David Brady

Photo of Jonas Radl, Gastforschungsprofessor "Effort and Social Inequality" with the quote "Educational opportunities could be made more equitable if not only performance but also individual progress was rewarded in the classroom.", Foto: David Ausserhofer

The Social Origins of #Effort: Social background influences how hard children try. However, incentives at school can reduce socioeconomic inequalities, as a new study by Jonas Radl and Heike Solga et al. shows.
www.wzb.eu/en/press-rel...
@davebrady72.bsky.social

I do think it’d be very accessible to undergrads.

David Brady (@davebrady72)

substack.com/@davebrady72...

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it.

Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Oh for sure, definitely one of the big factors in decline of crime since early 1990s.

In 2025, there were 230 murders in LA - the fewest in the city since the mid-1960s. The murder rate was 5.9 per 100k. This is the lowest per-capita rate since the mid-1950s

It’s striking me how DRAMATICALLY safer cities are today. Spending a lot of time in South LA, it’s stunning how much safer this place is.

LA’s murder peak was 1992. There were 1,092 total homicides in 1992 - the highest number in the city’s history. That was a murder rate of 31 per 100k residents.

Here’s my new Substack post about the value of being curious about new fields and literatures.

open.substack.com/pub/davebrad...

Can’t help contrasting the decency of this guy being interviewed by Reggie at All Star game versus current occupant of White House.

Here’s my new Substack post about the value of being curious about new fields and literatures.

open.substack.com/pub/davebrad...

Trump administration sues California over law keeping oil wells from homes, schools Senate Bill 1137 establishes a 3,200-foot minimum distance between new oil wells and homes, schools, hospitals, parks and other places where people live, work and gather.

In related news:
“The Trump administration is suing California over a law that creates a 3,200-foot buffer zone between new oil and gas wells and homes, schools, hospitals and parks.”

www.latimes.com/environment/...

“In 2020, CalGEM ordered AllenCo to plug the wells after if determined the company had essentially deserted the site. . .AllenCo ignored the order. . .CalGEM officials in 2022 arrived on the site with a court order and used bolt cutters to enter the site”

“In 2013, U.S. EPA officials became sick while inspecting the site. The federal investigators encountered puddles of crude oil on the facility grounds, as well as caustic fumes emanating from the facility, resulting in violations for air quality and other environmental infractions.”

“Much of the community outcry over the site’s management occurred after AllenCo took over the site in 2009. The company drastically boosted oil production, but failed to properly maintain its equipment, resulting in oil spills and gas leaks. “

This oil well was abandoned by AllenCo, & the state used Biden funding to cap it. It sits near a school, many multi-family apartments and USC.

“For years, residents and students had repeatedly complained about acrid odors from the site, with many suffering chronic headaches and nosebleeds. “

Notoriously hazardous South L.A. oil wells finally plugged after decades of community pressure A two-acre Los Angeles oil drill site near the St. Vincent Elementary School in University Park, had been releasing noxious fumes for years. Finally, the wells have been shut down.

“Tens of thousands of unproductive and unplugged oil wells have been abandoned across California — many of which continue to leak potentially explosive methane or toxic benzene.”

www.latimes.com/environment/...

A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS Secretary faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operations.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

“A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS”

This Noem & Lewandoski story in the *Wall Street Journal* is a wild ride.

“States now award most of the money to nonprofits, companies and their own state agencies. An average of about 849,000 families got direct cash aid each month in fiscal 2025, federal data shows, down from about 1.9 million in fiscal 2010.”

How a $30 Billion Welfare Program Became a ‘Slush Fund’ for States Republicans and Democrats alike decry the lack of oversight for America’s famous antipoverty experiment.

Good report here on how very little TANF funds actually go to supporting low income families. It has become a slush fund for states to spend on things that have little to do with program’s mission.

“How a $30 Billion Welfare Program Became a ‘Slush Fund’ for States”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

View from “The Study” at University of Chicago.

“He went further, dismissing the broader reckoning with sexual abuse: “That’s particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.””

‘Ignore It.’ How the Elite Consoled Jeffrey Epstein Over His Crimes. Emails show how luminaries from politics, business and academia commiserated with the convicted sex offender about his legal troubles and bad press.

Noam Chomsky counseling Epstein in *2019*!

Chomsky counseled him to stay silent: “What the vultures dearly want is a public response, which then provides a public opening for an onslaught of venomous attacks, many from just publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts.”

www.wsj.com/us-news/igno...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Aaron Rupar (@aaronrupar) Trump: "These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationaliz...

substack.com/@aaronrupar/...

Markets and Mobility: How Employers Structure Economic Opportunity

Intergenerational mobility, measuring the ability to achieve economic success regardless of family background, is a critical reflection of a society’s commitment to equality of opportunity. Rising income inequality has raised concerns about the potential erosion of upward mobility. While education has traditionally been viewed as the path to mobility, its transformative power is facing challenges in a rapidly evolving job market. This project reorients the focus of intergenerational mobility research by highlighting the labor market as an arena for the reproduction of advantage. It employs a comparative approach, using administrative data from four countries: Sweden, Austria, England, and the United States. It also incorporates evidence from a broader set of nations through cross-national surveys, longitudinal household surveys, labor force surveys, secondary data, and digital trace data. The project employs cutting-edge empirical methods, including quasi- experimental designs, event studies, within-family comparisons, decomposition analyses, counterfactual simulations, and diagnostic checks to rigorously assess the extent of inequalities in the labor market. The research investigates how family background influences the sorting of individuals to employers and workplaces, accounting for education and occupation, and explores variations in career progression within and between employers. It comprehensively catalogues and assesses mechanisms shaping workplace inequality, contributing to the development of social closure theory. Additionally, the project evaluates intervention strategies, encompassing both employer practices and government actions, to promote fair opportunity in the labor market.

JOB! I'm hiring a postdoc for 2 years on my ERC MaMo project.

Looking for someone with strong quant methods, ongoing work close to the project's aims, and a desire to publish in sociology. Start flexible in the next 12 months.

Formal call out shortly, but contact me first.

Gameday voting on which school has the most faculty in the Epstein Files

All of my titles are far too lame to warrant clever sign offs.

Maybe “More than nickels and dimes,”?

Funnily the “more than nickels and dimes” was the title a coauthor felt was most cringe of anything I’ve ever done.

Lol

I’m with Jen, if @weedenkim.bsky.social doesn’t sign things “Decomposition without Death!”, I’m calling her a poser.

And yes, the capitalization and exclamation point are mandatory.