Davide Viviano

We provide two empirical examples in the paper:
- Estimating GE effects of cash-transfers when we cannot run country-wide experiments
- Site selection for microfinance interventions – relevant when we can only include a small fraction of villages in our experiment.

The solution balances (i) variance over the smallest achievable variance and (ii) a sensitivity component that captures bias rescaled by its smallest attainable value. (ii) only depends on parameters known ex-ante without requiring priors on the bias. It formalizes trade-off betw/ variance and bias.

A challenge is that observational studies may be biased in unknown ways. We study minmax regret without requiring knowledge of the bias. We optimize
- Which experiment to run (arms/sites)
- Sample size allocation
- How to combine experimental and observational evidence

New Working Paper w/ Aristotelis Epanomeritakis

Applications often use experiments with other evidence to estimate counterfactuals hard to identify with a single experiment. Examples include GE effects or external validity. Which experiments to run (and how) in these contexts?

New paper: Triply Robust Panel Estimators (TROP) by @susanathey.bsky.social @guidoimbens.bsky.social Zhaonan Qu @vivianodavide.bsky.social.
arxiv.org/pdf/2508.21536

Law, Economics & Organization Workshop Discover your passion

Looking forward to this week’s booktalks and discussions!

Sep 23: MIT Knight Science Journalism program
ksj.mit.edu/events/

Sep 24: Harvard Kennedy School (including discussion with Dani Rodrik)
www.hks.harvard.edu/events/book-...

Sep 25: Yale Law School
law.yale.edu/centers-work...

Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United

The full order: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Because this cam out of the blue and sudden: other, similar orders could come out of the blue and sudden.

So those on visas will surely consider international travel a potential risk, and opt for zoom calls over flying when possible

i just want to convey the depth of my appreciation to our colleagues, in the broad sense, in the american and UK university systems, for continuing to teach the fact that trans people exist even though you are all going to be ceaselessly punished alongside us for it. thank you.

🆕 Macroeconomics and climate change 📢

Today on VoxDevTalks, @adrienbilal.bsky.social (@stanford.edu) discusses the research on macroeconomics and climate change – highlighting evidence gaps in mitigation, adaptation, and labour transitions: voxdev.org/topic/macroe...

we're hiring assistant professor in computational social science, applications close 26/10/2025

We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science ❗

📚 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Apply before 26 October and join an internationally outstanding group of social science methodologists 🌎

I'm hiring a predoc to work w/ me on empirical IO/applied micro projects starting in Fall '26!

Details below and instructions here: shoshanavasserman.com/call_for_pre...

International students (who need J1) are welcome & non-econ bgs are fine given interest + curiosity. Please apply :)

Trump’s Fed interference raises alarm among leading economists Nearly 600 economists sign a letter warning of consequences for inflation and economic stability

#econsky
www.thebanker.com/content/38c3...

Are you on the economics job market this year?
Consider applying for the Nuffield postdoc at Oxford:
econjobmarket.org/positions/11...

It's an excellent opportunity for some extra research time in a great environment!
(Econometrics and econ/ML applications particularly encouraged!)

I was the AEA's President Elect as the first Trump term began. We worried about government statistics then, and appointed a committee that included members (such as Google's Chief Economist) who might be in a position to help make reliable statistics available if the government went dark.
#econsky

Independent reliable statistics are crucial in all modern democracies — and under attack in many parts of the world…

Dr. Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased.

#econsky

Very exciting and opens up many questions on how we evaluate these sources of data!

Looking forward to the NBER SI Thursday metrics session next week where we will be presenting work on remote sensed outcomes with Rahul Singh and Ashesh Rambachan. Here is the program www.nber.org/conferences/... and preview dviviano.github.io/projects/pre... Drop by if you are around!

When Skilled Workers Go Abroad, Their Home Countries Experience ‘Brain Gain’ When skilled workers from poorer countries migrate to wealthy ones, there are benefits for the origin countries as well as workers and the host countries, according to new research co-authored by Yale...

insights.som.yale.edu/insights/whe...

"The countries that succeed are the ones that are able to create institutions that attract talent from wherever it happens to be born."

🔥New #basicincome paper just posted:🔥

"Basic income and labor supply: Evidence from an RCT in Germany"
(maybe not the wittiest title, but descriptive...)

maxkasy.github.io/home/files/p...

Feedback welcome, this is still subject to revisions!

Starting to look like I might not be able to work at Harvard anymore due to recent funding cuts. If you know of any open statistical consulting positions that support remote work or are NYC-based, please reach out! 😅

Sharing here the slides for the talks given this week:

dviviano.github.io/projects/pre... (on using remote sensed outcomes for program evaluation)

and dviviano.github.io/projects/val... (on learning generalizability/evidence aggregation)

Harvard's past international students include incubator of Moderna, co-founder of Facebook, at least 11 Nobel Prize winners, and 14 heads of state.

Very nice work!

Fun project on formulating experimentation as an optimisation problem led by Tim Sudijono, who we were lucky to have as an intern this year.

How to design scientific communication when researchers have private incentives in how to conduct a research study (and/or in which statistics to report)? Exciting new project with Ravi Jagadeesan: dviviano.github.io/projects/pub...

Deeply honored and humbled by this recognition from the @aeainformation.bsky.social. I owe so much to my co-authors, colleagues, mentors, students & many others: support, inspiration, generosity. Endlessly grateful for all I have learned from you & hope to continue contributing to our field

How can we design algorithms that maximize social welfare, rather than profits? This paper merges multi-armed bandits and adversarial learning with optimal tax theory and welfare economics. @maxkasy @NicoloCB @Rcolomboni buff.ly/pxPY8nj

Congratulations @s-stantcheva.bsky.social !