iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Some pictures of Minnesota being lovely for no reason

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Right next to the "state fair" on Pennsylvania DC had a BBQ cook-off/DC is awesome fair, and the vibes were great. Plus my water bottle was also acceptable there.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Note how easy it is to turn on the light once one has opened the bathroom door in my current apartment:

Bathroom door with a light switch to the left of it, which is also the side which it hinges so when one opens the door it covers the light switch

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Sesame Street seen here bringing Oscar the Grouch in trash can, a Christmas Tree, and a hockey stick onto the subway. Educational TV From: muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Christm...

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Alas, I was. Natural advantage not in my favor. Solid wintering in the middle of the continent there

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

And it was drizzling at that point. So yeah, it wasn't my fastest, but

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Being the best economist I can and leaning into the #econ5k prize category in which I have a comparative advantage: Coldest My runkeeper is on the right, my running companion's Strava is on the left. Strava's temperature reading is -1F

A Strava screen shot. Distance: 3.15 miles, Time: 32:31, Weather: Clear, -1F, feels like 2F.

Runkeeper screenshot. Map, Distance: 3.10 miles, Time: 32:54

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Poll: an excitement terms how many ACS selections is a Gallup Panel selection worth? (Can be less than 1)

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

You have to look closely but the is a falcon high up in the tree, and a squirrel low down. They were very focused on each other

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

I think they are wondering what they are supposed to be doing in Union Station too:

Three national guard troops in fatigues standing on the empty balcony level at Union Station looking at people moving around below

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

I'd be fascinated if someone did a randomized trial of this: inserting or deleting relevant citations and then seeing how much friendly reviewers are to the articles osf.io/preprints/os...

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Speaking of, I've had limited time to learn my new hobby:

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

I've not had one trip to DC in the last two months where travel has gone smoothly. Last time they cancelled my flight I managed to add a ferry to my trip, however.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I showed my partner (a physicist) a graph of the stock market today—"I know what that is: that's an undamped oscillator!" Not how I ever want to hear any economic data described

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"Our research would suggest that, yes, there are going to be impacts, and they're likely to fall on the people who are the most vulnerable."

While the future impacts of the administration's policies are uncertain, past evidence shows that disruptions to grant funding can harm the careers of scientists. A team of researchers reported last year that a delay of more than 30 days in the renewal of NIH R01 grants, the agency's main form of project support, led to a three percentage point increase in the probability that lab members would stop working in the U.S. Further analysis showed that about half of those who stopped working in the U.S. had likely permanently left the country.

The authors found that these effects, which were visible as early as one year after funding delays, were greater on postdocs and graduate students rather than faculty. Labor economists have pointed to the study, which has yet to complete peer review, as a telling example of how the administration's policies could worsen the academic exodus.

So did Wei Yang Tham, a staff scientist at the University of Toronto and the report's lead author, who said, "Our research would suggest that, yes, there are going to be impacts, and they're likely to fall on the people who are the most vulnerable."

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The pandemic highlighted that even though we often think of science as a long, incremental process, speed and urgency can really matter for scientific progress.

Headline: Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science

Headline: Funding Delays Are Slowing Scientific Progress

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

If you remain in the US (and therefore we can see your earnings), you also earn less (yeah we know this conditions on post-treatment outcomes. not ideal, but it's important and we try to discuss carefully)

Event study on wages, arcsinh earnings. The top panel is all people, while the bottom is only people who have positive wages in year -1 to 5. Labs with only one R01 see a notable drop in arcsinh wages, up to 50 arcsinh points by the end for people who have positive wages in -1 to 5. Labs with more than one R01 see much less of an impact.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

So what happens if funding for the lab you work in was delayed? We see an immediate and persistent increase (left) in the likelihood that you become "nonemployed", i.e. no longer appear in US tax data. If you were part of a richer lab (right), that cushions the blow

Event study on being nonemployed. Labs with only one R01 have an increase from 0 to about 3 percentage points (steady but large standard errors), and labs with more than one R01 see no effect.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We're able to link funding delays to labor market outcomes using some v cool data that connects grant expenditures all the way to tax and unemployment insurance records. This means labor market histories across all occupations - faculty, postdocs, grad students, staff

Describing the Exporter to UMETRICS to Tax Record links. The PI is found in Exporter, linked to employee paid on the grant in UMETRICS, which are linked to tax records at the US Census Bureau, which can be used to follow people after the grant.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Copying a thread by @wytham88.bsky.social weiyangtham.com/files/tcps_f...

Scientific Talent Leaks Out of Funding Gaps
by Wei Yang Tham, Joseph Staudt, Elisabeth Ruth Perlman, and
Stephanie D. Cheng
February 12, 2024
Abstract
We study how delays in NIH grant funding affect the career outcomes of research personnel. Using comprehensive earnings and tax records linked to university transaction data along with a difference-in-differences design, we find that a funding interruption of more than 30 days has a substantial effect on job placements for personnel who work in labs with a single NIH R01 research grant, including a 3 percentage point
(40%) increase in the probability of not working in the US. Incorporating information from the full 2020 Decennial Census and data on publications, we find that about half of those induced into nonemployment appear to permanently leave the US and are 90% less likely to publish in a given year, with even larger impacts for trainees (postdocs and graduate students). Among personnel who continue to work in the US, we find that interrupted personnel earn 20% less than their continuously-funded peers,
with the largest declines concentrated among trainees and other non-faculty personnel
(such as staff and undergraduates). Overall, funding delays account for about 5% of US nonemployment in our data, indicating that they have a meaningful effect on the scientific labor force at the national level.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

I am submitting for the as yet unannounced #Econ5k Cross-Country Ski category. PS - the Dartmouth Cross-Country Ski Track is brutally hilly. Top elevation: 575', bottom: 415'. Groomed man-made snow is really slippery. I fell many times.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 15/12/2022

how single units* respond though out the year. For instance, here are the exit rates in Q2-Q4 by year.

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/11/2022

Bottom right. Last night I was reflecting that maybe the link between the ability (right) to have a say in how you are governed be expanded from noble inheritance and freedom for self-determination is more profound than we often reflect on. -> Voting!

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 10/10/2022

But here is a picture to help you imagine the situation: bostonglobe.com/business/2013/…

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 09/10/2022

The best part of my yesterday maybe was running over the Mass Ave Bridge with MIT just starting to come into view when this song (not planned) came up on my play list. youtube.com/watch?v=jM_1dL…

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/09/2022

Percent (as a percent of the industry) Employment Change By Industry and Sex, Aug 2019 to Aug 2022

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/09/2022

Since I had reason to make this graph I thought other people might find it interesting #jobsreport Employment Change By Industry and Sex, Aug 2019 to Aug 2022

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 04/08/2022

Hey #econtwitter: If you were going to ask someone about the fall in women's labor force participation among women age 25-54 over the last 20+ years, who would you talk to? Focusing on what would draw people back? It's concentrated among edu <BA and is less fast than for men

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 25/07/2022

I'd like to remind everyone about the Turkeys that live nearby x.com/JoshGoodman_BU…

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 20/05/2022

This tool showing in what occupations different demographic groups are constructed is really neat, and so far full of exactly no surprises americanprogress.org/shareable/u-s-…

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 12/05/2022

I'm jet-lagged and used the extra morning time to read about yesterday's CPI release. This was the best way to spend a morning. Photo from my trip

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 12/04/2022

This is the image in the thread in case it disappears

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/02/2022

Am I doing the internet thing correctly? Text says: We all knew that inflation is caused by more money chasing not-as-much-more things, right?

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 29/12/2021

But, yeah my top is 100% typical including a skew to last year's music

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 27/12/2021

A friend is running a 3 session fun thing on the economic history of textiles, free and open to the public (onlineTextiles drove so much of world history! FWIW, pictured here are some things she knit for me (she doesn't give away her best work engage.gsas.harvard.edu/event/7639221

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 24/11/2021

I want to posit 2 additional possibilities in partner matching due to women being more educated than men: 3) college educated women become more likely to partner with each other 4) relationship structure changes, with increasing prevalence of nonmonogamous structures x.com/JustinWolfers/…

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 08/09/2021

Three years ago @drlisadcook told a table of Economic Historians at the Women's Lunch that our voices we needed on #EconTwitter. Which means today twitter told me I've been on Twitter for three years. It's become a larger part of my life then I would have predicted

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 27/08/2021

Moon, night sky, and google photo processing:

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 21/08/2021

River and skyline at night + Google's photo processing algorithms:

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · 20/03/2021

Post run. (I miss water fountains

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