Elliott Ash

Figure presents coefficients for time indicators before and after labour-tax-rate increases on the share of worker rights clauses. Callaway Sant’Anna (2021) estimator in the implementation of Rios-Avila et al. (2022), accounting for heterogeneous treatment effects and staggered treatment timing. Outcome: Share of worker rights (number of worker rights over the number of all clauses). Controls: Not-yet-treated observations. Event is defined as the largest labour-tax increase in a given province in the 1990s, where labour tax rate is defined as the logarithmised implicit personal income tax rate. Collective bargaining agreements allocate rights and obligations beyond wages and benefits. This column analyses 30,000 Canadian agreements from 1986 to 2015 for non-wage worker rights. Unions secure a wide range of enforceable rights, including scheduling protections, grievance procedures, and dismissal safeguards. Such clauses increase when income tax rates rise or outside job opportunities improve, showing that worker rights have measurable economic value. The findings suggest that policy debates should consider the full legal content of contracts, not just pay.

A study of 30,000 Canadian labour agreements shows unions secure a wide range of enforceable rights, including scheduling protections, grievance procedures, and dismissal safeguards.
Benjamin W. Arold, @elliottash.bsky.social, W. Bentley MacLeod, Suresh Naidu
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
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Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice* Abstract. This article empirically studies the effects of the early law and economics movement on the U.S. judiciary. We focus on the Manne Economics Insti

#QJE Feb 2026, #15, “Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice,” by Ash (@elliottash.bsky.social), Chen, and Naidu: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

📢 #CallForPapers for the 11th Monash-Paris-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-As-Data #Workshop!

Papers using text, audio, images, or other unstructured data are welcome.

Organisers: @elliottash.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social & Philine Widmer
Deadline: 13 March
cepr.org/events/11th-...
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📣The Call for Papers for EJ special issue ‘AI Measurement in Applied Economics’ is now open.

⏰Deadline: 15 January 2026

More info here 👉 bit.ly/47sNmS7
@albertobisin.bsky.social
@elliottash.bsky.social

🚨Next time you hire, don’t take it easy! In a new working paper, @elliottash.bsky.social, Jason Sockin, and I show the difficulty of the interview signals to workers whether the job is a good fit. 🚨

Paper link: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

⚖️ Measuring Scalar Constructs in Social Science with LLMs

with rising (and established) stars in Computational Social Science

@haukelicht.bsky.social
@rupak-s.bsky.social
@patrickwu.bsky.social
@pranavgoel.bsky.social
@elliottash.bsky.social
@alexanderhoyle.bsky.social

arxiv.org/abs/2509.03116

On Monday, 1 December 2025, we host
💥Sergio Galletta💥 (ETH Zurich), who will present "BallotBot: Can AI Chatbots Lower Voter-Information Barriers?". This is joint work with Elliott Ash and Giacomo Opocher. @sergallett.bsky.social @elliottash.bsky.social

🆕 RFBerlin Discussion Paper!
@benjaminarold.bsky.social, @elliottash.bsky.social, W. Bentley MacLeod and Suresh Naidu study worker rights in collective bargaining and how legal protections shape bargaining outcomes and wage dynamics. 🔗 rfberlin.com/wp-content/u...

Call for Papers:

The 4th Annual Zurich Workshop in AI+Economics

to be held Dec 5-6, 2025, hosted by ETH Zurich and University of Zurich.

Info: eash.cc/AI-econ
Submit (by Aug 15th): eash.cc/AI-econ-sub-2025

Top Papers on AI in Law This list includes the top downloaded papers on AI in Law posted in Q1 2025. It also includes the Top 5 Organizations that downloaded the research during this period.

Check out the latest from the SSRN #blog which includes a list of the top downloaded papers on #AI in Law for Q2 of 2025.

Read More: http://spkl.io/63329ABA6R

#LawSky #AICommunity

The Medium Is Not the Message: Deconfounding Text Embeddings via Linear Concept Erasure Embedding-based similarity metrics between text sequences can be influenced not just by the content dimensions we most care about, but can also be biased by spurious attributes like the text's source ...

Work with @yu-fan-768.bsky.social , Yang Tian, @shauli.bsky.social , @mrinmaya.bsky.social , @elliottash.bsky.social

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2507.01234 (credit to Yu for the McLuhan reference)
Github: github.com/y-fn/deconfo...

Call for Papers:

The 4th Annual Zurich Workshop in AI+Economics

to be held Dec 5-6, 2025, hosted by ETH Zurich and University of Zurich.

Info: eash.cc/AI-econ
Submit (by Aug 15th): eash.cc/AI-econ-sub-2025

Reminder: The Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics invites submissions for the collection #Textual #Analysis in #Economics and #Finance. link.springer.com/collections/...

#EconSky
@kaufmanndani.bsky.social @elliottash.bsky.social @mariusbrulhart.bsky.social

Registration is open for the 9th Text-As-Data Workshop!
When: 28-29 April 2025
Where: Online
Organisers: @elliottash.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social @phinifa.bsky.social
More information: cepr.org/events/9th-m...
#EconSky #Workshop #Conference

Stellar health economists who want to build a world-class lab in Zurich, see here 👉

🚨New Working Paper:

The Value of Worker Rights in Collective Bargaining

w/ @elliottash.bsky.social , W. Bentley MacLeod & Suresh Naidu

We propose novel NLP methods applied to 30,000 collective bargaining agreements to quantify the value of worker rights.

👉 nber.org/papers/w33605

🧵1/7

Submission deadline extended for the 9th Monash-Paris-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-As-Data #Workshop

📢New deadline: 15 March 2025

Organisers @elliottash.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social & Philine Widmer @pse.bsky.social

cepr.org/events/9th-m...
#EconSky

Our fantastic co-organizer Philine @phinifa.bsky.social is now also on bluesky!

Follow Philine & submit your best work to the 9th edition of the MWPZ- @cepr.org text as data workshop!

cc @elliottash.bsky.social

Conference on Data Science and Law August 5-6, 2025 Welcome to the Conference on Data Science and Law! We aim to showcase the latest research applying computational methods to empirical legal studies, and convene researchers in this ne...

🚨CALL FOR PAPERS: Conference on Data Science and Law 8/5-8/6, New York City🚨

Have a work in progress at the intersection of data science and law? Join us at @FordhamLawNYC this summer! See submission details here: conference-on-datascience-and-law.github.io

📣Now hiring: Predoc in Economics and Data Science

We are hiring a predoc -- work at ETH Zurich on exciting projects in applied econ (political econ, education, etc.), using AI, NLP, and causal inference. Apply here: econjobmarket.org/positions/11505

Happy to share that @annabindler.bsky.social & I will organize the 16th #TWEC Transatlantic Workshop on the Economics of Crime in Berlin.

Save the date: 26-27 September 2025.

CfP follows next month #econsky

📢 #CallForPapers for the 9th Monash-Paris-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-As-Data #Workshop!

Papers using text, audio, images, or other unstructured data are welcome.

Organisers: @elliottash.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social & Philine Widmer @pse.bsky.social
📆10/03/25
cepr.org/events/9th-m...
#EconSky

Now #live 🔴 David Yanagizawa-Drott of @uzh-econ.bsky.social discusses recent empirical evidence on generative artificial intelligence, with a special focus on human productivity in emerging markets. Host: @elliottash.bsky.social of @ethzurich.bsky.social → youtube.com/live/PYrM7Hu...

Well deserved break ❤️

The Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics invites submissions for the collection #Textual #Analysis in #Economics and #Finance. link.springer.com/collections/...

#EconSky
@kaufmanndani.bsky.social @elliottash.bsky.social @mariusbrulhart.bsky.social

From viewers to voters: Tracing Fox News’ impact on American democracy This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the effect of Fox News Channel (FNC) on the mass public’s political preferences and voting behavior …

I'm pleased to see our paper, "From viewers to voters: Tracing Fox News’ impact on American democracy", online at the Journal of Public Economics. This has been a really fun multi-year collaboration with @elliottash.bsky.social, Sergio Galletta & Matteo Pinna. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We're looking for Postdocs in Economics & Data Science! Join @elliottash.bsky.social and me at @ethzurich.bsky.social, in a highly productive and supportive research environment.
Apply here: econjobmarket.org/positions/11199
#econjm #econsky

This paper shows that partisan cable news broadcasts have a causal effect on the size and composition of budgets in US localities. Using exogenous channel positioning as an instrument for viewership, we show that exposure to the conservative Fox News channel reduces revenues and expenditures. Multiple mechanisms drive these results: Fox News improves election chances for local Republicans, alters politician campaign agendas, and shifts voter policy preferences on fiscal issues. Consistent with the priorities of small-government conservatism, we find evidence that private provision compensates for the reduced public services. The "Fox News effect" extends beyond vote shares to rightward policy shifts.

"How Cable News Reshaped Local Government" by Elliott Ash and Sergio Galletta in AEJ: Applied Economics

www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...