Evidence is a public good. Once generated, everyone can benefit. This blog from @ioramashvili.bsky.social looks at why evaluation of local growth policy is underprovided, and how devolution could change that 👇 buff.ly/SjuUj3b

Hivemind: I read a blog a few months ago on the missing productivity impacts of AI and how AI currently solves the wrong bottlenecks, particularly in software development. I think the writer was (former) NHS Digital? Article possibly based on a public lecture?? Does that ring any bells??

Finally got around watching the scarecrows wedding and what I hadn’t realised from the book is how much it is about to-do list anxiety. Inane item on your list taking 3x as long and derailing your life? Boy does Harry O’Hay have a story to tell 🫠 (should’ve watched it before starting marking 🫣)

Worse than reading an AI slop essay is to read a really great essay and have the lingering ‘ahh but did they really write it’. Takes the last little bit of joy out of marking ugh 😞

I did a double bill today of presenting @mariasavona.bsky.social and my research on structural change and knowledge diffusion at Utrecht and then (online) at @productivity.bsky.social! Thanks to @kjschaefer.bsky.social and @lideyu.bsky.social for the invitation, great company and discussions!

Clear sign I've spent too much time trying to understand local government: Instagram is now serving me adds for manufacturers of playground equipment 😬

I went to Australia thanks to the Mercator projection!

Following my fellowship at the UK Evaluation Task Force, I'm very excited to have a paper out at @cssjournal.bsky.social on the importance of evaluation for local industrial strategy. Everyone loves evidence based policy but there are significant barriers to generating that evidence I argue that...

There’s a novel to be written about what’s the deal with this hut.

Crouch End is so bougie that Domino’s Pizza has turned into a ‘hidden gem’ 🥹

🚂I'll be starting the new year with an exciting new project, and it involves trains! Ticket to Impact, funded by the Innovation & Research Council will study the effect of transport infrastructure on the outcomes of collaborative research projects. All aboard! 🛤️More here: tinyurl.com/3m5xkvum

Brighton has completed Trains, there are no trains left, and apparently I live here now 😑 London, it was nice knowing you

🚨I’m organising a workshop on policy evaluation in local and regional government, bringing together academics, policymakers and others working in this area. 8 December, University of Sussex, travel funds available. Please see the call for papers for more details, and share widely 👇

Please join us for the next Regional Studies Women’s Network workshop! Participation is free, and we have online and in person (including free lunch!) options. A great opportunity to catch up with friends and meet new faces ahead of the Winter Conference ☺️

We have fully-funded PhD studentships at SPRU, including for our PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies. I'd love to discuss proposals with potential applicants. Deadline 11 December and more details here: www.sussex.ac.uk/study/fees-f... and here www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/de...

If the Life in the UK test had an essay component it would be to write a strongly worded letter to your MP about the scam that is the official test prep app 🙄

The next workshop of the @regstud.bsky.social Women’s Network is coming up ahead of the Winter Conference 🎉 We have options to attend in person and online. More details and registration link here: www.regionalstudies.org/events/rsa-w...

I'm reviewing the second paper today (🫠) that is consistently missing spaces before citation brackets. Is this a new ChatGPT thing? An attempt to reduce word count?? Anybody have an idea what this might be about?

The second visit in a Georgian museum funded with European money, this time Horizon, in which we are the only visitors. The exhibition is excellent but maybe there’s a science policy lesson here to give some money also to the marketing folks!

For business statistics at least, I think it’s also the changing make up of businesses that makes it harder. Micro business are under-sampled but still make up the bulk and they don’t have the fancy management accounting systems to respond to surveys.

For a summary of the paper, the @e-r-c.bsky.social very kindly featured our research on SME digitalisation and business survival on their blog: www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/did-digital-...

I wish I could show this to the elderly couple who got cross with my 2-year-old for climbing on the Paddington Bear statue because they wanted to take selfies with it 🙄

OMG I copy-pasted the tweet below into LinkedIn and it translated 🤷‍♀️ into the male version with a female sign 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Incidentally, the same thread got 17 likes in the same time on LinkedIn as opposed to 1 here! Please don’t make me use that awful site 😫

Digital technologies were crucial to keep the world running during pandemic lockdowns. But did prior experience with these tools actually help businesses survive during the pandemic 🤔 Sabine D'Costa and I look at this in a new working paper for @productivity.bsky.social 👇

I didn’t realise Penguin was in fact run by penguins, but that explains a lot

Winning at working parenting today as I accurately predicted the timing of a long nap, identified the right café to plonk myself in and had the foresight to pack my laptop. 500 words on the page 💪

A day of ‘you need to close the blinds, actually’ discourse on Bluesky and this is what the neighbours came up with 🤔

And a lovely mention of our Women’s Network workshop, which I didn’t know the history to!

A good end to #RSA2025 😁

What about the guy who tuned his guitar at the back of the bus yesterday? Found it quite soothing, actually. There should be an exemption for him.

✍️Learning from what works: using the Government’s new evaluation registry Recently, the Evaluation Task Force within the Cabinet Office launched the evaluation registry with info on over 1400 evaluations conducted across UK government. Find out more👇 buff.ly/YtyBd29

Thanks, I’m acutely aware

The Evaluation Task Force has launched its evaluation registry, with now over 1,500 evaluations from across government searchable and findable. A really useful resource - and would be cool to do research on too 👀 civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2025/03/31/p...

This! I was at a UKRI data sandpit and found this approach really grating and unproductive (I didn’t get any money out of it so it’s very possible I’m just bitter)

Feels like 'property needs updating' is a bit of an understatement when you're running two Popes behind 😅

📢 Our call for the PhD in Regional Science & Economic Geography is out 🧑‍🎓👩‍🎓12 fully-funded PhD positions 🎓 4-year program 💰€16,243 annual scholarship 🏠 🍽️ accommodation at GSSI facilities (or substitute grant) + board ⏰ Deadline: May 23, 2025 🔗 Apply: www.gssi.it/phd/ ℹ️https://tinyurl.com/yhaahejz

Looking forward to the next RSA Women’s Network event! Please sign up below and join us on Wednesday👇

The age group with the highest vote share for the AfD are 35-44 year-olds, entering the labour market around the financial crisis - which Germany did well out of but possibly first gen with much higher inequality by education levels and hit by fast increase in housing costs?

Powerpoint is my passion ✨

Very exciting opportunities to come and join us at the @bennettinstitute.bsky.social. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50248/

Call for submission for 2025 August Lösch Prize: www.uni-regensburg.de/wirtschaftsw... It recognizes outstanding research in Regional Science and awards €5,000. Submit your articles published within 8 years of earning your PhD. Deadline: Feb 22.

TIL you can send papers straight to Apple Books if they’re in epub format 🤯 Sure I’m the last person to discover this but I’ve been squinting at PDFs on my phone for years 🫠

Does anyone have a lookup file for SIC 97 to 03 (UK)? Or pointers where to find one?? Please, please help me out before I have to make one myself and inevitably go insane 😭

Our English syllabus in Germany had a section on film analysis and the film we watched was: American Beauty 🤗

The importance of economies of scale: it’s really difficult to find good children’s books in Georgian! Someone start a business to stick subtitles on the pages of the Gruffalo.

Super excited to be chairing this event! Do sign up below 👇

Have seen comments that Bluesky is still relatively weak on foreign affairs. Here is a starter pack with accounts to follow on the protests in Georgia 🇬🇪:

We are looking for a Junior Professor of Regional Development to start on 1 October 2025 @unigreifswald.bsky.social. Please forward this advertisement with a deadline of 17 January 2025 to suitable candidates and find more information here: www.uni-greifswald.de/en/universit...

Giddy with excitement about going to Leicester today to geek about textile history and look at a beam engine 🔥 Don’t let anyone tell you economic geographers don’t know how to have fun

Interested in finding out about the Regional Studies Association, our journals, publications and people? We've made a starter pack of RSA-related profiles which we'll keep updating. go.bsky.app/UiGA5Uk