Matt Notowidigdo

This is such a bizarre talking point; I've thankfully never had to use most of the types of insurance that I have for me and my family

This is a good excuse to share my WSJ letter to the editor explaining that "not filing a claim doesn’t mean you didn’t need insurance" www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

Useful background: "Child care centers were previously protected under a 'sensitive locations' directive that advised ICE to not conduct enforcement in places like schools and day cares. But President Donald Trump removed that protection on his first day in office."

Hello #econsky, the Nebraska Labor Summit will be held Friday, March 13, 2026. It's a really fun, junior-centric, research conference in labor and related applied micro fields. Martha Bailey and Alex Mas will give the keynotes. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 1! forms.gle/JC5tN5cT1R2i4ZUJA

I'm impressed, too! Just used it for a paper before our first submission, and most of the issues that the tool flagged were worth investigating. I think it's definitely worth $30 before each submission (and resubmission).

When couples move for work, whose career benefits—and whose stalls?

UChicago economist @profnoto.bsky.social joins @tessvigeland.bsky.social on The Pie to discuss how relocation impacts men’s and women’s earnings differently.

🎧 Listen/watch now: bfi.uchicago.edu/insights/mov...

Feds ram SUV after chase down residential street in Chicago, then tear-gas crowd The crash happened late Tuesday morning near 105th Street and Avenue N in the East Side neighborhood. Two men being pursued were arrested as were two bystanders. The crash drew dozens of neighbors who...

"The boy, who is Hispanic and African American, was held in a garage for five hours “without informing his family, stating any charges, or allowing him to call an attorney,” the statement said. He is a U.S. citizen, as is his entire immediate family, the release said."

“ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence,” a federal judge, William Young, wrote in a blistering 161-page First Amendment ruling handed down last week. “In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police,” he continued. The judge, a Reagan appointee, compared immigration agents to “cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan” and declared that federal efforts to deport outspoken protesters amounted to a “full-throated assault” on freedom of speech. “Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”

‘ICE Goes Masked for a Single Reason’ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

We just spent 6 months to add 1 figure to this paper. Some people said, "Couples aren't prioritizing men's careers. Men just have better earnings opportunities when moving."

Earnings effects of moves for couples on the left, singles on the right. Negligible gap between single men and women.

Opinion | Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr. We took an oath to declare dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

"Never before have we issued a joint public warning like this."

The latest from former U.S. surgeons general Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello and David Satcher:

(I highly recommend John's writing tips for PhD students: www.johnhcochrane.com/research-all...)

Super clear and well-written, so I can only assume that my former Booth colleague John Cochrane wrote at least some of this

Jonathan Clements, a longtime WSJ columnist who penned more than 1,000 personal-finance columns and was a favorite of readers, has died. He was 62.

🔗: on.wsj.com/4mzzDy1

"At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as the [chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States]"

[ Revision of www.documentcloud.org/documents/26... ]

Bessent, Like Fed Governor, Made Contradictory Mortgage Pledges US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that Pres...

Since the rule of law applies equally to all, the FHFA should send a criminal referral letter to the Justice Department

( h/t @carlquintanilla.bsky.social )

I enjoyed this conversation; here's the summary of what we talked about:

Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Honduras | USCIS

In related news, TPS benefits end today for the thousands of immigrants from Honduras & Nicaragua who have been living in the US legally for more than *26 years*, so there are going to be many more stories like the one above www.uscis.gov/humanitarian...

Veteran regrets Trump vote after wife with green card detained Donna Hughes-Brown, a green card holder, was detained at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago for five days.

I wish I could say I was surprised by this: "The Trump administration is not, as it pledged, targeting the 'worst first'" www.newsweek.com/veteran-regr...

( h/t @donmoyn.bsky.social )

Call for papers - due 11/1/2025
#EconConf #EconSky

"UNebraska Dept of Economics will host the 2026 Nebraska Labor Summit at the College of Business in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 3/13/2026... focus on empirical research in labor economics and closely related fields..."
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Leaders of American Economic Association call on elected officials "to respect and preserve" the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after Trump fires the BLS commissioner.

Causal Research on the Impacts of Legalized Sports Betting RFP Viewing philanthropy as an engine of innovation, we rigorously research problems and answers in criminal justice, health, education and public finance.

Super excited to see @arnoldventures.bsky.social launching a new RFP to study the impacts of legalized sports betting www.arnoldventures.org/resources/ca...

We see this paper as the start of a research agenda that uses the FFCRA as a natural experiment to study the downstream effects of reductions in insurance churn on health outcomes -- so stay tuned for more of our work on insurance churn next year!

The risk of losing health insurance in the United States is large, and remained so after the Affordable Care Act | PNAS Health insurance coverage in the United States is highly uncertain. In the post-Affordable Care Act (ACA), pre-COVID United States, we estimate tha...

Comparing our results to the recent Einav-Finkelstein PNAS paper that studied the Affordable Care Act, we conclude that "the FFCRA succeeded in a way that the ACA did not — significantly decreasing the probability of losing health insurance coverage" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Using the MEPS, we find clear evidence of a sharp reduction in insurance churn after the implementation of the FFCRA coming primarily from a reduction in Medicaid churn

Insurance Churn and the COVID-19 Pandemic This study estimates whether the Families First Coronavirus Response Act decreased insurance churn.

My co-authors Sarah Shubeck (UCM) & Emily Crawford (Booth PhD student) & I have a new paper in JAMA Health Forum studying the effects of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) on insurance churn (defined as losing health insurance over the next 12 months) jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I am heartbroken by the passing of our colleague Ghazala Azmat. A wonderful economist and AEJ: Economic Policy Board member, she was generous with her time and a vital contributor to many areas within applied economics and economic policy. She will be sorely missed. My heart goes out to her family.

The thing is, the Trump administration, in this matter and in others, knows it’s acting unlawfully. But the disruption and fear they cause is almost as effective as the attempted action itself.

Do recessions impact mortality?

Amy Finkelstein (MIT), @profnoto.bsky.social (Chicago Booth), @fschilbach.bsky.social (MIT) & @jzhangecon.bsky.social (Duke Sanford) on the welfare consequences of the Great Recession:

youtu.be/XrBXo9b2e6g

The WSJ’s Jonathan Clements Wants to Leave a Living Legacy After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, the former columnist hatched a plan to turn kids into lifelong savers.

Great article by Jason Zweig @wsj.com about his friend Jonathan Clements; the article mentions Jonathan’s new book (which you can buy here: www.amazon.com/dp/098878034...), as well as a new @j-palna.bsky.social research project that I’m involved in, which will be funded by proceeds from the book

The 2025 AEJ Best Paper Awards Have Been Announced Learn more about the papers chosen as the 2025 AEJ Best Papers.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 AEJ Best Paper Awards! Check out the winning papers here: aeaweb.org/news/2025-ae... #econsky

This short memoir by Michelle White is worth a bit of everyone's time.