Davide Dragone

📢🧵 New paper! #EconTwitter
How does intensive social media use affect puberty timing and risky behaviours in adolescence?
📄 Riskonnected: Social Media, Puberty and Risky Behaviours in Adolescence with Margherita Agnoletto
and Silvia Mendolia #ChildDevelopment #DigitalWellbeing

Today, I encountered yet another instance where a scholar, influenced by a targeted harassment campaign on social media, formed a misrepresented view of my research after reading certain posts and working papers. How much longer will I have to endure this? 1/2

L’autolesionismo di Trump e Meloni Diversamente dalla narrazione dominante, l’UE non è stata umiliata e Trump ha solo danneggiato l'economia americana. Ma la proposta miope e autolesionista di Meloni rischia di ribaltare la situazione

La proposta di Meloni di istituire un fondo europeo per sussidiare le imprese esposte ai dazi è sbagliata e dannosa.
Ho provato a spiegarlo nel nuovo post sul mio blog - nonché nuovo episodio del mio podcast. 👇
fabiosabatini.substack.com/p/lautolesio...

Me gustaría escribir en castellano un breve hilo sobre una vivencia negativa de los últimos meses. En marzo del 2024 publiqué un artículo que encontraba que la prohibición de la compra de la prostitución en Suecia aumentaba las violaciones de entre el 40 y el 60% 1/N

#econsky #healtheconomics @libertadgonzalez.bsky.social @mardelgiu.bsky.social

The academic community must stand against misinformation and protect researchers from being unjustly targeted. N/N #AcademicIntegrity #AcademicSky #EconSky

A short thread on the main findings might be found here:

bsky.app/profile/ricc...

JOB AD: @fbk-irvapp.bsky.social in #Trento (Italy) is looking for a #Researcher in Quantitative Public #Policy Evaluation to conduct (quasi)experimental evaluation research across different policy areas. 2Y+ contract - apply by 18/08 - Please, REPOST #EconSky LINK: jobs.fbk.eu/Annunci/Offe...

The thread below further illustrates the original decision made by the scientific committee — a decision that was only overturned following a social media harassment campaign, setting a troubling precedent that such campaigns can pressure 1/2

I hope someone at @springernature.com still values #ScientificIntegrity enough to uphold the original decision of the impartial scientific committee—rather than capitulating to the biased outcome driven by a 16-month social media harassment campaign.

#EconSky

This is the core issue highlighted by this event: If you are a senior professor and dislike an article's findings or a scientific committee's decision, you can overrule them—even forcing a retraction—through a harassment campaign on social media.This seems possible with @springernature.com journals

#healtheconomics #econsky

It’s been almost a month since the unjust retraction was forced through—a decision not made by the scientific committee, but pushed by those who waged a 16-month online harassment campaign against my work.

1/3

I feel overwhelmed and trapped in a David vs. Goliath battle, fighting simply to restore the original, unbiased outcome determined by the scientific committee. The system failed; truth and due process lost to mob tactics.

Any advice on how to confront this? Solidarity and suggestions welcome. 2/3

It is deeply disheartening to witness a campaign that, from the outset, sought to retract my work simply because it disagreed with the findings. Rather than engaging in a constructive debate (advancing the literature), critics seized on issues with the replication code as a pretext to justify 1/3

@mardelgiu.bsky.social

We contributes to the economics of:
➡️Sexual behavior
➡️Human capital
➡️Gender
➡️Labor
➡️Fertility
📄: @https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/18002/an-economic-theory-of-sexual-exchanges-and-human-capital Feedback welcome! @scottcunningham.bsky.social @draliceevans.bsky.social

🧠 We contribute a unified rational choice framework that:
🔬Encompasses paid sex and marriage
🔬Explains segregation in sex markets
🔬Models sexual activity and fertility as time allocations
🔬Endogenizes gendered outcomes via norms and human capital

📉 Our model explains the decline in unpaid sex and fertility: As digital sex (porn, platforms, AI) lowers the cost of paid sex, people reallocate time away from intimacy....
👉 Less unpaid sex
👉 Lower fertility
👉 More demand for paid sex

📢📢📢 Why are sex markets gendered? Why is sexual activity declining even as norms liberalize? Finally a general economic theory that unifies paid sex and marriage. 👉 An Economic Theory of Sexual Exchanges and Human Capital #gender #humancapital #fertility
@davidedragone.bsky.social and Elias Carroni

Tinder’s introduction
+ sharply & persistently increased sexual activity with no impact on relationship formation
+ increased inequality
in dating outcomes among male but not female students
+ increased sexual assaults & STDs
+ improved female students' mental health
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Workin paper: An Economic Theory of Sexual Exchanges and Human Capital, by Elias Carroni, Marina Della Giusta, Davide Dragone July 11, 2025 Abstract We propose a unified economic model of sexual exchanges that treats both unpaid and paid sex as outcomes of individual time allocation decisions. Departing from existing literature that separates sex into marital relations or specialized markets, the model incorporates relational skills, gender norms, and labor market opportunities. It explains gender patterns in the supply and demand of paid sex and offers a rationale for declining sexual activity despite liberal norms. The framework accounts for behavioral responses to shocks, prices, and wage differentials, and can inform policy debates on gender inequality, fertility, and regulation of sex markets

amsacta.unibo.it/id/eprint/84...

Two puzzles:
1- ̲𝙿̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚒̲̲𝚍̲ ̲𝚜̲̲𝚎̲̲𝚡̲ ̲𝚖̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚛̲̲𝚔̲̲𝚎̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚜̲: Why are men buyers and women sellers?
2- Why are ̲𝚜̲̲𝚎̲̲𝚡̲̲𝚞̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚕̲ ̲𝚊̲̲𝚌̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚒̲̲𝚟̲̲𝚒̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚢̲ ̲𝚊̲̲𝚗̲̲𝚍̲ ̲𝚏̲̲𝚎̲̲𝚛̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚒̲̲𝚕̲̲𝚒̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚢̲ declining?

For a possible answer, check our new wp "𝐀𝐧 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬", with @mardelgiu.bsky.social , E. Carroni

Link ⬇️ Please retweet 😜
#healtheconomics #econsky

I will suggest my junior researchers to avoid JOPE to avoid receiving the same treatment received by @riccardociacci.bsky.social #healtheconomics #econsky

This is so worrying and so bad for JOPE's reputation. I thought retractions were the consequence of fraud, not of senior professors not liking certain results #healteconomics #econsky

*Chronicle of an Ideological Harassment Campaign Foretold*

This short thread outlines how a harassment campaign overruled a scientific decision made by scholars in a @springernature.com journal.

In March 2024, two Swedish academics posted harassing tweets 1/N

If you have 1 minute, a RT or sending this thread to someone else would really help increase visibility. Even one share makes a difference. 🙏 1/4

The retraction of my article is based on false claims and should be withdrawn. @springernature.com

We need transparency and fairness in research—not silence and intimidation. Thank you for your support. 🙌

#AcademicTwitter #ResearchIntegrity #StopBullyingInAcademia 4/4

The professor (later joined by another senior professor) posted accusations like “How did this pass peer review?” and “You’re hiding something!”— some of them were later deleted after other scholars highlighted they were disturbing. They demanded my code within hours via email, 3/N

A summary of events, my disagreement with the retraction, and why it should be withdrawn is here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o1vp6.... Dealing with this has been tough, and the social media backlash I faced went beyond academic bounds #EconBluesky #Academia #Replication