Laura Grigolon

This Is How a Child Dies of Measles When your family becomes a data point in an outbreak

Unrelenting, compassionate, and powerful

Gift article

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Important thread. Is the econ profession about to get flooded with a bunch of good-looking papers of dubious or hard-to-ascertain quality?

In macro, this already happened ~20 years ago with DYNARE. Over night it became very hard to publish macro-theory papers, and the field split apart.

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A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hails 'turnaround' in China-Canada ties as Mark Carney visits Beijing Trade tops the agenda in what is a Canadian leader's first visit to China after years of strained ties.

Canada has agreed to allow 49k Chinese EVs into the Canadian market, with the most-favored-nation tariff rate of 6.1%.
As Canada intends to double its energy grid capacity and move towards clean power, the prime minister also welcomed China to invest in his country in these areas.

It begins. Canadians will soon experience the vast superiority of Chinese EVs, and the US will lose its largest vehicle export market. The transition will happen much faster than people think.

📢 New paper (joint work with @msovinsky.bsky.social): Incapacitating the Competition. We show Intel’s exclusionary contracts don’t just affect targeted buyers; they create contracting externalities that reduce AMD adoption market-wide. Check it out 👉 tinyurl.com/5c84ap2c
#EconSky

German industry association proposes “mandatory charging” for PHEVs - electrive.com The VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie, Germany’s main automotive industry association) is known for advocating that new plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) should

Policy ideas are evolving fast: German industry groups are proposing mandatory charging for PHEVs to boost real-world EV use, showing how evidence like ours feeds directly into policy debate.
👉 www.electrive.com/2025/10/28/g...

Since PHEVs drive in electric mode for only half the distance suggested by official test cycle values,
fuel prices are effective in improving the environmental performance of these vehicles.
www.transportenvironment.org/articles/smo...

When fuel prices rise, PHEVs reduce fuel consumption more than gasoline and diesel cars. They do not proportionally
reduce their mileage; instead, they increase electric charging: evidence policymakers need as real-world emissions face scrutiny.

German industry association proposes “mandatory charging” for PHEVs - electrive.com The VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie, Germany’s main automotive industry association) is known for advocating that new plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) should

German industry groups are proposing mandatory charging for PHEVs to boost real-world EV use, showing how evidence like ours feeds directly into policy debate.
👉 www.electrive.com/2025/10/28/g...

📢 Thrilled to see our paper Fueling Electrification: The Impact of Gas Prices on Hybrid Car Usage accepted in #JAERE! Thanks
@aereorg.bsky.social
Working paper version: tinyurl.com/bp6j34eh
tinyurl.com/bp6j34eh

Caveat Vendor Universities, audience capture, and bullshit; Beowulf, Kendrick Lamar

I wrote about the endless temptation successful people feel to justify and feel justified in a clearly toxic system. Happy new year.

open.substack.com/pub/rottenan...

📢 Just accepted in #JAERE! 📢
"Fueling Electrification: The Impact of Gas Prices on Hybrid Car Usage" by Laura Grigolon ( @lauragrig.bsky.social ), Eunseong Park, and Kevin Remmy ( @kevinremmy.bsky.social ).
Read it here: buff.ly/VsMHexQ
🎉🌍 Happy New Year! 🌍🎉
📈📉 #Econsky

The brilliant Kate Ho has passed away.

She was an amazing economist and a genuinely kind human being. Her work shaped how we think about healthcare markets and her generosity touched everyone lucky enough to know her.

The profession and the world are poorer without her.

The CEPR Virtual Industrial Organisation Seminar #VIOS Series continues on 15 October featuring Alejandro Sabal (Yale University) presenting: 'Product Entry in the Global Automobile Industry'
Discussant: @fmontag.bsky.social
cepr.org/events/event...
#EconSky

Thrilled that my paper "The Cost of Curbing Externalities with Market Power: Alcohol Regulations and Tax Alternatives" with
@cconlon.bsky.social
was accepted by the Journal of Political Economy
@jpolecon.bsky.social !

A new article in the WSJ on reverse acquihires. The main point it makes is that one group that loses out in a reverse acquihire are the employees who are left behind. This will make it more difficult for future startups to attract employees.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-r...

I've been working on a new tool, Refine, to make scholars more productive. If you're interested in being among the very first to try the beta, please read on.

Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts.

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Just as dog whistles are high pitched so as to be only heard by dogs, some academic papers now have prompts for large language models invisibly inserted, in case the referee is a nLLM.

marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/07/prom...

Digital Platform Regulation

I have a new book! Digital Platform Regulation. Fun analysis of what society should do to get some competition out of of our favorite gatekeeper platform. Relevant to the DMA and US antitrust remedies. And free! Download here:
som.yale.edu/centers/thur...

Cross-border M&A and innovation in the EU This paper analyzes the characteristics of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) in the EU and discusses their relationship with innovation performance.

How do cross-border mergers & acquisitions affect innovation in the EU? In a new working paper, I discuss this question and the implications for foreign direct investment screening, merger policy and industrial policy: single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/publications...

Volkswagen to Add ‘Import Fee’ to Cars Sold in U.S. The company’s move is one of the first and clearest examples of automakers using price increases to deal with the 25 percent tariffs President Trump imposed on car and auto parts imports.

Volkswagen to Add ‘Import Fee’ to Cars Sold in U.S. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/b...

Tariff take job.
www.startribune.com/iron-range-l...

Shift Key podcast episode: the U.S. auto industry wasn't built for tariffs

Trump may have given Canada & Mexico a brief reprieve, but talk of tariffs is rattling the economy and forcing a rethink of key industries & supply chains. Chief among them: the North American auto industry. This week on SHIFT KEY, we talk to Ford's former chief economist about Trump's tariffs. 🔌💡

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately. The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I've gotten a flurry of requests to access my slides on "Models, Measurement, and Language in Economics" (presumably thanks to the great new year's reading list from @rohitlamba.bsky.social). The file is publicly available via my web page, but here is the link: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ntgkb...

While most of the cost in a traditional car is the engine, most of the cost in an electric car is somewhere else: the battery.
And this is disastrous for Europe.
Because a) we don't make many batteries and b) making batteries is a v v different skill to making engines

How is China's EV boom affecting gasoline demand and electricity demand? It has been hard to find precise data on this so here's a thread working out some numbers.