Jeffrey Lin
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
📤 6550
📥 407
📝 215
Economist studying cities, regions, and growth. West Philly dad. Views are my own.
https://jlin.org/
pinned post!
On February 14, 1876, Bell & Gray each filed for a telephone patent. Such collisions were once routine — up to 1 in 20 patents triggered an "patent interference." Over the next 150 years, that rate fell by more than 98%. In a new paper, we explain why — and what it might cost.
13 days ago
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We’re back with a new season of interviews with leading scholars and thinkers. Listen and let us know what you think!
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5 days ago
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We’re back with a new season of interviews with leading scholars and thinkers. Listen and let us know what you think!
add a skeleton here at some point
5 days ago
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Jeffrey Lin
Greg Shill
6 days ago
🚨 new Densely Speaking!🚨 Prof. Arianna Salazar-Miranda (Yale urban planning /data science) joins us to talk about her tech-enabled analysis of footage of urban social spaces over 30 years.
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/1ciA...
Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
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S5E1 - Exploring the Social Life of Urban Spaces Through AI (Arianna Salazar-Miranda)
Densely Speaking · Episode
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ciAXEWmgR0hXnaEhbsPo6?si=9Tib_dRjTx2LRx0xWVEgNg&utm_source=copy-link
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Greg Shill
6 days ago
🎙️🎙️🎙️ Coming tomorrow! The first interview in the latest season of "Densely Speaking: Conversations about Cities, Economics & Law." Subscribe here or wherever you get your pods: Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/1u2DOty...
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
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Greg Shill
9 days ago
🚨 New ~Densely Speaking~ season starts next week!!! 🚨 Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts for interviews about new work on cities, economics & law, hosted by
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
and me.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
(Bonus pic of my dog because he’s a good boy.)
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The plaza outside RTM turned out nicely, especially with the lighting improvements. They *should* make it permanent!
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12 days ago
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Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere
13 days ago
PHOTOS: Deep Tunnel has never reached its limit. After weekend's heavy rains, it’s almost full. Here's what that means.
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On February 14, 1876, Bell & Gray each filed for a telephone patent. Such collisions were once routine — up to 1 in 20 patents triggered an "patent interference." Over the next 150 years, that rate fell by more than 98%. In a new paper, we explain why — and what it might cost.
13 days ago
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Jeffrey Lin
Alyssa Fowers
13 days ago
Obsessed with this chart from NOTUS's
@andrewvandam.bsky.social
www.notus.org/analysis/map...
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Jeffrey Lin
Stephan Maurer
13 days ago
And let's not forget the third one ;-)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJDN...
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Antonio Meucci invented the telephone and he got robbed! Everybody knows that!
YouTube video by adreon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJDNCxMfbLQ
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On February 14, 1876, Bell & Gray each filed for a telephone patent. Such collisions were once routine — up to 1 in 20 patents triggered an "patent interference." Over the next 150 years, that rate fell by more than 98%. In a new paper, we explain why — and what it might cost.
13 days ago
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Jeffrey Lin
#urbanecon
15 days ago
New in JUE: Old but gold: Historical pathways and path dependence, by Diogo Baerlocher, Guilherme Lambais, Eustáquio Reis, Diego Firmino Costa da Silva, Henrique Veras.
#econsky
#urbanecon
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Old but gold: Historical pathways and path dependence
Publication date: May 2026 Source: Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 153 Author(s): Diogo Baerlocher, Guilherme Lambais, Eustáquio Reis, Diego Firmino Costa da Silva, Henrique Veras
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119026000343?dgcid=rss_sd_all
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Jeffrey Lin
Erika McEntarfer
about 1 month ago
A very nice write-up on why data users should be concerned about the new Commerce Dept. policy, which likely means a lot of granular, local-level data used for economic development is about to disappear.
agglomerations.eig.org/p/a-new-thre...
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A New Threat to Economic Data
A Commerce Department policy risks damaging the public’s understanding of the economy.
https://agglomerations.eig.org/p/a-new-threat-to-economic-data
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Noel Johnson
about 1 month ago
@alextaylorecon.bsky.social
and I have a new paper. Using embeddings of ~800k book titles in Europe 1450-1650, we find higher market access made a city's print output more topically broad and mainstream. Also, useful-knowledge content predicts city growth.
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iez0u...
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https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iez0uaap9xnnig2ew5c0v/Johnson_Taylor_Market_for_Ideas_2026-06-19.pdf?rlkey=6mi3bkbziimbwj1cf8bx3hn4s&dl=0
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Aaron Sojourner
about 1 month ago
From former U.S. Census Chief Scientist John Abowd on LinkedIn, what Census data products are affected by Commerce's new policy? A devastating set of answers including all ACS Public Use Micro Samples
www.linkedin.com/posts/john-a...
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Erika McEntarfer
about 1 month ago
I’m afraid she’s right. All LEHD data use some form of noise infusion in order to release detailed data. What on earth does the admin have against noise infusion? It’s useful if you want to avoid suppressions, which the new rules also ask for
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#urbanecon
2 months ago
New in RSUE: Paths that led to gold: Historical roads, trade, and persistence, by Alexandre Portugal, Bruno Barsanetti.
#econsky
#urbanecon
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Paths that led to gold: Historical roads, trade, and persistence
Publication date: June 2026 Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics, Volume 119 Author(s): Alexandre Portugal, Bruno Barsanetti
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046226000372?dgcid=rss_sd_all
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Pete
3 months ago
Learning that Jane Jacobs moved to Toronto and converted a rooming house into a 6 bedroom mansion is something I've never really been able to process.
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#urbanecon
3 months ago
New in JUE: Old but gold: Historical pathways and path dependence, by Diogo Baerlocher, Guilherme Lambais, Eustáquio Reis, Diego Firmino Costa da Silva, Henrique Veras.
#econsky
#urbanecon
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Old but gold: Historical pathways and path dependence
Publication date: May 2026 Source: Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 153 Author(s): Diogo Baerlocher, Guilherme Lambais, Eustáquio Reis, Diego Firmino Costa da Silva, Henrique Veras
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119026000343?dgcid=rss_sd_all
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Jeffrey Lin
Greg Shill
3 months ago
“a 1% increase in the tax rate reduces suburb-to-city commuting by 6.39%” and, the authors estimate, “[r]eplacing the wage tax with a non-distortionary land value tax would bring 26,000 jobs from the suburbs into Philadelphia. Such gains triple when we allow for productivity agglomeration forces.”
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NBER
3 months ago
Describing the US Census Bureau’s experimental data product combining survey data with satellite imagery to detect single-family housing starts, from Czaplicki, Shevlin, Ferronato, Smith, Nayam, Peng, Springer, and Walker
www.nber.org/papers/w35113
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Jeffrey Lin
Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat)
3 months ago
Examining the effect of expanding interstate highways on industrial growth across the United States. In the March issue, by Dustin Frye, @dustindfrye
zurl.co/ZgW5K
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Transportation Networks and the Geographic Concentration of Employment
Abstract. This paper examines the effect of expanding transportation networks on spatial industrial growth across the United States from 1953 to 2016. I
https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/108/2/514/119501/Transportation-Networks-and-the-Geographic?redirectedFrom=fulltext
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IPUMS
3 months ago
Last but certainly not least -- the IPUMS Excellence in Research Published Award goes to René Livas for "Local Taxes and Suburbanization: Evidence from Philadelphia’s Wage Tax" (
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
).
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Local Taxes and Suburbanization: Evidence from Philadelphia's Wage Tax
How do local taxes affect the location of economic activity inside cities? We study Philadelphia's wage tax, which applies to residents regardless of where they
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6331260
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Bryan Stuart
3 months ago
We are still interviewing for research assistants at the Philly Fed for this cycle. It’s a great opportunity for students who want to get more experience with research and there are lots of development opportunities
rb.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FRS/jo...
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Research Assistant/Sr. Research Assistant
Company Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Job Description Summary Research assistants (RAs) at the Philadelphia Fed play a key role in the Economic Research Department. Whether they are helping eco...
https://rb.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/FRS/job/Philadelphia-PA/Research-Assistant-Sr-Research-Assistant_R-0000030430
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patrick.kennedy
5 months ago
Another link to the Bloomberg Story on the Atlas of Inner City Highway Impacts:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
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Adding Up What Urban Highways Really Cost
A new report maps the economic toll that downtown freeways exact on 142 US cities — and tallies up what that land could be worth if it was developed for other uses.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-03/mapping-the-economic-toll-of-downtown-freeways-in-us-cities
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Gabriel M Ahlfeldt
4 months ago
We revised our Skyscraper Revolution paper
github.com/Ahlfeldt/DPs...
Added indirect inference to estimate the QoL effect of density by matching causal reduced-form estimates in the model => more realistic counterfactuals. Quick read
@voxeu.org
:
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
@bsoeberlin.bsky.social
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Jeffrey Lin
Zak Yudhishthu
4 months ago
I wrote an essay about how freeways divide our urban fabric (largely inspired by my personal experiences living a couple blocks from the Kennedy)
pencillingout.substack.com/p/life-next-...
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Life next to the great urban barrier
When your home sits alongside the expressway
https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/life-next-to-the-great-urban-barrier
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Jeffrey Lin
Henry G Overman
5 months ago
This week's
@cep-lse.bsky.social
Trade and Urban Seminar
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
"Spreading Out in Expanding Idea Space"
cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/...
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Spreading Out in Expanding Idea Space | Jeffrey Lin | Wednesday 25 February 2026 12:30 - 14:00 | CEP Event
An event from the Trade and Urban Seminars series organised by the CEP
https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/event.asp?index=10529
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Jeffrey Lin
Henry Grabar
5 months ago
this is kind of spectacular -- you can't escape your hydrological destiny
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Zak Yudhishthu
6 months ago
In an effort to get to know my new home, I've sought out all kinds of books about Chicago. Here are some notes on my favorite books about this great city, and noteworthy themes across my reading.
pencillingout.substack.com/p/reflection...
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Reflections on a year of reading Chicago
A journey through the Windy City's many great books
https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/reflections-on-a-year-of-reading
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Jeffrey Lin
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
6 months ago
#QJE
Feb 2026, #10, “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/...
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The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006*
Abstract. We construct the first annual market rent and home sales price series for American cities over the twentieth century using 2.7 million newspaper
https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaf047
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Jeffrey Lin
Trade Diversion (Jonathan Dingel)
7 months ago
Join us Monday at 8:00am in 310 for an
#ASSA2026
session on Spatial Sorting and Economic Transformations Papers on poverty (non-)traps, income sorting, urban exploration & WFH by Bryan Stuart, Yuhei Miyauchi, Gabriel Kreindler, Yichen Su. Discussants:
@chrisseveren.bsky.social
, Couture, Rappaport
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Jeffrey Lin
Trade Diversion (Jonathan Dingel)
7 months ago
Join us Saturday at 10:15am for an
#ASSA2026
session on Development of American Cities featuring papers on mortgage markets, slavery, migration & ghost towns by L D'Amico, S Naidu, T Jaworski, M Hoelzlein Discussants:
@econhist-allday.bsky.social
, S Heblich,
@allie-green.com
,
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
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Jeffrey Lin
Diego Puga
7 months ago
These are 10 of my favourite
#UrbanEconomics
&
#SpatialEconomics
articles published in academic journals in 2025, continuing with a tradition started in 2018 (order is alphabetical by first author, no ranking implied):
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Jeffrey Lin
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
9 months ago
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/...
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The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006*
Abstract. We construct the first annual market rent and home sales price series for American cities over the 20th century using 2.7 million newspaper real
https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaf047
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Jeffrey Lin
Rick Hornbeck
9 months ago
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!
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Historical Census of Manufactures Microdata - Historical Census of Manufactures Microdata
http://CMFdata.org
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Zachary Schrag
9 months ago
Next Wednesday in Philadelphia!
phillyguides.org/event/nativi...
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Nativist/ Bible Riots of 1844 - Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides
The Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides (APT) will hold its next monthly meeting on Wednesday, November 12 at 7 pm, in person at the Great Hall of Christ Church Neighborhood […]
https://phillyguides.org/event/nativist-bible-riots-of-1844/
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Jeffrey Lin
Arpit Gupta
9 months ago
🚨New predoc positions!🚨 Join
@alexbartik.bsky.social
and me to work on developing LLM tools to analyze zoning regulations and their impacts on housing affordability. One position starting at the "normal" cycle next year, and another ASAP. Apply here:
apply.interfolio.com/176538
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Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
https://apply.interfolio.com/176538
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Michael Clemens
9 months ago
Okay
#EconSky
, if you do any kind of spatial analysis, it's a good time to be alive ☞ A new, open-access global spatial database combining 73 harmonized datasets on the world population, its distribution in space, and its characteristics, 2015–2023:
doi.org/10.12688/ver...
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Daniel Tannenbaum
9 months ago
Hello
#econsky
, the Nebraska Labor Summit will be held Friday, March 13, 2026. It's a really fun, junior-centric, research conference in labor and related applied micro fields. Martha Bailey and Alex Mas will give the keynotes. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 1!
forms.gle/JC5tN5cT1R2i4ZUJA
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#urbanecon
9 months ago
New in JOEG: Off-the-job learning in cities.
#econsky
#urbanecon
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Off-the-job learning in cities
Abstract Cities are characterized by high skill levels and workers improve their skills through learning. This article presents novel stylized facts on learning behavior and cities. I use Japanese survey data that provide distinctively rich first-hand information about the frequency, purpose, and subject of off-the-job learning. First, people engage in learning more frequently in denser cities. Second, people in denser cities are more likely to learn to gain new employment or cultivate themselves. Third, while cities tend to facilitate learning of skills required in skill-intensive sectors, what people learn depends on the local demand for skills.
https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/25/5/771/8110509?rss=1
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Jeffrey Lin
Alvin Murphy
9 months ago
Check out the call for papers for a Real Estate Economics Special Issue on Commercial Real Estate with guest editor Xudong An! Special-Issue conference sessions will be held at the AREUEA National Meeting in Washington, D.C., in May 2026.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
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<em>Real Estate Economics</em> | AREUEA Journal | Wiley Online Library
<em>Real Estate Economics</em> is a leading journal facilitating communication between researchers and industry professionals and improving the analysis of real estate decisions.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15406229/call-for-papers/cre
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Jeffrey Lin
Lewis Lehe
9 months ago
in new
@findingspress.org
paper, PhD candidate shirin qiam (now at Minneapolis Met Council). uses a deep learning model and post processing pipeline that outlines surface parking lots. Tulsa has a lot, Oakland surprisingly little.
findingspress.org/article/1452...
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Jeffrey Lin
Call for student poster submissions for the AREUEA-ASSA conference, deadline November 1.
www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
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2026 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
2022 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
https://www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
9 months ago
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Jeffrey Lin
Call for submissions for AREUEA doctoral dissertation award. Submission deadline October 31. Recent PhDs who defended between July 2024 and June 2025 are eligible.
www.areuea.org/hoyt-institu...
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Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition
https://www.areuea.org/hoyt-institute-doctoral-dissertation-award
9 months ago
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Call for submissions for AREUEA doctoral dissertation award. Submission deadline October 31. Recent PhDs who defended between July 2024 and June 2025 are eligible.
www.areuea.org/hoyt-institu...
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Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition
https://www.areuea.org/hoyt-institute-doctoral-dissertation-award
9 months ago
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Call for student poster submissions for the AREUEA-ASSA conference, deadline November 1.
www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
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2026 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
2022 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
https://www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
9 months ago
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Henry G Overman
10 months ago
Thanks to everyone who came to the
@urbaneconomics.bsky.social
North American Meetings in Montreal and to all those who worked behind the scenes to make it happen. Our next meeting will be in Barcelona, 8-9 May 2026. Call for papers coming soon.
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Jeffrey Lin
Clarence Eckerson Jr./Streetfilms
10 months ago
Very exciting! The seminal 1980 documentary "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" by William H. "Holly" Whyte has been RESTORED and screening in NYC this week! I wanted to honor his work and used his words in the companion book and produced this 11 years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU2v...
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William “Holly” Whyte in His Own Words, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” (1980)
YouTube video by Streetfilms®
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU2vVqbtRAY
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Stephen Redding
10 months ago
Excited to see the new Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics (Volume 6), edited jointly with Dave Donaldson come out:
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
. Fantastic set of chapters on recent advances and pointing the way to exciting further research
@treballen.bsky.social
@siepr.bsky.social
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Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics | Volume 6, Issue 1: Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest chapters of Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
https://www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/handbook-of-regional-and-urban-economics/vol/6/issue/1
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