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

Are there papers estimating gender and/or racial wage gaps for people from the same college and major? i.e. went to same college and studied same subject (say: U Michigan Computer Science). Any country.

Excited about a forthcoming roundtable on my book and @brankomilan.bsky.social's this fall (November 4) at @stoneeconucl.bsky.social. Discussants include @johncassidysays.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social, Helen Thompson, and Beatrice Cherrier. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dgv3e...

In the final episode of Season 8 of The We Society, @officialedballs.bsky.social‬, @annastansbury.bsky.social and @dtturner.bsky.social join Will Hutton to discuss their research into regional inequalities in the UK and what we can learn from ‘Bidenomics’. 🎙️ media.leverhulme.ac.uk/podcast/solv...

The final episode of season 8 of the @acadsocsciences.bsky.social We Society podcast 🎙️, sees @officialedballs.bsky.social, @annastansbury.bsky.social ‬and @dtturner.bsky.social discuss the worsening regional disparities in productivity, income, and overall economic performance within the UK.

Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social) has an interesting new Substack blog that echoes the trendy pundit finding that unemployment rates for new college grads are at record highs relative to the overall employment rate. open.substack.com/pub/derektho...

tomorrow! register below

Looking forward to presenting my Class Gap work at the RNIM Online Seminar on Zoom this Friday! Anyone can register to attend here: sites.google.com/view/rnim-se...

Virtual registration is still open for the "Minimum Wages & Monopsony Power" conference! Featuring an all-star lineup of labor economists, this one-day event also honors career of Dr. Michael Reich. 📅 June 6, 2025 | 8am - 5pm 🔗 Register today: irle.berkeley.edu/events/minim...

Here’s a Harvard student with more courage than the University President www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... via @annaekstrom.bsky.social

"Suri was teaching a course and attending Georgetown as a postdoctoral fellow". His wife is a US citizen. They have three young children. The US has embarked on a campaign of terror, particularly focused on educated people who are "other" than us. Disgusting. www.npr.org/2025/03/21/n...

USTR: "The elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs, φ, is 0.25. The recent experience with U.S. tariffs on China has demonstrated that tariff passthrough to retail prices was low (Cavallo et al, 2021)." Cavallo et al: φ is 0.945. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Across the pond, an exciting new voice on policy for productivity growth and progress!

We're looking for an Assistant Professor to join the new Bennett School of Public Policy in September 2025, to play a leading role in the running & teaching of our M.Phil in Public Policy and PhD programme, & to also conduct original research. Apply by 27 April 2025: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50808/

#EconSky: Favorite empirical papers on firms' objective function and whether firms optimize? I'm specifically interested in the concept that firms may only re-optimize (e.g. pricing) infrequently, once they get hit by a shock. Whether because of inertia or adjustment costs.

One fact that always surprises my students: It's not become more common for people to have multiple jobs in recent years Counter to: "people need to work more jobs just to make ends meet" popular conception. The % of people who work a full time job plus additional jobs has been stable for decades

RIP #FESAC The Fed. Economic #Statistics Advisory Committee has been axed by the Commerce Sec. Since 2000, FESAC’s unpaid top academic & private experts have advised #Census, #BLS & #BEA on their key #economicindicators. Why: "mission fulfilled" HUH? #inflation #GDP #jobs #econsky #productivity

"Construction labor" often is treated as a factor of production, not as *people* doing physically & economically risky work, often w/o benefits. Years ago I did a thread on the bird site of construction worker job site fatalities for 6+ months. It didn't generate much engagement. Gonna try it here 👇

#EconConf #EconSky It's that time again. Papers by researchers with and without NBER affiliations, by early career scholars, and by researchers from under-represented groups, are welcome. conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b...

Folks I would like to crowd source something: what do you think is a good example of federal evaluation work that saved taxpayer money and led to a better operated/structured/informed program? Need a strong example or two for a quick piece I am writing.

Tomorrow the US Administration imposes the heaviest taxes since the 1930s on Americans who buy imports. In this new brief from @ucsandiego.bsky.social, leading economists Evenett & Muendler estimate the harm to US workers in all 50 states—> econweb.ucsd.edu/muendler/dow... | cc @piie.com