Kun Wu

Society of Labor Economists (SoLE) Annual Conference will be May 1-2, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. Submission portal is now open! Deadline for submissions is October 31--don't forget to submit! It will be a great conference! (organized by me and @jrothst.bsky.social)

mailchi.mp/sole-jole/so...

"People think hope is wishful thinking, and actually hope is about action." Quote from the Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

"Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our true potential." Graphic by the Jane Goodall Institute of South Africa.

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." Graphic by Ariana Huffington on Instagram.

My favourite Jane Goodall quotes....so many, so to the point, so wise. How different the world would be if enough people listened to her.

Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Jane Goodall. You made the world a better place.

Jane Goodall’s legacy: three ways she changed science The primatologist challenged what it meant to be a scientist.

Jane Goodall, known for her pioneering work with chimpanzees, has passed away aged 91

go.nature.com/46K10ja

🚨 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 – One Week Left to Submit: #CDSM2025 🚨

📅 𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟭𝟮–𝟭𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 (Virtual)
📥 Submission Deadline: 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝟯𝟬, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

We welcome:
✅ Presentation proposals
✅ Extended abstracts
✅ Full papers

📧 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼: submission@causalscience.org
🌐 Register or learn more: www.causalscience.org

📆 Save the date: the 3rd edition of the World Inequality Conference will take place on 4–5 June 2026 at Paris School of Economics @pse.bsky.social

The call for papers is open until December 1.

🔗 More details & submission: inequalitylab.world/en/event/wor...

AMOC collapse in all CMIP6 models

Figure 1. (upper) Ensemble means of the AMOC strength and (below) total ocean heat transport at 26°N in the model simulations in which the northern AMOC shuts down. The letters are ordered from top to bottom to correspond to lines with decreasing values in year 2300/2500. The short cyan line shows the observed (yet insignificant) trend of the RAPID observations [21, 22] for 2005–2023 (upper) and 2005–2020 [23] (below).

You know how the Gulf Stream (AMOC, for the climate nerd set) keeps Europe habitable?

The latest tipping points paper is making the rounds for good reason. AMOC collapses past 2100 in *all* projections iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Good @economist.com take www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

Great news!

IZA (the German labor economics institute that had lost its main source of financial support) has found a new home and will continue as a convener and disseminator of knowledge.

Hurrah!

Insurance Versus Moral Hazard in Income-Contingent Student Loan Repayment* Abstract. Student loans with income-contingent repayment insure borrowers against income risk but can reduce their incentives to earn more. Using a change

Recently accepted by #QJE, “Insurance Versus Moral Hazard in Income-Contingent Student Loan Repayment,” by Tim de Silva (@timdesilva.me): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

We have our first games ever in Ireland next month. The event will be at the University of Galway as part of CERIS’s Annual Workshop on September 26th. Virtual participation is possible and coauthorship to a meta paper is granted.

Register here: www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Replicatio...

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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🦘#IPC2025
The first meeting of the new IUSSP Panel on "Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities" starts in a bit at 19:30 at the The Plough INN, 29 Stanley St Plaza, Brisbane. Steering committee members Saroja Adhikari & @bhuenteler.bsky.social will be there.
www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement* Abstract. Economists often measure discrimination as disparities arising from the direct effects of group identity. We develop new tools to model and measu

#QJE Aug 2025, #2, “Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement,” by Bohren, Hull (@instrumenthull.bsky.social), and Imas (@aleximas.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

Low fertility is the result of shifting adult priorities, likely driven by changing norms, evolving opportunities and constraints, and broader social forces, from Melissa Schettini Kearney and Phillip B. Levine https://www.nber.org/papers/w33989

Call for papers

In our latest podcast episode, @durlauf.bsky.social & @fabianpfeffer.bsky.social discuss variation in wealth inequality and why income gaps don’t tell the whole story. They explore how this inequality shapes individuals through education, housing, and risk assessments.
Listen: bit.ly/4epPUTU

All at Sea? Externalities and Cargo Diversion in the Wake of Brexit How does withdrawing from a free trade agreement affect maritime cargo volumes? Are there external effects on freight transport between third-party countries? Using Brexit as a case study, in a diffe....

New #OpenAccess article in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics:

"All at Sea? Externalities and Cargo Diversion in the Wake of Brexit"

(by @ciaranmacdomhnaill.bsky.social) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The tragic landslide in Blatten gives me the excuse to tell you the story of how we found out Ice Ages existed. It's a cool story and the most important bit is rather similar to what's happening now.

Yo read this thread by an economist who @economeager.bsky.social calls the baddest mfer around (/ wrote the most important paper in Econ the recent decade www.andreamatranga.net/uploads/1/5/...

I must admit, I'm really of two minds here. One the one hand, yes, being absolutely broke during the PhD sucks. I was there. I'm still paying off loans I took during that time. At the same time, there are some points made here that I don't quite agree with.

2025 Econometrics Summer School Cambridge Join Prof. Jeffrey Wooldridge and Dr Melvyn Weeks in Cambridge for 5-days of interactive learning

Here's a link to sign up for a free webinar that I'm giving ahead of the Timberlake Summer School in Cambridge:

timberlake.co/uk/cambridge...

🚨Job Offer🚨
St Andrews–Max Planck PhD Studentship in Population, Health and Data Science
3.5-year St Andrews–Max Planck PhD studentship in Population, Health and Data Science.
Deadline: June 11
@mpidr.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @imprs-phds.bsky.social
www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_61...

It was so lovely to meet you too! Thanks for your kind invitation and useful comments!

We are here! #EconStats2025 @escoeorg.bsky.social @kunwu.bsky.social

#RDDers: check it out.

rd2d: Causal Inference in Boundary Discontinuity Designs

"This article introduces the R package rd2d, which implements and extends the...results developed in Cattaneo et al. (2025) for boundary discontinuity designs [like geographic RDDs]"

arxiv.org/abs/2505.07989

Recently published in @jpube.bsky.social:

"Declining earnings inequality, rising income inequality: What explains discordant inequality trends in the United States?"

By @zparolin.bsky.social, @lukaslehner.bsky.social, & @natewilmers.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#econsky

Congratulations to the winners of our ISWE prizes at the IEA, Bhavya Shrivastava and Lilia Wasserka-Zhurakhovska, as well as Novartis Prize winner Doireann O'Brien and Young Economist Prize Winner Olivia Finan. Pictured with Keynote Speaker John List and Orla Doyle. All female winners! Well done!

Just read this truly lovely history of the fixed effects estimator, a concept I've repeatedly taught and used but never knew the origins of.

(Also helps me justify never using random effects!)

Thanks to Marc Bellemare and @dlmillimet.bsky.social for writing it.

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

I always read whatever Sam Bowles puts out. This with Mattia Fochesato.

Humans have always competed for status and resources, but enduring inequality requires specific conditions: concentrated wealth, state power, and cultural acceptance of disparities.

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