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Jonas Hjort

@hjortj.bsky.social
2.4K followers 836 following 19 posts

econ prof. & development economist | jonashjort.com

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Reposted by Jonas Hjort
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Incredible story. And another huge example of why tenure protections for academics are important
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is pretty fucking wild. I had assumed in a worst case scenario he would target blue zip codes and toss ballots based on technicalities but this is even worse than I imagined.
Not only is this system astonishingly untested, USPS has simultaneously implemented an
impracticable zero percent failure rate.
13 When ballots are submitted to USPS in large-volume
batches, if any one ballot in the batch cannot be verified against the Portal, all ballots in that
batch will be rejected. For example, if a state election official brings a batch of 10,000 ballots to
USPS and USPS is unable to match just one of those ballots against the Portal – because, for
example, someone has recently changed their name after marriage or they’ve moved – then
USPS would refuse to mail the remaining 9,999 ballots as well. As the whistleblower notes,
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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
23% drop in student visas to US in 2025 57% drop from India alone catastrophic for research and learning, here and abroad www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...
Graph of visas issued to students per month in 2024 and 2025
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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Colombia, a significant exporter of coal/oil, has chosen to stop licensing new exploration & boost other industries, incl. renewable energy, tourism, agriculture - inviting others "to be on the right side of history”. A report by “some very rock star academics” will show how countries can transition
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 09/04/2026
Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel. King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.
king5.com
UW graduate student deported through SEA as protesters demand answers
A union representing University of Washington graduate student workers says Kennedy Orwa’s student visa was rescinded without explanation.
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Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 06/02/2026
"Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance.’" Glad we got rid of cancel culture though. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...
nytimes.com
Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’
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Gabriel Kreindler @thetahat.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
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Jonas Hjort @hjortj.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Mette Frederiksen and her use & exporting of far-right-copied anti-immigrant policies would like a word
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Representative Seth Magaziner @magaziner.house.gov · 27/01/2026
Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days. His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 04/12/2025
This fetid landmark, this historical stain on humanity is primarily due to the stunningly reckless obliteration of America's foreign assistance agency earlier this year. Led by the richest man on earth. In secret, on a weekend. With zero analysis or discussion of its catastrophic impacts.
wsj.com
For First Time in Decades, Child Deaths Will Rise This Year
Almost a quarter of a million more children around the world are projected to die in 2025 than in 2024.
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Ali Sheridan @alisheridan.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Big development as the UK government rules out any new North Sea oil and gas exploration. A decision which recognises the ongoing movement away from fossil fuels and underscores the urgency of managing the transition in a planned and just way. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6926de...
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jeeanews.bsky.social @jeeanews.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Check out the October 2025 issue (23,5) of @jeeanews.bsky.social Journal of @eeanews.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeea/issue Teaching materials available: www.eeassoc.org/teaching-mat...
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Florian Scheuer @florianscheuer.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics. 🧵 1/7
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Romain Wacziarg @romainwacziarg.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
The August 2025 issue of the Journal of the European Economic Association is now published (academic.oup.com/jeea/issue/2...). It consists of 10 fantastic papers from a wide range of fields of economics. @jeeanews.bsky.social
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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
I was shocked when I first saw these results from standard climate models used in IPCC reports: for high emissions, the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC shuts down in all 9 models that ran past 2100, and is well on the way to shutdown by 2100. Our paper on that is out today.🧵
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
One of the main benefits of doing a US PhD is the extra time you get, that's one of the big reasons I advised my students to apply for US programmes. We offer a four year degree here, there'd be no advantage over us. The US is euthanising its massive advantage in research for no good reason.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
The employment rate of non-EU born migrants exceeded that of the UK-born for the first time on record. Confirms other evidence that recent migrants (even if they did not arrive on work visas) are very likely to be working/have high employment rates.
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 08/08/2025
The White House is taking new steps to undermine every international student at our universities. It has approved a new rule restricting student visas to 4 years max. That's not long enough for PhD students, or about half of undergrads, to finish their degree. Likely to enter force within days.
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Nadja Dwenger @nadjadwenger.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Thanks to all for participating in our joint workshop on #PublicAdministration and #StateCapacity @unihohenheim.bsky.social. Frederico Finan from @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social and @hjortj.bsky.social from @ucl.ac.uk gave great keynote lectures.
Group picture, Workshop Public Administration and State Capacity University of Hohenheim
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Jonas Hjort @hjortj.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Trailblazer and economist extraordinaire Mica Sviatschi just got tenure at Princeton! Mica didn’t need much guidance and I bet Miguel Urquiola wisely undid much of my rookie attempts at it, but I’m very proud of the first PhD student I properly co-advised (and the other awesome PhD advisees since)
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
I will take this as an excuse to plug that excellent careful work on the economics of fertility patterns in sub Saharan Africa has been done by researchers like (my past PhD student) Celine Zipfel, paper here www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3v897...
dropbox.com
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Jonas Hjort @hjortj.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
We at @ucleconomics.bsky.social have extended the application deadline to our MA degrees by a week (until May 8th)--all nationalities warmly welcome!
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Romain Wacziarg @romainwacziarg.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
I'm honored to present the April 2025 issue of the JEEA - featuring 10 outstanding papers. @jeeanews.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeea/issue/2...
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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Five years 3 million deaths www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
Aid cuts predicted to cause 2.9 million more HIV-related deaths by 2030 – study
Reductions to overseas budgets by US, UK and EU countries will have ‘devastating consequences’, say researchers in modelling published in the Lancet HIV
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Alice Evans @draliceevans.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
“Pepfar has saved more than 26 million lives and prevented roughly 1,000 babies a day from being born with the HIV virus” Superb piece on how cuts to USAID will affect the world’s poorest, focusing on HIV on.ft.com/3QX1HhP
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Romain Wacziarg @romainwacziarg.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Very glad to present the February 2025 issue of the JEEA - featuring 10 papers from some of the world's best economists, in a wide range of fields. academic.oup.com/jeea/issue/2... @jeeanews.bsky.social
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Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
i just made the mistake of reading the comments on a NYT article on foreign aid. My god, some people are just way too dumb to understand how lucky they are to have been born in a rich country. Not better or more deserving, just lucky. It's so simple and obvious.
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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
foreign aid to fight infectious diseases is a kind of enlightened self interest, since infectious diseases that go around come around. Aid for fighting AIDS, now suspended by Executive Order, is no exception. marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/02/cons...
marketdesigner.blogspot.com
Consequences of suspending U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
🆕 How does the loss of biodiversity impact economies and human well-being? 🔊 Today on VoxDevTalks, Eyal Frank (University of Chicago) discusses how the real-world impacts of biodiversity loss can be quantified: voxdev.org/topic/energy...
voxdev.org
The economics of ecosystems: How nature and economies interact
How does the loss of biodiversity impact economies and human well-being?
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Jeremy Konyndyk @jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Mind-boggling wreckage. Among the lifesaving programs now disrupted by Elon’s attack on @USAID: phase 1 trials for a possible HIV vaccine.
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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Civil service was designed to protect government employees from political retaliation. That’s not working so well lately… #econsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/02/civi...
marketdesigner.blogspot.com
Civil service in the United States, RIP (1883-2025)
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Howard French @hofrench.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Count us out. www.ft.com/content/176c...
ft.com
Big majority of Greenlanders do not want to be part of US, poll finds
Survey is first to be done since Trump revived his interest in buying Arctic island
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Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:🧵
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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
1/12. Lots of engagement with this Walmart research post. I wanted to follow up on one of the themes I noticed in reactions. This will be a longer thread than I usually write, but I want to weave together a few related points on science (and communication about it), public engagement, and policy.
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Anders Kjelsrud @anderskjelsrud.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
**New working paper** How does the under-representation of females in Economics affect the career trajectory of female Ph.D. students? Sahar Parsa and I look at this in a new working paper by exploring sabbatical leaves taken by female professors at top-50 US Econ departments.
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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
About 20 years ago I interviewed Carter regarding development and Africa and the (amazing) work of the Carter Center. He was talking about US farm subsidies and the malign effect on developing country farmers. So naturally I asked him why he hadn't addressed ag subsidies when he was president. 1/n
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Jonas Hjort @hjortj.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
This overview paper is now forthcoming in the Annual Review of Economics, hope some of you find it useful. Copying Lin's thread from x: cepr.org/publications...
cepr.org
DP19371 The Economic Impact of Internet Connectivity in Developing Countries
Firms, workers, and consumers in developing countries are increasingly connected to each other and the rest of the world through the internet. Can this connectivity transform poor economies, as technology-optimists hope, or are there more deeply rooted barriers to economic development? Research on the topic is growing rapidly. In this article we provide an overview of existing evidence from 150 studies on the extent to which, and how, internet connectivity affects economic development. Not surprisingly, estimates vary widely with the context, particular outcome, and form of internet studied. Overall the literature points towards sizeable economic impacts in many---though not all---settings.
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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
🆕 How expanding internet broadband coverage lifted millions out of poverty By Taka Masaki, Carlos Rodriguez Castelan, Hernan Winkler, Tobias Pfutze, Kalvin Bahia, Pau Castells, Genaro Cruz, Xavier Pedros ⤵️ voxdev.org/topic/energy...
voxdev.org
How expanding internet broadband coverage lifted millions out of poverty
Mobile broadband coverage led to large and significant gains in household consumption and reductions in poverty in Nigeria.
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Romain Wacziarg @romainwacziarg.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The December issue of the JEEA is out, with 10 excellent papers in fields as diverse as finance, macro, political economy, environmental economics... academic.oup.com/jeea/issue @jeeanews.bsky.social @eeanews.bsky.social
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David Henning @dhenning.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Hi #EconSky! I'm on the #EconJobMarket I am a development economist, focusing on firms and their interactions with tax administration. In my JMP I study how Tax Audits affect firms AND aggregate output. My wonderful advisor Natalie Bau wrote a thread about it on x that I can't beat. Check it out!
x.com
x.com
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 10/12/2023
PEPFAR is at risk of not being renewed by US Congress. It is estimated to have saved over 20 million lives so far, and even now averts over a million deaths annually. In my view this is the most important risk to global health we face today. My post: forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gF4nLB...
forum.effectivealtruism.org
PEPFAR, one of the most life-saving global health programs, is at risk — EA Forum
Summary: • International funding and coordination to tackle HIV/AIDS and support health systems in lower- and middle-income countries, is at risk of…
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Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 09/12/2023
Watch Claudia Goldin’s Nobel Lecture: ”An Evolving Economic Force” 📈📉 www.youtube.com/live/RBkLI5i...
youtube.com
2023 prize lecture in economic sciences | Claudia Goldin
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 was awarded to Claudia Goldin "for having advanced our understanding of women...
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 17/11/2023
"Two wheelers like e-bikes and electric mopeds] are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present, due to their staggering uptake in China and other nations where mopeds are a common form of transport" theconversation.com/the-worlds-2...
theconversation.com
The world's 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric ...
Electric vehicles get all the press – but it’s the smaller unsung two wheelers cutting oil demand the most.
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Eugene Finkel @efinkel.bsky.social · 11/11/2023
So here is a radical two-state solution: one state for people who want peace, normal life and democracy and another one for Hamas and people like Daniela Weiss. They both might actually like it there, as long as they don't start arguing about who is more radical and theocratic.
newyorker.com
The Extreme Ambitions of West Bank Settlers
A leader of the settlement movement on expanding into Gaza, and her vision for the Jewish state.
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Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 10/11/2023
To understand the context, IZA is a well-known labour market research outfit in Bonn, Germany, but not *that* influential in labour market policy domestically. Getting a young star like Simon, and dividing it up 50/50 between Bonn and Berlin, was a new (and impressive) strategy.
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Bård Harstad @bardharstad.bsky.social · 27/10/2023
The EU-Mercosur trade agreement is in its final round - before being ratified or abandoned. My analysis "Trade and Trees", today accepted in AER:I, shows how a relatively simple modification of the treaty can motivate forest conservation instead of deforestation: www.sv.uio.no/econ/persone...
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The Visible Hand Podcast @visiblehandpod.bsky.social · 27/10/2023
Episode 71: Michael Best on Individuals, Organisations, and State Effectiveness. Joint work with Jonas Hjort (@hjortj.bsky.social) and David Szakonyi. Listen now at thevisiblehand.uk/episodes/epi... #EconSky
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The Visible Hand Podcast @visiblehandpod.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
In the next episode Michael Best will argue that, in the public sector, there are large differences in productivity across ex ante identical individuals and organisations #EconSky
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 17/10/2023
"What immigration does for innovation" Nice interview with economic historian Petra Moser and labor economist Jennifer Hunt, on @wgbh.org —> blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-h...
blogs.wgbh.org
Innovation Hub | Great Minds, Great Conversations | What Immigration Does For Innovation
Hunt Moser Immigrants
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Rajiv Sethi @rajivsethi.bsky.social · 10/10/2023
Love this quote from Claudia Goldin:
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