly interesting/thought provoking: The Worldly Philosophers The Affluent Society The Ascent of Money The Return of Depression Economics Development as Freedom Dead Aid The Bottom Billion

Importantly, making unfair dismissal a "Day One" right would likely have been counterproductive for workers. It would induce firms not to "take a chance" on candidates who seem risky or have unusual profiles. ...

The Government is right to keep but reduce ‘qualifying periods’ for unfair dismissal protection. Making unfair dismissal a ‘day one’ right would have taken the UK from one internation extreme to another.

"28 more effective than cash transfers in a baseline scenario and 3732 (!!!) times in an optimistic scenario" It's early in the evaluation process, but still: Malengo is such a cool program!

ICYMI given today's focus on the budget: the UK government has today also published a working paper on options for reform of non-compete agreements. Responses to the specific options set out therein (statutory limits, size cutoffs and an outright ban), can be submitted until 18 February. 1/2

Jakob and the CMA have done really superb economic research over the last years - this is a great "best of" thread

If you are in Cambridge, MA on December 10, join us at a panel on Rebuilding State Capacity with Don Moynihan, Jen Pahlka, and Elizabeth Linos www.hks.harvard.edu/events/rebui...

Very interesting looking paper. @nikdatta.bsky.social has a related paper on zero-hour contracts in the UK: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gel89...

This is a fascinating paper. It's the first (afaik) to actually document food&drink&retail scheduling unpredictability using actual firm data. It illustrates v clearly why unpredictable scheduling makes these jobs so difficult:

🚨 New working paper! How well do people predict the results of studies? @sdellavi.bsky.social and I leverage data from the first 100 studies to have been posted on the SSPP, containing 1,482 key questions, on which over 50,000 forecasts were placed. Some surprising results below.... 🧵👇

I don’t agree with lots in this article, but do agree it’s important to highlight that minimum wages can affect other aspects of job quality. w/ Michael Davies and Jisung Park, I find higher minimum wages increase workplace injuries, likely via work intensification.

This showed up in the other place. I'm amused!

"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."

A two-year LABOR HISTORY postdoc @brownhist.bsky.social and @watsonschoolbrown.bsky.social Possible foci: migration/displacement/ human trafficking; automation/technology/processes of global integration; or gender/sexuality/politics of reproductive labor Please apply!

"Three Key Takeaways" from the outstanding @stoneeconucl.bsky.social dialogue on inequality in the history of economic and political thought. With @brankomilan.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social, and @undercoverhist.bsky.social.

Calling anyone interested in inequality and why so many economists ignored it for so long! Watch here for the illuminating thoughts of @brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social Thanks to Wendy Carlin for asking me to moderate.

Last was a star-studded panel on inequality in the history of economic & political thought at @stoneeconucl.bsky.social w/@brankomilan.bsky.social, @laywilliams.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social & @annastansbury.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5N_... (6/6)

I *highly* recommend @brankomilan.bsky.social and @laywilliams.bsky.social superb books on the history of thought on economic inequality. And if you want to see them discussing these topics, with @undercoverhist.bsky.social @johncassidysays.bsky.social and myself, video below.

Looking forward to this discussion on the History of Thought on Economic Inequality today - around the superb books by @brankomilan.bsky.social and @laywilliams.bsky.social ! Register below.

How does employer access to prisoners’ labor through work release impact the well-being of those workers & of free workers? New working paper by Sue Helper, Suresh Naidu, Akseli Palomaki, Adam Reich, + me provides evidence, focus on auto manufacturing in AL #EconSky papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Super excited for this @stoneeconucl.bsky.social event next Tuesday! With @brankomilan.bsky.social, @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @undercoverhist.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social. On-line and open registration.

Econ RA with @annastansbury.bsky.social at MIT! careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Since we're hiring off-cycle, we're aware typical dissemination channels might be less effective... please do share with anyone you think might be interested #EconSky

📢Nina Roussille and I are hiring a full-time predoctoral researcher to work with us at MIT on labor economics research projects. IMPORTANT: this vacancy is open right now, so we are particularly interested in people who could start soon. Link to apply: careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Raw median earnings gaps can be found for nearly all programs (w large enough N) by gender at collegescorecard.ed.gov. Some states have disaggregations by race and sex, eg equity.postsecondaryvalue.org/ut-system#top