Saurabh Lall

I share this sentiment. I think people are still in deep denial. We have a violent hard right fascist party in charge, an openly corrupt and fascist court system, rigged legislators and no opposition party. Without mass revolt this is checkmate.

The White House is taking new steps to undermine every international student at our universities.

It has approved a new rule restricting student visas to 4 years max. That's not long enough for PhD students, or about half of undergrads, to finish their degree.

Likely to enter force within days.

Square sails clearly follow a variant of the "New Version-final-new-revision-last" naming convention

Procrastination time.

For each like this gets, I'll post one currently active Brit pop/Brit pop adjacent/Madchester/90s British rock act that I'd recommend seeing instead of Oasis.

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030.

Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.

USAID is shutting its doors today--marking the end of democracy, diplomacy, and decency all in one fell swoop.

The only ones benefiting from this are the admins, I always thought.

I am once again pitching my romantic comedy:

- two academics start dating
- discover they are each other's terrible reviewer
- hijinks ensue

Working title: Love is Double-Blind

Ten Citations I Hate In Your Book

I still can't get past the idea that people in America are now supposed to accept that this is a valid form of law enforcement and just assume it's fine when random dudes in groups with face-coverings, no ID, no warrant, & no uniform grab people off the street and force them into unmarked vehicles

The trick to academic success is never letting on that your "research agenda" is actually just sunk costs.

TSA urges people to stop trying to use a Costco card as a sufficient REAL ID The TSA is expressing frustrations with travelers who are not providing a proper REAL ID to fly.

PA scholars: Let's create complex regression models to explore how people feel about REAL ID
Americans:
www.wsfa.com/2025/06/06/t...

graphic highlight Dr Lall's blog on closing the gender gap in Scottish Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Read Dr @lallsaurabh.bsky.social's Quick Insight on the First Minister's Programme for Government 📝

Dr Lall reflects on the announcement and provides insight into the policy needed to close the gender gap in Scottish entrepreneurship and innovation.

Read more: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

A preview of the newsletter displayed on a laptop screen

We sent out our May newsletter this week 📧

Including:
📝Insights on Scot Gov Programme for Government (@drcmacrae.bsky.social @dnblane.bsky.social @lallsaurabh.bsky.social)
🎙️TWO timely podcast episodes including on the UK Gov's new immigration white paper

Read 🔗 tinyurl.com/CPPMayNews2025

1/2

I've heard good things about Gladstone's library as a writing retreat

It’s International Week at @georgemasonu.bsky.social.

I am thinking of all the international students here.

Who are now forced to imagine what things they lawfully say or write today could result in their seizure—without warning, trial, or appeal—due to future arbitrary changes in policy.

Which is likely why we're not seeing big companies complain.

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying.

They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks.

From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

I was explaining this to my students yesterday. I was introducing cost benefit analysis, and we went through the baseline expectations for a firm-level CBA. We then went through a social cost benefit analysis, and they were blown away at how much harder and more rigorous they usually are.

"International students increase schools’ funding via tuition payments, which leads to increased in-state enrollment and lower tuition prices."

Link to working paper below

Academics have been pedantic and annoying for as long as there have been universities. Magically the public now notices it and hates us? Nah dawg.

What it is is that the minds of disaffected men these institutions now confer elite status on women and minorities. So they don’t like them anymore.

If the NIH gets messed up, there is no alternative. Not just in the US, but globally. It is by far the biggest engine of health research in the world. Which is why the idea that US scientists can just do their work elsewhere is a little fanciful.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/politicizi...

Up to 25% of NIH expert staff may be cut, I want ti be sure it’s clear that they are just as essential to ensuring scientific integrity at NIH as are outside scientists. Layoffs that large will decimate the agency. These folks are extraordinarily good at their jobs www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...

Exactly, and it’s very hard to get it back even if they lose power. The point is to devastate the nuts and bolts of the state- information, bureaucratic presence, oversight and training. You dismantle the building blocks and the output- tax and welfare stops functioning effectively.

💯 Also I don’t think people understand how bad employment discrimination is. So many firms, and often entire sectors, just don’t hire black people for real regardless of qualification. It’s why so many black folk work in government where there are at least some discrimination safeguards in place.

ppl getting angry at this but he's talking alliances and he's 100% right- you cannot trust a country where every 4 yrs the foreign policy does a complete 180 & tears up treaties and reneges on deals and withholds payments because some sheep farmers in Wisconsin think too many black women have jobs

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes SILVER SPRING, MD—As mass firings of career experts and scientists continued to roil the federal government, officials confirmed Friday that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes — theonion.com/noaa-cuts-le...

🚨In a new working paper @simonchauchard.bsky.social & I argue that integrating the state can weaken support for redistribution. The bureaucratic state is a pivotal actor in historically ranked societies like US & India, where high status groups have used the state to maintain social hierarchy

Amidst all this, it's worth remembering what a loss the USAID DIV program is to social innovation. DIV combined agility and openness with rigour. Hopefully more DFIs, aid agencies & impact investors can learn from it. Great WP estimating RoI here
michaelkremer.economics.uchicago.edu/publications...