Seema Jayachandran

For econ JM candidates:

@princetondevo.bsky.social is hiring for a 1-year postdoc with a start date in summer 2026. The only responsibility is to be an active participant in our Princeton development econ seminars and to continue pursuing your great independent research.

Apply by Nov 24.

Can someone who has followed his recent trajectory tell me how Tyler got here?

I've been more frustrated as a poster than as a consumer of posts. When I posted a summary of a new paper on LinkedIn(!) and here, on LinkdIn got in front of scholars on that topic I'm not connected to (inferred from their likes). On here, it didn't/wouldn't. Same for posting about job openings.

Per the previous thing I posted, its less rewarding to post inside-baseball posts and we see less of that content without a better feed algorithm....

This is niche content for those who know that everything at the World Bank now has the word "jobs" sprinkled on top of it.

Got an announcement about an IPA/Northwestern workshop on, “Better Data for Better Jobs and Lives: Innovations in Survey Measurement in the Age of AI" and thought "confusing, why is jobs in the title. Ah, must be funded by the World Bank." Sure enough...

Agree. What I'm wishing for is probably infeasible, or benefits me but is bad for the world overall. Just wistful for twitter before it was destroyed: the algorithm served me well. It had the nerdy feed I was seeking. Not b/c of benevolence but b/c that was profit-maximizing. I sorely miss that.

An algorithm. Benevolent algorithms are underrated.

My experience on Twitter pre-2022 was fantastic because the algorithm enabled me to see useful content and placed my posts in the feeds of people I hoped would see it.

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/09/24/m...

"Levitt was a University of Chicago professor, he has (by academic standards) nearly infinite resources, he could study whatever he wants, and he’s going for . . . clicks?"

"experts say"
www.cnn.com/2025/08/11/b...

Are OPT visas the next target? Ugh.

"Every serious foreign policy discussion today misses the fundamental reality—Trump's strategic corruption has become America's primary vulnerability. China doesn't need to steal our technology when they can simply buy Trump."

I really hope someone has been building a fundraising platform that will be ready to sub in for ActBlue when needed.

I plan to post this ABC News supercut video of Trump calling Harris and Democrats "fascists" (and "communists"!) everytime I see a Republican on TV whining about Trump being called a "fascist" by the left.

Oh, the hypocrisy! Oh, the gaslighting!

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

The US taxpayers paid $167,000 to destroy contraceptives rather than sell them to a funder or NGO

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

#econra #econsky

We (development econ faculty at Princeton) are hiring predocs, to start in summer 2026. Please share the application with folks who might be interested: rpde.princeton.edu/rpde-%E2%80%93-predoctoral-fellows-research-specialists-start-summer-2026
We'll review apps starting on 9/15. Thanks!

Me to my bank: Can I pls just get a plastic credit card?

Bank: No. But just add it to your mobile wallet and don't carry it around!

Me: Why did you switch to metal cards?

Bank: They handle wear and tear better.

Me: While kept in a drawer?

A metal credit card doesn't make me feel special. It annoys me because it makes my wallet heavier.

JD Vance said he doesn’t care if the US commits war crimes. Did it make the news?

Donald Trump said he’s declaring war on Chicago. Did it make the news?

Executive agencies keep posting Nazi blood-and-soil propaganda. Did it make the news?

We have a lot of bases in this exact layout too.

THE ICE AGENTS ARE WEARING FUCKING NAZI STAHLHELMS

WHAT THE FUCK

COME ON, YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

A while back someone was asking me if my university was telling me to keep quiet amidst the threats to higher education. Far from it!

whaaaat!? that's so cool!

literally just:

weird_trick = D * X

iv_robust(weird_trick ~ D | Z)

to get the mean of X among compliers!

Are there systematic diagnostics to decompose how much of the variance of a coeff is due to (unmodeled) heterogeneous effects vs sampling error? Intuitively, seems like there are ways to get at it, e.g., compare variance of outcomes in treat vs control group to gauge heterogeneous effects.

somewhere in iowa, an erstwhile senate challenger is sadly folding up their "IMPORTANCE OF BEATING ERNST" campaign shirts

They're now saying it out loud: The Administration's goal is to undo the political independence that Congress granted the Fed, so that the President can directly set rates.

A 4-year limit on student visa length would upend PhD programs.