Nathan Blascak

Insurance Churn and the COVID-19 Pandemic This study estimates whether the Families First Coronavirus Response Act decreased insurance churn.

My co-authors Sarah Shubeck (UCM) & Emily Crawford (Booth PhD student) & I have a new paper in JAMA Health Forum studying the effects of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) on insurance churn (defined as losing health insurance over the next 12 months) jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

More great work from this amazing team of researchers! The collection of papers Sarah and colleagues have put out have really changed my priors.

Our workshop Econometrics at Emory: Causal Inference with Panel Data is happening May 2–3, 2025!

🎯 We are thrilled to welcome Guido Imbens as our keynote speaker. But that’s just the start.

🎙️ We have a stellar lineup of speakers from both academia and industry to talk about causal inference!

On top of layoffs, HHS ordered to cut 35% of spending on contracts Federal health agencies have to slash their spending by more than a third, on top of the 10,000-person staffing cuts.

JUST IN: Federal health agencies have to slash their spending by more than a third, on top of the 10,000-person staffing cuts.

The 2025 Midwest Health Economics Conference will be held at Notre Dame, September 4-5. Paper submissions are due by May 15. This is a fantastic conference, you can submit your papers here:
nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

WEFIDEV - SPRING 2025 WEBINAR SCHEDULE Seminars take place the second and fourth Monday of every month at 5pm Central European Time / 11 am Eastern Time on Zoom.

Our #WEFIDEV #webinar on #Finance and #Development is back! We are meeting on April 14, 28, and May 12, with great speakers. Have a look at our program & sign up for our mailing list:

www.wefidev.com/spring-2025-...

Organized w/ @giorgiabarboni.bsky.social Kim Fe Cramer & Nicola Limodio

Since 2018, UW RDRC supported over 150 research projects, including the well-being of seniors and people with disabilities in Social Security programs (SSI, SSDI, OASI). I am proud of the training and research conducted as part of the RDRC, but without SSA as a partner, this research will stall.

Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.

NEW: Elon Musk’s team has descended on an already understaffed Social Security Administration, which now faces further workforce cuts and closures of vital local offices. The consequences could be significant for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.

Hi #econtwitter and #econsky, we finally made the switch! This is the official account for the Electronic Health Economics Colloquium (EHEC).

Follow for our 2025 presentation schedule, out soon! And please share widely!

BRFSS data has been taken offline

My friend told me YRBS is down: www.cdc.gov/yrbs/index.h...

Anyone running into similar issues??

Applications due 2/1 ⏰ for AEA Summer Economics Fellows at the Philly Fed and many other Reserve Banks and gov agencies, run by @aeacswep.bsky.social and @aeacsmgep.bsky.social. This is a great program!

Please apply!

www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/co...

The twins are at a fun stage where they constantly bring me books to read to them.

Unfortunately (for me), the only book they bring me is "Wheels on the Bus."

Washington Monument framed by cherry blossoms. Photo by Dana Jung.

The Society of Government Economists welcomes submissions of individual papers and sessions for its annual conference to be held on Friday, April 4, 2025 at American University Washington College of Law. All are welcome! Please help me circulate the Call for Papers: www.sge-econ.org/sge-2025-ann...

It really sucks you in! I literally played it on an entire flight to Irvine (instead of working on slides) this past spring.

It's so good! Very intuitive, so learning curve isn't steep, and runs are short, so easy to fit in between baby/kid obligations.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

www.metacritic.com/game/indiana...

I'm only about 12 hours in and it's already fantastic. The game feels incredibly faithful to the movies and the 1st-person perspective was the absolute right move. Honestly, feels like you're Indiana Jones!

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

www.metacritic.com/game/elden-r...

Somehow *improved* upon the base game imo. Map design is amazing and complex, making world exploration feel like a puzzle. Final boss is ridiculous though: between work and the twins, I took me over 2 weeks to defeat.

Balatro

www.metacritic.com/game/balatro/

The "poker rogue-like." It definitely deserves all of its accolades. Deceptively simple and super replayable. It has the Civilization "just one more turn" quality, which in my book is high praise.

As usual, Paul's list is great (though admittedly, I've only had a chance to play a 1/4 of the games on his list). Here are some additional ones that are great:

A Note on Gender Differences in Credit Card Limit Changes The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.

Just in time before the holidays! New FEDS Notes with my coauthor Anna Tranfaglia on gender differences in credit card limit *changes*. www.federalreserve.gov/econres/note...

(From Fed Board post on X. Great opportunity for PhD students doing macro! #econsky)
The Federal Reserve Board is hiring Ph.D. Dissertation Fellows for summer 2025. Applications will be accepted through February 1, 2025.

To learn more and apply, visit: frbog.taleo.net/careersectio...

tl;dr: Using a sample of sole mortgage applicants, we look at card limit changes *not* associated with a change in the # of cards. We find no gender differences in the *relative* size of card limit increases or decreases. More interesting results in the Note!

A Note on Gender Differences in Credit Card Limit Changes The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.

Just in time before the holidays! New FEDS Notes with my coauthor Anna Tranfaglia on gender differences in credit card limit *changes*. www.federalreserve.gov/econres/note...

📢 Due to technical difficulties with the Confex system, we will be extending abstract submissions until 11:59 PST December 19, 2024. If you have any difficulties please reach out to info@ashecon.org.

Submit here 👉 ashecon.confex.com/ashecon/2025...

Good news! You have a whole additional week to submit your sessions and abstracts to @ashecon.bsky.social. So submit your abstract and come party with us like professionals in Nashville in June 2025!!! 💃🕺
P.S. Especially if you have an abstract about children's and infant health.

I did my 1st run in NG+, which maybe wasn't the best idea.

(Crosspost to X and BS) Lukasz Drozd, Ezra Oberfield and I organized the Philadelphia Junior Macro (PJM) Workshop in 2023 and 2024. We invite junior macro researchers in the area around Philadelphia. I attach the agendas. We plan to come back with PJM3 in November 2025. #econsky

Good luck and enjoy! Took me a good chunk of the summer to complete.

Wonder what was commented out