Magnus B Rasmussen

One million dollars How you can live a happier life, crush our Substack rivals, and help people in need

We’re trying to raise $1 million for desperately poor people in Rwanda to beat last year’s mark and do more good.

www.slowboring.com/p/one-millio...

📢 📢 Call for Papers

IV Yale–UB Historical Political Economy Workshop

Organized by @Didacqueralt.bsky.social & @Cescamat.bsky.social

🎤 Keynote: Lisa Blaydes (Stanford)

📍 University of Barcelona
🗓 June 29–30, 2026

Submit your papers by Jan 21, 2026:
shorturl.at/oZTNy

#pleaseRT

Førsteamanuensis i statsvitenskap (290803) | Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge Stillingstittel: Førsteamanuensis i statsvitenskap (290803), Arbeidsgiver: Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, Søknadsfrist: søndag 1. februar 2026

Kjære alle,

USN lyser nå ut en 100 % fast stilling som førsteamanuensis.

Spre gjerne utlysningen til alle dere tenker kan være aktuelle. Dersom dere har spørsmål om stillingen eller om USN, er det bare å ta kontakt med meg.

Kioku: Last Summer - A Cozy Childhood Adventure Game in Y2K Uncover mysteries, forge friendships, and relive the magic of summer as a child in the early 2000s in this charming adventure!

Norwegian indie startup @lugngames.bsky.social are doing a kickstarter for their game, and super close to reaching their goal! Have a look and see if this could be something for you 😊

www.kickstarter.com/projects/517...

Spør @andrejkokkonen.bsky.social

Name assimilation increases immigrants' earnings A LOT.

osf.io/preprints/so...

As I reflect on this, three thoughts:

1. This case is only symptomatic of a bigger problem; increasingly broken incentive structures in our disciplines and industry.

Our job is *not* to publish for the sake of publishing. It is to produce and advance *knowledge*. This process is hard and slow.

The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure invites applications for a two-week Summer School on ‘Micro-Census Insights into Historical Households, Mortality and Fertility’, held at University of Cambridge from July 6-17th, 2026. Application deadline February 2 2026.

🌟 JOB ALERT! 🌟

I’m hiring 1 postdoc for my ERC project ECONENGAGE (@ Gothenburg 🇸🇪)! Starting ca. Aug '26! Congenial colleagues + int'l & supportive environment. 💸 for conferences + workshops! Lots of professional networking opportunities with scholars! Deadline Jan 7th. Apply! (see more below 🧵)

This paper investigates the impact of language mandates on linguistic transition, standardization, and national identity in Early Modern France. Using the Universal Short Title Catalogue, we construct a panel of printing activity in European towns from 1500 to 1650. We then estimate the impact of the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterˆets, an ordinance requiring the use of French—rather than Latin—in all legal documents, on vernacular language printing in France using a difference-in-discontinuities design. To account for the influence of religion on vernacular printing, we leverage a Large Language Model to classify selected authors from the time period as Protestant or Catholic and control for religious print output. Results suggest that the ordinance promoted the general use of vernacular language in print and led to an explosion of vernacular printing within France. We also study the impact of the ordinance on linguistic standardization, finding that the ordinance homogenized printed French to Parisian French standards, but only within France. To explore the long-run effects of language promotion and standardization on national identity, we estimate the impact of the ordinance on expressions of nationalism in the Cahiers de Dol´eances—a collection of grievances and suggestions filed by the three Estates on the eve of the French Revolution—finding more expressions of nationalism in Third Estate cahiers from print towns originally subjected to the ordinance. The findings have implications for the role of the state in shaping national identity, the legibility of the law, and the spread of ideas through language policy.

How did France become one of Europe’s biggest printers of vernacular books, and how did it shape its linguistic and political development?

My paper w/Jacob Hall, "The King’s French," shows how a 1539 language mandate changed printing, standardized French, and strengthened national identity. (1/12)

Se også kronikk i DN av Morten Welde, som forsker på store statlige investeringer.
www.dn.no/kronikk/samf...

as advertised ;)

Deadline for EPSS 2026 is this Friday!

🎓 New paper accepted today, on the intergenerational educational mobility among immigrants in Denmark!

At first glance, immigrants seem more mobile than natives – but this is largely a data illusion. Poor register data quality drives the pattern.

w/ @rlandersoe.bsky.social

osf.io/preprints/so...

No-one has covered themselves in glory here.

The authors made errors that shouldn't even be possible.
The peer reviewers didn't spot the red flags.
The journal wrote a clickbait press release.
The journalists lapped it up.
The editors failed to swiftly retract the paper.

I drafted a correlation heatmap package for Stata. Does something like this already exist? I want to make sure before I put more work into this.

Veldig kult! ( as we say in Norwegian)

BJPolS abstract discussing how threats of interstate conflicts affect American voters' support for candidates who violate democratic principles.

NEW -

Interstate Conflict Increases the Appeal of Undemocratic Candidates - https://cup.org/3Lx7bjx

"undemocratic candidates are evaluated more positively under conflict compared to peace"

- @kristianvsf.bsky.social & Lasse Laustsen

#OpenAccess

Discussant duties completed…

Copenhagen :)

Now April coffee roasters. Probably the closest to the Tokyo experience you can get outside of Tokyo.

Major disappointment even for danish coffee. Avoid at all cost.

I am back in the country of bitter and sour espresso.

Always important to remind our danish friends of what they have lost...

Ja, og om det er forsvarlig for en student å komme ut med så stor gjeld. Er jo ikke alverdens rente, men…

I am thrilled to announce the publication of the Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics! Over 70 scholars from various institutions in Norway and abroad have contributed their expertise and insights to 48 chapters on different aspects of Norwegian politics.

A short🧵

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

men er det lånekassen som har stått stille eller er det oxford som har økt relativt mye?

Time to get dirty.

Micro-tape-data