Dani Rodrik

2/The categorial imperative for the academy is commitment to truth. The scholarly enterprise presupposes norms of integrity that are incompatible with assent to the destruction of the raw materials (data) from which social science is created. Hassett has disgraced himself.

1/Kevin Hassett had long ago discredited himself as a scholar by parroting claims about the economy he knew to be false. Even so, parroting the lie about rigged statistics, is a new low. The academy should ostracize him the same way a fabricator of research should be ostracized.

Any CEA resignations over the BLS firing yet?

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

Good piece by Enos. He's absolutely clear on the right course of action, but also quite understanding of his colleagues' trepidation, exhaustion, and larger worries. When you live in Vichy, many compatriots will resent you for resisting.

OTOH, I am a trade economist, and I know well enough that a deal with Trump has a short half-life (even if you are willing to compromise on academic freedom).

I’m not a lawyer, but what’s the point of universities signing settlements where they agree not to engage in unlawful behavior?

Regarding Columbia: we are so used to a system of laws in this country that we use the language here, rather than seeing it for what it is. If it happened on the street, it would be called a shakedown, and the perpetrator would be in prison.

The New Global Economic Order As anti-globalization reshapes the world, the divide between East and West, developed and developing countries, and North and South, deepens, creating new challenges for economic policy and global gov...

A new open access book coedited with Lili Yan Ing,
includes two chapters I co-wrote with Joe Stiglitz. www.routledge.com/The-New-Glob.... Other authors: O’Rourke, Urata, Quah, Lin, Acemoglu, Terzi, Ocampo, Gosh, Songwe.

🧵Introducing the Trump Action Tracker website!

Today I’m launching www.trumpactiontracker.info - a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). 1/14

En Turquie, la hausse vertigineuse de la population carcérale témoigne de la crispation autoritaire du pouvoir Le nombre de personnes emprisonnées est passé de 55 000 en 2001, avant l’arrivée au pouvoir de l’AKP, a plus de 410 000 aujourd’hui, avec une accélération des arrestations ces derniers mois.

"In 2001 [...] the prison population in Turkey was 55,804. In 2016 [...], it rose to 200,727. It then doubled in less than ten years, with a brutal acceleration in recent months: between July 2024 and February 2025, the number of people incarcerated rose by 50,000"
www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

Er, yes I did wake early. Why do you ask?

Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

My NYT op-ed this morning
I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...

They care about domination, not consistency.

Opinion | We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.

Important piece from Autor and Hanson. “We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/o...

Osman Kavala 2 bin 812 gündür hapiste - Diken 13/07/2025 - Sivil toplum ve insan hakları aktivisti Osman Kavala 13 Temmuz 2025 itibariyle 2 bin 812 gündür hapiste.

Osman Kavala 2 bin 812 gündür hapiste www.diken.com.tr/osman-kavala...

No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.

We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china

Read this all the way to the end.

Research Manager, DevLab@Penn University Overview The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school co...

🚨JOB ALERT🚨

We (pdri-devlab) are hiring a research manager! Come join our team engaged in policy-relevant collaborative research (mostly migration, climate, enviormnet, big data for dev) in the great city of brotherly love. Pls share widely with your network.

wd1.myworkdaysite.com/en-US/recrui...

1. Getting people to do what they don’t want to.
2. Not letting grievances get on the agenda.
3. Controlling ideology so people don’t even realise they have legitimate grievances.

Simplification of Stephen Lukes’ three dimensions of power. The US used to specialise in 3rd. Now focused just on 1st.

When Ideology Trumps Economic Interests Dani Rodrik sees an crucial lesson for students of political economy in the United States’ rollback of green subsidies.

My latest. What we can learn from Republicans’ rollback of green subsidies. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/w...

Industrial policy in China: Four key facts Industrial policy is often discussed through high-level narratives and flagship initiatives, yet its implementation—particularly at the subnational level—remains opaque. By using large language models...

🆕 Industrial policy in China: Four key facts

Today on VoxDev, Hanming Fang (@upenn.edu), Ming Li (CUHK) & Guangli Lu (CUHK) analyse industrial policy in China across various levels of government: voxdev.org/topic/macroe...

The 21st Congress of the International Economic Association will be held in June 2026 in Serbia, under Elhanan Helpman and Eric Maskin's leadership. You can now submit your paper. ieawc2026.org

Why Factories Are Having Trouble Filling Nearly 400,000 Open Jobs

And as to whether the U.S. can learn anything from the Indian experience, read this other NYTimes piece for a reality check. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/b...

What made manufacturing a vehicle for transformational growth was its ability to generate productivity growth while drawing unskilled labor from traditional farming or informality. India is very far from doing this. Which is why I am skeptical manufacturing will solve the country’s growth conundrum.

First, is the share of manufacturing in total employment climbing? Second, are the new jobs mainly for those with median level of education or lower? No evidence of either here. Note that one of the workers in the article has a master’s in math! +

Trump Wants America to Make iPhones. Here’s How India Is Doing It.

A good piece on India’s new manufacturing. But before you conclude anything on the chances of replicating the East Asian model or the potential for job creation, we must ask two questions. + www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/b...

@wzb.bsky.social is searching for new director for the study of democracy

These are extraordinary senior positions; tenured wth funding to establish a new dept & pursue big agendas

www.wzb.eu/en/jobs/dire...

🚨Please share widely!

#Polisky @epssnet.bsky.social
@ecpr.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social

Others have pointed this out too, but the cover of Harvard Magazine is so gratuitously frivolous and inappropriate. I’d cancel my subscription if there were such a thing.

Again, from @adamprz.bsky.social's indispensable newsletter...