Pietro Biroli

The Real Way Schools are Failing Boys “If we really want boys to succeed, we need to ensure that they know how to both beat—and lose— to girls."

“the issue isn’t that we need more ‘boy-friendly’ reforms. It’s that boys are still socialized to compete only with boys & to read girls’ success as illegitimate or emasculating. The result is dissonance, resentment, and disengagement for boys—& hostile climates for girls.” time.com/7335723/auto...

–Eliminating these payment disparities would substantially narrow racial/ethnic gaps in outpatient use. Using prior estimates of the price elasticity of physician supply, we show that payment gaps explain a large portion of current disparities in health care use, particularly for children. (6/7)

"28 more effective than cash transfers in a baseline scenario and 3732 (!!!) times in an optimistic scenario"

It's early in the evaluation process, but still:
Malengo is such a cool program!

Exciting news on @malengo.org, the NGO that helps East African students move to Europe for education: Our research team has given us a glimpse of their early findings!

Here is the full writeup, joint with @richardnerland.bsky.social:

forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CpZYHk...

Thread follows!

"An approximate cost-benefit calculation suggests firm owners have earned a cumulative return of 900 percent or more on the cost of this
training over seven years... without the need for asset or cash transfers"
openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/...

Congrats

be WISE and submit your work at this conference!

I was told it's fantastic. The organizing group is solid, the location fantastic, the potential for high quality discussion is over the top.

The keynotes are hit or miss, but what can I say, you win some and you lose some ;)

📄 We are happy to share that the #CallforPapers of the 2nd edition of WISE is now open!

📅 May 5-7, 2026 in Airolo (CH) 🏔

🎤 Keynotes: @categennaioliqmul.bsky.social (@qmul.bsky.social) & @pietrobiroli.bsky.social (@unibo.it)

Info: drive.google.com/file/d/1eGj6...

Deadline: 22/12/25, 23.59 CET

Most people hear “heat pump” and think of small air-source units at home. But Germany is building one of the world’s largest heat pumps in Mannheim: a 162 MW river-source system using heat from the Rhine.

Big reminder that heat-pumps scale far beyond households — they can decarbonise whole cities.

Congrats!

Anyone who's read me ranting about screening will know I'm all for thinking critically about health care. But there's a reason maternal mortality has more than halved in the last 40 years. There's a reason maternal mortality is used as a proxy for health care quality globally.

On average across traits, the three methods produced remarkably similar estimates of ~30%. Most (~85%) of this variance could already be estimated by common variant GWAS run on the same samples. Strikingly, classical twin estimates for these traits were ~2x higher!

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered Not with a bang but with a whimper

I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵

I was just thinking that ADHD/ASD might be the ones less likely to attrit

But yes, not a huge problem

How is the attrition in the answers to this survey wave?

Training a single teacher (the "gender focal point") in each school in Mozambique reduced sexual abuse of girls by school staff by 67%

Well, *rational* collective decision making is formally impossible.

Lots of irrational options are ripe for the taking

I was going to ask if someone knows of a comprehensive archive of US state policies that changed over the last 50 years.

But then I remembered there's this: ippsr.msu.edu/public-polic...

So now I'm posting it here for everyone's benefit instead

This is equally fascinating and disturbing.

Do you know how for-pay online surveys like prolific or others are handling this?

I want to read the rest!!! Couldn't find it with a quick browse online. Do you have a link by any chance?

Ah ok sorry

By academic relatives you also mean supervisors right?

But people choose supervisors because they like the topic, no? A lot of self-selecturing going on

And the article provides excerpts of summers end Epstein's messages that makes it abundantly clear that
1. Summers knew who he was talking to
2. Summers clearly hoped to trade feedback and connections for sex

Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09)

The grad is from China

Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"

Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package

bit.ly/3LHpin8

Stop by Bologna on your way back 😉

The Paradox of James Watson The discovery of DNA was evidence of how deeply interconnected humans are, but the late scientist saw only difference.

Eric Turkheimer (@ent3c.bsky.social) and I consider the paradoxical life of James Watson for @theatlantic.com

www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

(nonpaywalled link to come)

Screenshot of working paper: The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct

📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣

"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu

You're too kind

Professionally? Nope... Just use it to score cheap points with my wife ;)