My personal highlights from the ASSA meetings: open.substack.com/pub/dismalsc...

So important. Work volatility at low income levels is REAL, and exactly the type of thing SNAP should be providing insurance for. Food assistance obviously shouldn't have work requirements. But these that punish people who work a lot, inconsistently, don't even meet their stated objective.

I used to get pictures of my kids when I was out of town. Now the kids are big, so I get pictures of my kitties instead

#ASSA2026 Donna Ginther accepting the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award

#Econsky: I'm presenting new research at #ASSA2026 in a @sgeecon.bsky.social session this Monday at 8 AM titled "Does remote work slow growth and promotions?" Please join us!

Packed house at #ASSA2026 to innaugurate the @aeacswep.bsky.social Janet L. Yellen Award for Excellence in Public Service 🤩 An icon & an inspiration!

Parenting is effortful. There are 168 hours in each week. Parents of children in the first 3 years of life provide an average of 156 hours of care a week. Allowing parents to parent less enables them to parent better. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Starting off the new year with a bang! ⚡ I am VERY excited to be presenting at #ASSA2026, my first international economics conference, this weekend! If you're coming, feel free to stop by the "Using Randomization to Study Racial Equity" session to see me slay lol! #econsky #blacksky #phd

Livestreamed from the ASSA meetings. Jan 5, 8 AM- 10 AM EST: The State of Government Statistics: - Karen Dynan - Bill Beach - Loretta Mester - Seth Carpenter - Jed Kolko moderated by me www.aeaweb.org/conference/2...

Excited about the upcoming SGE sessions #ASSA2026. @victoria-vernon.bsky.social will be presenting on #remotework using #ATUS time diaries on Sunday 8 a.m. I will presenting Monday 8 a.m. on wage growth and promotions for hybrid/remote workers. Sessions are in the convention center room 303-A.

Double #Caturday

Apparently we have Buffy on guard in our neighborhood

Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006,” by Lyons (@ronanlyons), Shertzer (@econhist-allday), Gray (@econhistoryorbust), and Agorastos: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

The point was never to save money. That was only ever a convenient justification for an effort to decimate the public sector and dismantle the US social safety net.

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

In a new working paper, my collaborators and I show that which students are identified as gifted and talented varies substantially by family income, and that these differences remain even after accounting for students’ test scores.

Students from high income families get more 504 supports, while students from low income families are more likely to be in special education. Working paper is available at:

Seen while out Christmas shopping

New CES Working Paper: "Borrowing Constraints, Markups, and Misallocation" by Huiyu Li, Chen Lian, Yueran Ma, and Emily Martell www.census.gov/library/work...

New CES Working Paper: "School-Based Disability Identification Varies by Student Family Income" by Ainsworth, Cleveland, Clark, Hibel, Brummet, Saultz, Penner, Spiegel, Yoo, Cristancho, Hanselman, and Penner www.census.gov/library/work...

New CES Working Paper: "Gifted Identification Across the Distribution of Family Income" by Ainsworth, Ainsworth, Cleveland, Clark, Brummet, Penner, Hibel, Saultz, Spiegel, Hanselman, and Penner www.census.gov/library/work...

BLS has an FAQ re:shutdown impacts to Nov. CPI released tomorrow. In short, Nov. CPI index values will be calculated by comparing Nov. prices to Oct. prices where available (from alternative/non-survey sources) and Sept. prices otherwise (most prices). www.bls.gov/cpi/

New CES Working Paper: "Measurement Matters: Financial Reporting and Productivity" by John M. Barrios, Brian C. Fujiy, Petro Lisowsky, and Michael Minnis www.census.gov/library/work...

New CES Working Paper: "Parental Death, Inheritance, and Labor Supply in the United States" by Elif Tasar and John Voorheis www.census.gov/library/work...

Ever look at that cute little button on your lap and be like wow, this one was expensive? You're not alone: 10% ⬆️ in the cost of childcare leads to ⬇️ 6% decline in the birth rate - from Dow at BU Econ

Does anyone else watch their Google Scholar citations like it's a horse race? My JMP was just displaced by a more recent publication. I've been anticipating it for weeks and checking with every Google Scholar notification.

Staffing is down ~25% at BLS due to DOGE/DRP and the hiring freeze. But this impacts price programs (largely collected by BLS feds) more than jobs. CPS (household data in the jobs report) is collected by Census field staff. They are down staff too but have been prioritizing economic indicators.

A nice thread from Guy on JP's comments yesterday on NFP growth being overstated. To which I will add a caveat - the birth/death model is not the principal driver of the wedge between CES and QCEW these last two years. (Warning, statistical esoterica ahead) 🧵1/9

Rosie is satisfied with her box on this #Caturday

Great issue; I sincerely thank each of the contributors for sharing their fertility stories

So great to see BLS back to work measuring and informing us about our large and dynamic economy. It’s a great institution full of dedicated civil servants deeply committed their mission. They have had a tough year, and everyone is covering for someone who left. I thank them all for their service.

We call on other institutions in the economics profession to take these revelations seriously, to open an independent investigation into Summers’ conduct, and to reconsider his access to the platforms and networks that he has been afforded for too long.

Women in economics have unfortunately become accustomed to dealing with sexism and harassment in the workplace. This reduces women’s productivity and limits their success and should never be tolerated.

CSWEP strongly condemns Larry Summers’ behavior as revealed in the email correspondence with the late Jeffrey Epstein. While abuse of power in the economics profession is not new, rarely has the intent behind such abuse been so clearly stated.

My husband usually does most of the cooking in our house, but he hurt his hand so is out of commission for Thanksgiving. My daughter asked this evening who is going to cook the turkey. I'm clearly not only not the cook, but not even the obvious backup.

We get to see our team play in San Jose next weekend! Go Spirit!!!

Saturday morning nap #Caturday

BLS operations are back up! Release dates have been set for some missing reports. The next #jobsday will be Thursday, November 20 where we will get to see data for September 2025. #NumbersDay #EconSky

Jason Faberman and I presented "everything you ever wanted to know about firm and worker dynamics" at a conference in honor of the great John Haltiwanger. Slides here: rdeckernet.github.io/website/deck...

Hi all, please spread the word and we hope everyone can make good use of this new data drop: cmfdata.org The full surviving establishment-level Census of Manufactures manuscripts and digitized data from 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880!

Kickstart or grow your career in public policy! Join leaders from gov., think tanks, & academia for an interactive webinar on navigating careers across sectors to hear practical advice, job search tips, & Q&A session. Learn more & register: https://ow.ly/GrMh50XnU0h

🚨 JOB MARKET PAPER ALERT! 🚨 Why do firms provide different workplace amenities? And how does amenity provision affect labor market inequality? 🧵

Excited to share new work on paid sick leave (PSL) mandates with @nicolasziebarth & Stefan Pichler! Using establishment data, we find that U.S. state PSL mandates⬆️ PSL access & use, & do not crowd-out other benefits or ⬇️ wages! Note: paper is open access!! academic.oup.com/jeea/article...

Why should you 🫵🏿 care about SNAP? SNAP recipients saw: - Improved life expectancy - Lower chance of incarceration - Lowers chance of poverty - Lived in better neighborhoods - Higher human capital SNAP keeps our neighbors fed, communities safer, and kids educated. Also people are HUNGRY. DUH!

When you can't decide if you want to sit or stand #Caturday

It's Friday night, Halloween! Who's with me for a thread about the economics of pronatalism?! Some people say we need more babies because we don't have enough workers. But more births means less women workers, by ~15-40%. You trade workers today for workers tomorrow. This is from CPS data: /1

Setting aside the long term effects on population, what would be the short run economic effect of an increase in the birth rate, if it were somehow achieved? More babies, more kid-related consumption, but also lower labor force participation by mothers. Etc. What should I read about this?

The day before Halloween, Spirit will sell you anything that is not nailed down.

With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness. Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.