How are coding agents changing how we study the economy, society and politics? New results from a baseline survey with @tomlyttelton.bsky.social and Maxim Massenkoff, about who is using AI coding agents and what they're doing with them.

Postdoc at the Minnesota Population Center, @minnpop.bsky.social Applications open now and being evaluated on a rolling basis. Pass on to demographers you know! (This one requires folks to relocate to the Twin Cities, because it involves work in the restricted data center)

This paper from @tomlyttelton.bsky.social and @natewilmers.bsky.social is amazing. It shows that removing educational requirements can have big impacts for workers...except that employers don't really hire those workers below the normal education level anyway.

Democrat managers pay more to hourly workers, even comparing across firms within metro-occupation-industry-year local labor markets; the advantage has grown in recent years; they raise pay more around minimum wage increases & pay $15/hour more often scholar.google.com/scholar_url?...

the Gini coefficient for social ties often exceeds that of income & social ties are concentrated among those with the highest incomes sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

When and how do bright kids from poor backgrounds fall behind? Everyone should read this paper by @johnjerrim.bsky.social & Maria Palma Carvajal: great data, corrects past work, nails the method, and is super readable. doi.org/10.1016/j.rs...

I’m thrilled this is out! Job seekers are often hired into their contacts’ workplaces. We show that contacts’ informal networks in their workplace help job seekers get hired, but optimal networks look different in these settings.

Network research emphasizes the value of open networks for job searches, but a new article by @lassefolke.bsky.social, @tomlyttelton.bsky.social, and Emil Begtrup-Bright uses administrative data to show that job seekers move to workplaces where they are connected to closed cliques of workers.