I'm very excited to share that I will start as Assistant Professor of Economics at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social next fall! I cannot wait to get started!

In case you missed it last week, here's my JMP 🧵👇

Danielle Graves Williamson (one of my students and a stunningly original scholar in history/labor, studying "segregation academies" in the US Deep South) bsky.app/profile/dani...

👋 I'm Danielle, and I'm on the #econjobmarket this year! Let's start with a student describing her segregated school: "The school felt temporary. Built like a warehouse with aluminum siding . . . I had a slipshod education" The twist? The student is white, and her school is private. A JMP 🧵 -->

🚀 I'm on the #EconSky Job Market! My JMP asks a classic question: Do large, dominant firms foster or hinder innovation? To study this, I turn to the Great Merger Wave (1895–1904), when >2,600 U.S. firms combined into corporate giants like U.S. Steel and DuPont. A JMP 🧵👇 (1/13)

From a new paper by @mjdcurtis.bsky.social, David de la Croix, et al. The Little Divergence in 'academic human capital' (kind of publications index) btw northern & southern Europe started ca 1500. Northern Germany diverged from central & southern German areas after the Thirty Years' War.

Wars were mostly bad for European economic development. Might be obvious to ordinary people, but it's not considered obvious in economic history. But I think it's obvious ;-) Below from @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social

Good history helps us avoid nostalgia. The great article “Economic History and the Historians” (2020) by Anne McCants reminds me why nostalgia can get us in trouble. Two of her examples are very relevant to today: vaccinations and the popular narrative of some economic “good old days.”

By all indications, last years economics job market was much tougher than any year since the pandemic. But all signs point towards an even worse job market coming up this season. Let me explain.

I'm incredibly honored and grateful to have been awarded the EHA Sokoloff Dissertation Fellowship. Many thanks to the committee for supporting my research on Big Business and Innovation between 1880 and 1940. This is particularly meaningful to me because (1/2)

Have we passed peak intelligence? In international tests, student scores for reading and maths sunk to a new low. US teens are struggling to concentrate & evaluate information. The excellent @jburnmurdoch.ft.com Warning: this thread is dark 🧵

Nothing cures pre-presentation jitters like perfecting the aesthetics of the title slide for an inordinate amount of time. #EconSky

Today in my econ history PhD class: Politicians and Economic History For better or worse, reasonably sure no one else teaches a lecture like this in any other econ history grad classes

Mergers are followed by large and persistent increases in lobbying activity, both by individual firms and by industry trade associations, suggesting that firms with market power will also attempt to gain political power. www.nber.org/papers/w33255

Playing NYT’s Connections is the ultimate exercise in humility, especially in a second language. Why do I even sign up for this daily humbling?

Yesterday’s stroll along the Schuylkill. I love Philadelphia!

Today we had the privilege of hosting Santiago Perez (UC-Davis), who presented his thought-provoking paper, "The G.I. Bill, Standardized Testing, and Socioeconomic Origins of the U.S. Educational Elite Over a Century." 📚 Huge thanks to Santiago for an excellent seminar! 🙌

There are now FIVE economic-history-related starter packs, listed in order of their emergence...: EH1 @benmschneider.bsky.social bsky.app/starter-pack... EH2 @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social bsky.app/starter-pack... Historical Political Economy @magnusrasmussen.bsky.social bsky.app/starter-pack...

There has been no increase in the economic diversity of elite private and public colleges in the United States over the last century. However, these colleges have become more racially and geographically diverse. www.nber.org/papers/w33164

Tbh, when I realize it's time to prepare slides for our work-in-progress presentation to faculty and students... I'm usually pretty panicky. I worry I haven't accomplished enough and take it more as nuisance than an opportunity. Yet, every time I end up benefitting a *lot* from the simple act of...

Hi all, just migrated from #EconTwitter to #EconSky! Here to reconnect with my fellow economists & economic historians, once I find you all again... 😅

Allison Green's job market paper studies the role of networks in facilitating migration, using quasi-random ship assignment of US Navy sailors during World War II. allie-e-green.github.io/public/WW2_A...

Princeton University's Economics Department is proud to introduce this year's Ph.D. students entering the economics job market. economics.princeton.edu/graduate-pro... Meet our 2024 job market candidates:

I'm on the job market this year! :) Here's a quick thread on my JMP 🧵

This is a cool paper on this topic. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

The more I work on my research, the more I feel that in economics we brush over data construction too quickly. Cool data sources get attention, but the actual work of building and linking datasets is often the “boring” part, glossed over in papers and presentations—if mentioned at all. #EconSky 📉📈

Making a Starter Pack for Econ and Econ-Adjacent PhD students. DM or comment to be added! go.bsky.app/QnmW5VP

Okay, here is the start of the urban economics starter pack. Please send me more names and prod folks who haven't moved. @aaronsojourner.org can you add to your page? bsky.app/starter-pack... Also, for a nice urban/geography/regional mix, see the pack of @maxnathan.bsky.social.

People adding me through a starter pack

Hello swifties 🕺 Here is a list of 100+ good-looking labor economists studying exciting stuff like 👉(minimum) wages 👉unemployment 👉productivity 👉 human capital 👉migration 👉discrimination Bluesky wont throw random content at you -> makes sense to follow (back) many people. go.bsky.app/JChuCgc

I started an economics of science and innovation starter pack, let me know who to add! go.bsky.app/HETnNr5

For Bluesky-Curious Econ Lovers, a Quick Start guide to plugging into the economics community here. It aims to lower the costs & boost the benefits for folks to engage here. If it seems useful, please share it here & especially on X. 📉📈 #️⃣#️⃣ aaronsojourner.org/for-bluesky-...

Starter pack for #econhist: go.bsky.app/U6KyhNv I'm sure I missed some people, so let me know if that's you—or get in touch if I wrongly accused you of being one of us!

First item on the agenda for today: nap!

Hi all, just migrated from #EconTwitter to #EconSky! Here to reconnect with my fellow economists & economic historians, once I find you all again... 😅