Joe LaBriola

August 1, 2025 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations Statement from the American Economic Association on the Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today. The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day. Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias. The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity. Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions. We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure. Lawrence Katz President, American Economic Association Katharine Abraham President-Elect, American Economic Association Karen Dynan Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics Kenneth Troske Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal

If you live in Ann Arbor and want to see Ann Arbor become more accessible for a greater range of households, please write city council / your ward representatives before tomorrow night's meeting to express your opposition! Or, even better, call the city clerk's office to sign up to speak :) (3/3)

The resolution would limit the construction of multifamily housing in residential neighborhoods, and allow for certain neighborhoods to implement setback requirements, lot coverage maximums, and limits on bedrooms per units. (2/3) a2gov.legistar.com/LegislationD...

I just emailed @a2gov-mirror.bsky.social to urge the City Council to vote NO on tomorrow's resolution, which will significantly limit the amount of new housing that can be built under the proposed Comprehensive Land Use Plan. (1/3)

Your Credit Score Is Shaped by the Neighborhood Where You Grew Up What helps poor kids grow up to make better decisions about money? A new study of 25 million people finds an unexpected answer.

New paper!! We show access to credit differs by race, class & geography-diffs in credit scores emerge early & persist through life. Childhood contexts play large role-credit scores of parents & neighbors predict later-life repayment, even cond. on income, wealth, ed. www.wsj.com/economy/cred...

Financial and Transfer Income as Components of the Regional Economic Base Government transfers and financial income form a major component of the basic sector in the United States.

New working paper alert! Posted at @equitablegrowth.bsky.social, it investigates the economic geography of social transfer programs and financial income--with implications for the Medicaid and SNAP cuts proposed in the reconciliation bill 👀

equitablegrowth.org/working-pape...

New Data are now available from the PSID Data Center. The 2023 PSID Main Interview Data and Medicare Data are now available. Learn more by visiting the website. The image is blue with white text. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics logo is at the bottom.

New data are here! #PSIDdata are now available in the PSID #Data Center and zip packages. Learn more: buff.ly/weBpf1n

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

10 more days to apply! 👇 #academicsky #postdoc #nowhiring

Late-breaking postdoc opportunity at our Stone Center! Come join our amazing intellectual community @umichstonecid.bsky.social.

The Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics is now accepting applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. A Now Hiring stack of post-its is ont he left side of the graphic.

Job alert! We're now accepting applications for a Postdoc Research Fellow who will work with restricted and hard-to-access data related to the sources of class-based income #inequality on cutting-edge research topics. Apply by June 15! 👇 myumi.ch/155qg
#academicjobmarket #nowhiring #academicsky

Slight correction—I’ll be presenting Saturday at 8 AM. Come by if you’re still up from the @um-psc.bsky.social party the night before :)

Ken Burns Doesn't Live Here Anymore I walk down Wellington Court where the sounds of long-gone children playing baseball echo. That sounds so posh, doesn't it? Wellington Court. Reality is a street built before zoning that is mostly tiny houses without parking in the backyards of bigger houses. We don't build them like this anymore, bemoan the neighbors from their million dollar homes next door. Although every time we try, some famous son (who moved away in 1971) says slow down, don't change my city so fast, peace man, Black Lives Matter. So we stop, reconsider, and congratulate ourselves that we have, once again, saved our city. But Ken Burns doesn't live here anymore, and if you aren't rich neither can you.

Wrote one. #A2Council

Housing politics not to fall along partisan lines, says @joelabriola.bsky.social in a recent BLK News Now! podcast-- speaking on rising housing prices that have widened the Black-White wealth gap in the US. @um-src.bsky.social @umichstonecid.bsky.social ➡️ blknewsnow.com/sociologist-...

This banner is showing up on NIH data repositories. If you use data from these archives you may want to consider what you need access to in the near and far term for your research

Enjoyed talking about my recent @socprobsjournal.bsky.social article on housing market appreciation and the White-Black wealth gap on the BLK News Now! podcast. blknewsnow.com/sociologist-...

Join us for the first
ISI INTERNATIONAL WEALTH CONFERENCE
in Munich, October 9-11 2025

CfP: www.lmu.de/isi/en/lates...

Submit a short abstract or paper by April 28.

Keynotes by Annette Lareau & Lane Kenworthy. And if you arrive a few days early, you can catch the last weekend of Oktoberfest :)

I'm just a small-town professor. I'll never be a provost or chancellor. But here's some free advice: we're about to hold the most watched college sports event in 🇺🇸. Every college president should be all over TV, at every game, explaining why the March Madness of federal budget cuts is a huge crisis.

ICYMI: Watch past Penn Population Studies Colloquiums on the PSC YouTube Channel! !

Linked below:
Joe LaBriola (@joelabriola.bsky.social) presents

The Mortgage Interest Deduction and the White-Black Wealth Gap, 1984-2021

youtu.be/FxWfIGlJ-Uo

(I do find the within-precinct-election analysis convincing and the magnitude of the effects of moderation is definitely smaller than my priors.)

This is really interesting work! I’m concerned about the causal interpretation though, because it seems likely that thermostatic public opinion drives both D turnout and candidates’ ideological position-taking (whether via primaries or in general elections).

Big congrats, Jeff!

Plus, some bonus material on how I started working on this topic, ideas for reducing racial homeownership gaps (by making homeownership accessible to more households), and previews of my current research in this area. Check it out!

Rising house prices don’t just make it harder to become a homeowner – they also widen the racial wealth gap Housing market appreciation has been the primary driver of growing white-Black wealth disparities since the mid-1980s.

New today from me @us.theconversation.com: I talk about my research on how rising housing prices have widened the White-Black wealth gap over the past several decades. theconversation.com/rising-house...

"The bottom 80% of earners spent 25% more than they did four years earlier, barely outpacing price increases of 21% over that period. The top 10% spent 58% more."
www.wsj.com/economy/cons...

Not a level playing field LMU sociologist Fabian Pfeffer explains why the extreme wealth gap harms society and democracy and leads to a distinctly uneven spread of opportunities for coming generations. From the research magazi...

About 3 months ago, the print version of this article had this lead:

"Elon Musk has 240 billion in wealth [...] is there no upper limit?"

Today, the same article came online with a small update:

"Elon Musk has 400 billion in wealth [...] is there no upper limit?"

www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

A green graphic with the Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics white logo at the top. A picture of Janeria Easley is on the right side. , “Intergenerational Mobility: Racial Disparities in Mobility from a Holistic Perspective” presented by Janeria Easley on Tuesday, February 25 from 10:30-12 pm EST.

What’s next at CID? Join the Stone Center as Janeria Easley, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, Emory University, presents, “Intergenerational Mobility: Racial Disparities in Mobility from a Holistic Perspective.” Learn more and RSVP: inequality.umich.edu/janeria-easl...

Our postdoc affiliate Jake Hays and @pfomby.bsky.social provide the first estimates of nonresident parent wealth for US children. Hays: "We show that children likely have access to this wealth and that it matters for their educational attainment in young adulthood." @umichstonecid.bsky.social #PSID

Thanks to @umichstonecid.bsky.social for putting this together! If you want to read more, here are links to my research on race and the origins of residential growth controls (doi.org/10.1080/1051...) and on housing market appreciation and the White-Black wealth gap (doi.org/10.1093/socp...).

The IDC discussion has been focused on the facilities part of IDC-but as damaging as not being able to pay for the buildings where labs that study life saving therapies are done-there are people