Joshua Weidmann

Fascinating paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social, @bartonelee2.bsky.social, and Hasin Yousaf!
The paper addresses a fundamental question: Why do some democracies chronically avoid ambitious, long-term reforms even when they have decent institutions?
They argue that what matters is not only

Three Share Nobel in Economics for Work on How Technology Drives Growth Joel Mokyr was awarded half of the prize, and Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt shared the other half.

Breaking News: The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their work on how technology drives growth.

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

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The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility (Forthcoming Article) - We construct a public atlas of mean outcomes in adulthood by childhood Census tract. Outcomes vary sharply across neighborhoods: for children whose parents earn $27,000, the st...

Forthcoming in the AER: "The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility" by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones, and Sonya R. Porter. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

🚨 The Virtual Workshop in Historical Political Economy is back! 🚨

For the new academic year, we have an amazing line up of papers for you!

In our inaugural session 2 HPE superstars will join us: @annagbusse.bsky.social (Stanford) will present & @jvoth.bsky.social (Zurich) discuss! I can't wait. 😀

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Congratulations to Stefanie Stantcheva (@s-stantcheva.bsky.social) of @harvard.edu, winner of the 2025 John Bates Clark Medal! #econsky www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/ho...

Structural Estimation Under Misspecification: Theory and Implications for Practice* Abstract. A researcher can use a tightly parameterized structural model to obtain internally consistent estimates of a wide range of economically interesti

Recently accepted by #QJE, “Structural Estimation Under Misspecification: Theory and Implications for Practice,” by Andrews, Barahona (@nanobarahona.bsky.social), Gentzkow, Rambachan (@asheshrambachan.bsky.social), and Shapiro: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

Predoctoral Field-Based Research Associate (One Year) – Democratic Republic of Congo, UC Berkeley | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Given the current political news, this may not be top of mind, but my co-authors and I are looking for French-speaking RAs to join projects in the DRC that study the role of state capacity in economic development.

1-year predoc: povertyactionlab.org/careers/pred...

Our paper "Coordination and Incumbency Advantage in Multi-Party Systems—Evidence from French Elections" is now forthcoming @jeeanews.bsky.social !! 👇👇
Short 🧵on what we do and find, with K. Dano, @francescoferlenga.bsky.social, @vingalasso.bsky.social, and @clpennec.bsky.social (1/10).

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

Alte Wurzeln, neue Wurzeln? Zum Einfluss früherer rechtsradikaler Unterstützung auf den AfD-Wahlerfolg bei der Europawahl 2024 - Politische Vierteljahresschrift Despite ongoing legal proceedings and the classification as right-wing extremists by state domestic intelligence services, the AfD was able to make considerable gains in Germany’s last European electi...

Publication alert @pvs-journal.bsky.social! In a new research note, @marcdebus.bsky.social, @pluggedchris.bsky.social and I investigate how past support for far-right extremist parties shaped the AfD's electoral success in the 2024 European elections.
A thread 🧵. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Causes and Extent of Increasing Partisan Segregation in the U.S. – Evidence from Migration Patterns of 212 Million Voters Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

Fascinating paper: partisan segregation is not due to sorting/migration. Counties trending Democratic tend to so because of generational change; Counties trending Republican tend to do so because of party switching.

www.nber.org/papers/w33422

🔜 POLECONUK Webinar is back on 10 March! Our first talk is by Bård Harstad (Stanford, @bardharstad.bsky.social) presenting "The Politics of Global Public Goods". For details visit us at: sites.google.com/view/polecon...

Digital Economics and AI Meeting, Spring 2025

Excited to spend the day at the NBER Digital Economics and AI Meeting!

I'll be presenting this paper on LLMs and empirical research: www.nber.org/papers/w33344

Full lineup of the conference: www.nber.org/conferences/...

Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 39 No. 1 Winter 2025

Our practical guide to shift-share IV is now out in the JEP!

www.aeaweb.org/issues/793

(Ungated version: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/el9yn...)

Holy forking shirt balls

"Denial of a wanted abortion has both immediate and lasting effects. It increases a woman’s risk of death by 2.5 p.p within nine months, mainly due to unsafe abortion procedures, and raises the likelihood of carrying the pregnancy to term by 31 p.p. "

📢 Workshop Call 📢

3d Edition of the Yale-UB Historical Political Economy Workshop

Keynote: "Revolutionary Contagion" by Saumitra Jha and Steven Wilkinson

At University of Barcelona @ub.edu on June 30 and July 1, 2025

Send us your papers by Febr 28: shorturl.at/w96jk

@didacqueralt.bsky.social

Research Professional – Christopher Blattman (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible) Chicago, IL

Come work for me at UChicago @beckerfriedman.bsky.social ! I'm hiring a full-time pre-doc to start this April/May/June for data analysis on crime, education, mental health, and organized crime, mostly on projects in Latin America. Details & apply here: job-boards.greenhouse.io/universityof...

Video: Opinion | How Tyranny Begins Tyranny doesn’t happen overnight. Take it from the people who missed the first signs.

I did a NYT video interview—along with voices from Hungary, Nicaragua, and Russia— about how repression works in authoritarian states.

www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...

As we enter the new year, our work & conversations at Harvard's Center for European Studies are zeroing in on understanding the disruptive forces remaking Europe & the broader Transatlantic world in deeply unsettling times. We have an exciting lineup. Please join us & mark your calendars.

The End of Progress? | by Joseph E. Stiglitz - Project Syndicate Joseph E. Stiglitz predicts that Donald Trump’s second administration will be defined by its rejection of Enlightenment values.

My latest piece for @projectsyndicate.bsky.social: www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/t...

PLEASE RT :)

Submit to the annual Network Science and Economics Conference, the largest US event for network theory and empirical research in and adjacent to economics

Deadline Jan 30 (soon!)

Conference Apr 11-13 at Stanford

Now with Ethan Bueno de Mesquita instead of Will Howell, right?

Call for Papers: 2025 Washington University Conference for Early Career Scholars in Theoretical Political Economy The Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis will host a conference for early-career scholars working on formal theories of politics. The conference will be held on campus at Washington University on April 18, 2025. If you are a current PhD student or postdoctoral fellow working in formal theory or political economic theory, please apply to present by emailing your paper to me (keschnak@wustl.edu) by February 15, 2025. We will cover travel and lodging for paper presenters. Additionally, if you are a faculty member interested in attending or serving as a discussant, please feel free to contact me.

We are having our second annual formal theory conference at WashU for graduate students and postdocs working on formal models in political science. Please consider applying or passing this information to someone who might want to apply!

APSA Mentoring Program – Enroll Now for Spring 2025 Spring enrollment for the APSA Mentoring Program will be open from January 13 – January 27, 2025. The Mentoring Program connects undergraduate, graduate students, and junior faculty from all backgrounds to mentors in the political science discipline. Potential mentoring topics include graduate school admissions, navigating the academic job market, applied careers in political science, and work-life balance. Find a Mentor…

APSA Mentoring Program – Enroll Now for Spring 2025

Spring enrollment for the APSA Mentoring Program will be open from January 13 – January 27, 2025. The Mentoring Program connects undergraduate, graduate students, and junior faculty from all backgrounds to mentors in the political science…

When will we get to know which one you guys picked? 😉

The Hidden Health Care Crisis Behind Bars: A Randomized Trial to Accredit U.S. Jails Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

Excited to share results from a 4-year first-ever RCT across US jails. We (Crystal Yang & I) find that death rates are much higher in jails than officially reported & health care accreditation improves staff coordination, quality & save lives.
www.nber.org/papers/w33357

Just a reminder for Germans abroad that you need to re-register to vote in the Federal Election, even if you didn't move houses since 2021 (yes, I'm a political scientist and had to google this). Here are the docs you need: www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/bundestagswa.... (1)