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Alexis Villacis

@ahvillacis.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.1K following 48 posts

Economist studying the social-welfare implications of agricultural production | Chocolate & Cacao aficionado | Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University | ahvillacis.com

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Reposted by Alexis Villacis
Clément de Chaisemartin @cdechaisemartin.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Just posted updated version of our DID textbook! We now have drafts of all chapters, including the one on general designs! Now you can tell your friends still on X that they are DID-outdated :-) Happy easter for those of you that celebrate it. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Credible Answers to Hard Questions: Differences-in-Differences for Natural Experiments
This book introduces applied researchers to modern Differences-in-Differences (DID) methods, that they can use to obtain credible answers to hard causal inferen
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Amen, brother!
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Hey BSKY friends! We will be heading out to conduct on-farm interviews with farmers this summer. Any recommendations on tablets/software for fieldwork you've used lately? Bonus points if they can log GPS coordinates! Help me with a repost 🙏
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NBER @nber.org · 25/02/2025
Open call for papers, Risk and Risk Management in the Agricultural Economy. Conference to be held in Cambridge, MA on November 21, 2025. Submit papers by 11:59pm EDT on August 12, 2025. More information: www.nber.org/calls-papers-and-propo…
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Hope Michelson @hopecm.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
The US Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) website is now offline. Since 1985, FEWS NET has provided assessments of the location and severity of food crises. These assessments are used by gov and non-government humanitarian organizations across the world to allocate aid. static.fews.net
static.fews.net
The FEWS NET Website, the FEWS NET Learning Platform, and the FEWS NET Data Warehouse and Data Explorer are currently unavailable.
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Valerie Mueller @valmuellerasu.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Hello AERE members, please help us make our org better by filling out the survey and have the possibility to win some swag. Also let us know if you’d like to be involved in strategic planning. #EconSky
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Excited to share our work that just got published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. We examine how extreme heat affects farm-level #agricultural productivity and #adaptation strategies in Nigeria. Here’s a look at what we found ⬇️ (A short thread) 1/10
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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Long-overdue on 2024 recap of cool young researcher! #econtwitter #econsky My favorite part of social media + it's exciting to highlight a year's worth of exciting researchers. (Given cross-platform posting, won't link to the original 🧵s but direct to researcher sites)
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Hope Michelson @hopecm.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The 22nd Midwest International Economic Development Conference (MWIEDC) will be held at UIUC March 28–29, 2025. Co-hosted by Ag Econ and Econ. Mushfiq Mobarak @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social keynote. Always one of my favorite conferences. Deadline for submissions Jan 8, 2025.
publish.illinois.edu
Midwest International Economic Development Conference
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Pseudoerasmus @pseudoerasmus.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Another edition of "All new work is elaborating on the old": an article in the latest QJE generates TFP estimates for England over six centuries & confirms the Nef Thesis of 1934. Before Crafts, before Wrigley, Nef had said most of it 90 years ago
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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/12/2024
So excited that the BREAD Asia Conference on Development Economics at NUS Singapore is starting in a few minutes! Please follow the livestream at breadasia2024.com! Program is below, times are in Singapore standard time.
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Esteban J. Quiñones, Ph.D. @estebanjq.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Shout out to @tradecosts.bsky.social and co-authors for their fascinating work on ‘How colonial segregation policies impact land values in Mexico today’ via @voxdev.bsky.social voxdev.org/topic/instit...
voxdev.org
How colonial segregation policies impact land values in Mexico today
Colonial segregation policies in Mexico City entrenched divisions between Spaniards and indigenous communities, shaping modern economic inequalities because of weak property rights, unequal provision ...
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David L. Ortega @dlortega.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Excited to share with you all the National Food Museum 🥗🏛️ — a visionary project that will explore food in all its dimensions. Honored to serve on the museum's Advisory Council. Check out the museums' website for additional information! www.nationalfoodmuseum.org
nationalfoodmuseum.org
Home - National Food Museum
National Food Museum™ Exploring Food in All Its Dimensions History • Culture • Nutrition • Farming • Climate Change/Environment • Social Justice • Animal Welfare Our Mission To celebrate and explore t...
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David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
This year we posted 26 #econjmp posts by PhD students on the market. Here is the list of all of them in case you missed any, plus a link to the @econthatmatters.bsky.social series which has some more - great to see all the exciting work in development blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
blogs.worldbank.org
Job market series 2024 Wrap-up
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Journal of Environmental Economics and Management @jeem-econ.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Recently accepted in #JEEM: 'Money versus procedures – Evidence from an energy efficiency assistance program' by Bettina Chlond, Timo Goeschl, Martin Kesternich. #econsky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
I shared some insights on chocolate markets and consumption amid the skyrocketing prices of cacao on @npr.org @marketplaceapm.bsky.social #AcademicSky #EconSky You can listen here ⬇️ www.marketplace.org/2024/12/17/c...
marketplace.org
Why rising cocoa prices don't deter chocolate lovers - Marketplace
Craft chocolate lovers will eat the higher prices, experts say. But others may alter their consumption habits.
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James Allen IV @jealleniv.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
🏫When the school year competes with farm work, it becomes a barrier to educating rural children. 🧑‍🌾 But changing the school calendar can help! A summary of research thus far, including my new collaboration in #Madagascar, on the @ifpri.org blog: on.cgiar.org/3P5HNjn @cgiar.org #FCMinitiative
on.cgiar.org
When school overlaps with farming: Measuring reduced educational advancement and simulating solutions in Africa
The social costs of calendars.
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Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 09/12/2024
Revoking China's permanent normal trade relations #PNTR status would result in higher prices & lower economic output in the US than otherwise, particularly in agriculture & manufacturing. #PIIECharts #EconSky Learn more: www.piie.com/research/pii...
Revoking China’s PNTR status would hurt agriculture and manufacturing, and raise inflation
Revoking China’s PNTR status would cause a short-term decline in US real GDP relative to the baseline forecast, and the effects would be worse if China retaliates by imposing the same tariff changes on its imports from America. US agricultural output would be lower than otherwise because the dollar would appreciate, curbing the sector’s exports. Manufacturing output would suffer because of the sector’s dependence on China as a source of intermediate inputs for production. 
The higher tariffs permitted by revoking China’s PNTR status would cause inflation to rise by 0.4 percentage points by 2025 if China retaliates, as is likely. Inflation would moderate over time because the dollar would appreciate and the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates. But prices overall would remain higher than otherwise.
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
You've heard of Elf on a shelf, now get ready for...
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Ariel Ortiz-Bobea @arielob.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This is an amazing program for early-career economists in developing countries. Please share with your networks! (and follow my colleague Chris Barrett — a great public goods provider among many other things)
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Toni Whited @toniwhited.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
It's job market season, so we do mock interviews with our PhD candidates. I tried something new: having my students interview me about my paper. This lets them see how it works and lets me demo how to avoid mistakes like droning on and on or not listening to questions or going off on tangents.
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Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 30/11/2024
Economists love using linear regression to estimate treatment effects — it turns out that there are perils to this method, but also amazing perks Come with me in this 🧵 if you want to learn about our now-published paper "Contamination Bias in Linear Regressions!" 1/ (Twitter rerun!)
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Trying to buy a taco after a 25% tariff on Mexico #EconSky
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Seeing my work cited 100+ times this year has been a meaningful milestone. Thank you to all who found value in it. #AcademicSky
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
The amount of literature that I think exists about my *novel* idea vs. The amount of literature that actually exists about the topic.
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I am part of the latter group 😂😂😂 #EconSky
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Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 25/11/2024
Man I cannot endorse this abstract more
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John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
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Chris Goodman @cbgoodman.co · 25/11/2024
If you want to download the 1990-2023 county-level Census Building Permits data... (I'll probably have a blog post about this at some point) h/t @kjhealy.co for the `rvest` code
gist.github.com
R code to import all years of county-level building permit data and lightly clean
R code to import all years of county-level building permit data and lightly clean - permits-import.r
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Colin Camerer @cfcamerer.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Podcast w/ the amazing@ritholtz.bsky.social Master in Business is now out (Apple, Spotify etc-- MiB is popular! His summary here: ritholtz.com/2024/11/mib-...
ritholtz.com
MiB: Colin Camerer on Neuroeconomics - The Big Picture
   This week, we speak with Colin Camerer, Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance and Economics at California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Caltech in 1994, Camerer was a faculty m...
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 22/11/2024
From the archives: Have you (like me!) wondered what the ATT means and how it's different from average treatment effects? I use #rstats to explore why we care about (and how to calculate) the ATE, ATT, and ATU #polisky #episky #econsky www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2024/03...
Mirrored histogram showing “weird” parts of the population: treated people who were unlikely to be treated, and untreated people who were likely to be treatedMirrored histogram showing pseudo-populations of treated and untreated people that have been reweighted to be more comparable and unconfoundedTable showing potential and realized outcomes for 9 simulated people Before we calculate these different treatment effects with the realized outcomes instead of the hypothetical potential outcomes, let's look really quick at the practical difference between the true ATE, AT 1, and ATU. All three estimands are useful for policymaking!
The ATE is -15, implying that mosquito nets cause a 15 point reduction in malaria risk for every person in the country. This includes people who live at high elevations where mosquitoes don't live, people who live near mosquito-infested swamps, people who are rich enough to buy Bill Gates's mosquito laser, and people who can't afford a net but would really like to use one. If we worked in the Ministry of Health and wanted to know if we should make a new national program that gave everyone a free bed net, the overall reduction in risk is -15, which is probably pretty good!
The ATT is -16.29, which is bigger than the ATE. The effect of net usage is bigger for people who are already using the nets. This is because of underlying systematic reasons, or selection bias. Those using nets want to use them because they need them more or can access them more easily-they might live in areas more prone to mosquitoes, or they can afford to buy their own nets, or something else. They know themselves and understand some notion of their personal individual causal effect and seek out nets. If we removed access to their nets, it would have a strong effect.
The ATU is -13.63, which is smaller than the ATE. The effect of net usage is smaller for people who aren't using the nets. Again, this is because of selection bias. Those not using nets are likely not using them for systematic reasons-they live far away from mosquitoes, they've received a future malaria vaccine, they have some other form of mosquito abatement, or something else. Because they can read their own minds, they know that mosquito net use won't do much for them personally, so they don't seek out nets. If we expanded access to nets to them, they wouldn't benefit
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Attending #SEA2024 in DC? Make sure you attend the session “Innovations in Agricultural Policy and Practice: Insights from Empirical Studies” chaired by Elaine Liu ⬇️
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Journal of Environmental Economics and Management @jeem-econ.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Recently accepted in #JEEM: 'The effect of extreme temperatures on evictions' by Dylan Brewer, Sarah Goldgar. #econsky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Charlotte Ambrozek @cambrozek.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
UMN APEC is hiring in ag business! Come work with us, one of the best ag econ depts in the US, excellent colleagues and students. Twin Cities amenities - great for food + 🎸🎹🎻 + 🚲 + 🛶 Apply by December 15 aaea.execinc.com/edibo/JobBoa...
aaea.execinc.com
Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA)
The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is a not-for-profit association serving the professional interests of members working in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied econ...
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Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
We've just made it much easier to reuse the data on Our World in Data. Here is an overview of our new features: enhanced data downloads and the Chart Data API. ourworldindata.org/easier-to-re...
ourworldindata.org
We've made it much easier to reuse our data
An overview of our new features: enhanced data downloads and the Chart Data API.
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Asjad Naqvi @asjadnaqvi.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Here is a test map for a project all done in #Stata. This is fully automated workflow to generate custom maps. Once the code is in a decent place, I will package it up!
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Lauren Bauer @laurenhlb.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
For #FarmBill & #EconSky followers gearing up: @chloeneast.bsky.social & I wrote a comprehensive explainer on SNAP work requirements: the rules, the research, and our recommendations. www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
hamiltonproject.org
A primer on SNAP work requirements - The Hamilton Project
An explainer on work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) summarizes the research on work requirements and their efficacy.
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
😬😬😬 #EconSky
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Please don't call what RFK Jr. and Jay Bhattacharya are going to do medieval. It's not medieval. It's nothing like the Middle Ages. People in the Middle Ages were happy to try all kinds of things to not die of the plague and if you'd given them antibiotics and vaccines they would have loved it.
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NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 20/11/2024
in 1968, the only signs of life found in the Cuyahoga River, according to a water quality survey of 23 different sites, were two solitary fish. at a single sample location: a bluegill, and a goldfish. today, more than 70 different species call the Cuyahoga River home.
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Jean-François Bonnefon @jfbonnefon.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
You can go to clearsky.app, enter your handle, and find them under the ‘Lists’ tab
clearsky.app
ClearSky
ClearSky
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Melissa Baker @melissabaker.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I think this (but I haven’t tried it yet) bsky.app/profile/pame...
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Andrew Kniss @wyoweeds.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
clearsky.app can tell you lists and blocked by information. But it's running extremely slowly now - maybe due to the huge recent influx of accounts?
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Is there a way to know which starter packs are you part of? @bsky.app
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Juan Moreno-Cruz @jmorenocruz.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
This can be useful. It is for subscribers only, though. causalinf.substack.com/p/data-visua...
causalinf.substack.com
Visualizing your event study plot
a personal opinion
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Remember when everyone was obsessed with sourdough starters during the pandemic? Bluesky starter packs are the same vibe 🙃
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
@asjadnaqvi.bsky.social is single-handedly making our lives better!
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Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Many commentators say that vigilante groups are never the answer. But they clearly don't know about the masked Ecuadorian trio named “Acción Ortográfica Quito,” who roam the streets at night with a singular purpose: to correct all the spelling and grammar mistakes they find in graffiti.
An example of Acción Ortográfica Quito doing the Lord's work (graffiti on a wall corrected with red spray paint)
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Can’t wait to see which cabinet position this guy’s going to land 🫠
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Alexis Villacis @ahvillacis.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Honest question: If the election had gone the other way, would most econ folks have stayed on that other site instead of migrating here?
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