Ben Ho @hoben.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Ok it's been over a while since my last keyboard post. My current obsession is pocketable mech keyboards, which paired with my folding pixel phone, is how I spent much of my sabbatical working on two new books in coffee shops. 160
Reposted by Ben HoAaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 02/08/2025Rising mistrust in economists and what to do. Great story @amandaaronczyk.bsky.social @planetmoney.bsky.social, featuring interviews with @dianeswonk.bsky.social @nickbloom.bsky.social @hoben.bsky.social & me. #EconSky #NumbersDay www.npr.org/2025/08/01/1... 0275
Ben Ho @hoben.bsky.social · 08/06/2025for those in my feed for the #mechanicalkeyboard content, my latest fave: split key corne that fits in my pockets. ordered last two pcbs/cases from aliexpress the day the China tariff fell... cause who knows when Chinese imports will be cut off again. 020
Reposted by Ben HoSeema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 01/04/2025When home heating is less affordable, more people die each winter. That's what our analysis found for a period when LIHEAP was in place. Without LIHEAP, the effect would presumably much larger. Ungated copy of the study here: bit.ly/2JrJfxR 14473203
Reposted by Ben HoAnna Goeddeke @annagoeddeke.bsky.social · 16/03/2025#TeachEcon This semester, I thought I’d share a bit about what I do in my microeconomics lectures. I’m not particularly active on LinkedIn, but I started posting about my teaching because I’m quite frustrated with how economics is often perceived at business schools. (1/n)media.tenor.coma woman sits at a desk using a laptop with ring the bell written on the bottomALT: a woman sits at a desk using a laptop with ring the bell written on the bottom 25110
Reposted by Ben HoMiriam Golden @mgoldenprof.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Are you interested in U.S. legislative history? Newly-available complete dataset on all persons serving as legislators in the 50 state houses between 1900 and 2016: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...dataverse.harvard.edu 23702164
Reposted by Ben HoDr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 15/01/2025New UCLA rapid attribution study: “Climate change may be linked to roughly a quarter of the extreme fuel moisture deficit when the fires began. The fires would still have been extreme without climate change, but probably somewhat smaller and less intense.” sustainablela.ucla.edu/2025lawildfi...sustainablela.ucla.eduClimate Change A Factor In Unprecedented LA Fires 26630189
Reposted by Ben HoEthan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 15/01/2025New randomized, controlled trial by the World Bank of students using GPT-4 as a tutor in Nigeria. Six weeks of after-school AI tutoring = 2 years of typical learning gains, outperforming 80% of other educational interventions. And it helped all students, especially girls who were initially behind. 1535388
Reposted by Ben HoAndrew Kosenko @andrewkosenko.bsky.social · 14/01/2025I'm looking for nonfiction books to read. Loved: - (Auto)buographies of Kandel, Oliver Sacks, Oppenheimer, Miles Davis, Feynman, Philip Glass - "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Rhoades Don't say "The Power Broker":) I'm on my umpteenth attempt. What are your favorites? 541
Reposted by Ben HoOur World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 13/01/2025The world has passed “peak child” 1022380
Reposted by Ben HoZeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 12/01/2025Scientists developed the first climate models in the late 1960s (for which the Nobel Prize in physics was recently awarded!). How have these models held up against what happened in the real world after they were published? Surprisingly well, it turns out: 14559237
Reposted by Ben HoEthan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 12/01/2025If you are an academic, it can be instructive to work on a paper with AI. Pretend you are working with a grad student & see what happens. Generally o1 is best for well-defined heavy intellectual tasks, Gemini for synthesizing lots of text, and Claude for writing & theorizing. This varies by field. 810910
Reposted by Ben HoMax Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 08/01/2025Who would have won the 'Simon-Ehrlich bet' over different decades — and what do long-term prices tell us about resource scarcity? The new Our World in Data article by my colleague Hannah Ritchie. ourworldindata.org/simon-ehrlic... 24615
Reposted by Ben HoBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/01/2025Why economists need to review the preregistration!* This is a hot mess; hard to believe it's in the QJE datacolada.org/122 * docs.google.com/document/d/1... 1145
Reposted by Ben HoBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 07/01/2025We need more research on social media effects on elites, activists, and other subgroups per our recent Nature review www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comMisunderstanding the harms of online misinformation - NatureThis Perspective identifies common misperceptions regarding the harms of online misinformation, finding that exposure to false and inflammatory content is rare and concentrated among a small minority ... 39627
Reposted by Ben HoJoshua Gans @joshgans.bsky.social · 21/12/2024Kenneth Arrow’s Last Theorem: Why do the most patient individuals dictate environmental policy in the long run? Let’s explore this fascinating result about efficiency and time preferences. 🧵 www.mechanism-design.org/arch/v009-1/...mechanism-design.org 1229
Reposted by Ben HoFlorian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025Ran Spiegler has a new book out that I found very entertaining. It's a collection of essays offering accessible introductions to modern classics of economic theory: global games, Bayesian persuasion, hold-up problem, competitive screening, ... And it's FREE! direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...direct.mit.eduThe Curious Culture of Economic TheoryAn essay collection that insightfully explores the professional culture of contemporary economic theory, highlighting key features of successful economic t 27816
Reposted by Ben HoDaniel Litt @littmath.bsky.social · 01/01/2025I've recently been talking a bit about how difficult it is to carefully check even well-written mathematics. I want to try to explain something about this by telling the story of some errors in the literature that (in part) led to the two papers below. 1/n 629269
Ben Ho @hoben.bsky.social · 01/01/2025I enjoyed this sophomoric ramble though. Probability is weird and I appreciate scientific American trying to make that weirdness accessible to a broad audience. 080
Reposted by Ben HoKhoa @khoavuumn.bsky.social · 28/12/2024We don't download PDFs just "to ignore them forever". It's an irreplaceable ritual. A process represents the imbalance between our desire to know and physical and psychological constraints. It symbolizes constant inner battles & compromises for a future in which we read the papers that never comes. 610319
Reposted by Ben HoNeil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · 27/12/2024You’ve downloaded hundreds of PDFs for research and now it’s finally time to ignore them forever 816912
Reposted by Ben HoSimon Jäger @simonjaeger.bsky.social · 24/12/2024How do unions and collective bargaining work around the world? And how do they affect the wage structure? A new paper with Suresh Naidu and Benjamin Schoefer @schoefer.bsky.social out NBER WP today and prepared for the Handbook of Labor Economics. Thread below. 👇 412442
Reposted by Ben HoFlorian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 22/12/2024It still boggles my mind that only 66 years separate these photos. 321306289
Reposted by Ben HoDean Eckles @eckles.bsky.social · 19/12/2024Challenging game of draw the time series on.ft.com/3DpQ8vZon.ft.comDraw your own chart game: how well do you know the jobs market?Test your knowledge on trends from hybrid schedules to AI hiring 143
Reposted by Ben HoPeter Hull @instrumenthull.bsky.social · 15/12/2024We've significantly updated our paper on modeling + measuring systemic discrimination! Check it out: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ab5yx... (cc @aleximas.bsky.social + @aislinnbohren.bsky.social!) A short 🧵 on what's new... 915744
Reposted by Ben HoNBER @nber.org · 17/12/2024How policymakers and the US population update their beliefs on the use of science and the trust they have in government following a field experiment that demonstrated the ineffectiveness of a policy intervention, from Guglielmo Briscese and John A. List www.nber.org/papers/w33239 22811
Reposted by Ben HoColin Camerer @cfcamerer.bsky.social · 17/12/2024Great data journalism: people report “best times” is when they were 10-15 yo www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... 961573520
Reposted by Ben HoKevin A. Bryan @afinetheorem.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Super excited to publicly launch "All Day TA" (www.alldayta.com), a product @joshgans.bsky.social and I have been working on with our team over the last year. Short version: if you teach in spring, you will want to use this! It's the future of higher education. A short thread: 1/x 20128739
Reposted by Ben HoCameron @cameron.stream · 13/12/2024I put this on twitter but figured I'd put it here too. I post a lot of AI stuff over there because it's my job and I have a lot of reach there, hopefully I can start doing more here. I read the OpenAI post and had a few observations, a thread. openai.com/index/elon-m...openai.comElon Musk wanted an OpenAI for-profitElon Musk’s latest legal filing against OpenAI marks his fourth attempt in less than a year to reframe his claims. However, his own words and actions speak for themselves—in 2017, Elon not only wanted... 172
Reposted by Ben HoSeema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Wanted: More posts in this genre. What's the one thing you wrote in 2024 that I should read? 0112
Reposted by Ben HoTatyana Deryugina @tderyugina.bsky.social · 12/12/2024Some tips for preparing for preliminary job market interviews! 1175
Reposted by Ben HoRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 12/12/2024The Maritime Approximation xkcd.com/3023 423209316
Reposted by Ben HoJohn Cawley @johncawley.bsky.social · 09/12/2024From our AEA cttee on the job market, here's the December update on the status of the job mkt for PhD economists of the 2024-25 cycle. A thread with graphs follows... #EconJobMarket #EconSky @aeainformation.bsky.social @aeacswep.bsky.social @joelistings.bsky.social 1/9 410837
Reposted by Ben HoKhoa @khoavuumn.bsky.social · 08/12/2024Real footage of a synthetic control model 14642118
Reposted by Ben HoJohn P de New 🇦🇺🇨🇦🇩🇪🇪🇺 @denewjohn.bsky.social · 09/12/2024Hey All, The amazing John List is on BlueSky. @johnlist.bsky.social #EconSky 2182
Reposted by Ben HoJennifer Doleac @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social · 07/12/2024I have an op-ed in the NYT today about how to reduce crime. The key idea, based on decades of strong research evidence: focus on increasing the probability of getting caught, not the punishment. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/o... 28545147
Reposted by Ben HoTatyana Deryugina @tderyugina.bsky.social · 03/12/2024There are many great organizations to support, but one that's come on my radar recently is the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. They're non-partisan and non-profit. Send me a screenshot of your donation to them, and I'll match it! (up to $1000) www.crfb.orgcrfb.orgHome | Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetThe Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact. 132
Reposted by Ben HoStefanie Stantcheva @s-stantcheva.bsky.social · 03/12/2024Zero-sum thinking is a key mindset that shapes how we view the world. A little thread to highlight our work on its roots with @sahilchinoy.bsky.social, @nathannunn.bsky.social, Sandra Sequeira.🧵1/23 scholar.harvard.edu/files/stantc... 710732
Reposted by Ben HoAlex Imas @aleximas.bsky.social · 29/11/2024Totally agree with @shengwuli.bsky.social. The broader point is that I think we need to directly address the elephant in the room: the *huge* impact of context--i.e., seemingly irrelevant factors--on choice and beliefs. 🧵 on the behavioral economics of context, with some new data at the end. 411229
Reposted by Ben HoShengwu Li @shengwuli.bsky.social · 28/11/2024I like Ryan’s paper and (obviously) I think complexity matters for behavior. But I think Florian’s updating too much from one experiment. I want to see replications and results from ‘nearby’ designs before saying the lottery anomalies have nothing to do with risk. 511416
Reposted by Ben HoFlorian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 27/11/2024 Some of the most important lottery anomalies from the behavioral risk literature (e.g., probability weighting and loss aversion) actually have nothing to do with risk. They also arise in perfectly deterministic settings. Lead article in the latest AER issue: www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=... 1626252
Reposted by Ben HoStephanie Wang @sweiwang.bsky.social · 29/11/2024This is the extensively updated paper on DOSE. Comments most welcome. @cfcamerer.bsky.social 0153
Reposted by Ben HoRyan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 27/11/2024I literally showed that child mortality video this in class today. Everyone seems only vaguely impressed until I describe how my first born almost died shortly after birth (www.ryancbriggs.net/blog/2015/10...). It’s wild to me how much we need stories to even start to grasp something numerical.ryancbriggs.netIsaac is a lucky boy — Ryan C. BriggsAbout two weeks ago, my first child, Isaac was born. We spent a standard two days in the hospital and then went home. After about 5 hours at home, in his third day of life, Isaac developed a fever of ... 713122
Reposted by Ben HoMax Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 27/11/2024Few people even know about this; when people are asked in surveys how child mortality has changed the majority says it has stagnated or increased. If you consider that many don't know about humanity's biggest achievement, then it's not surprising that many are so pessimistic about our future. 361490500
Reposted by Ben HoPeter Hull @instrumenthull.bsky.social · 27/11/2024Contamination Bias in Linear Regressions -- out today in the AER! www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x4bc1...dropbox.com 78613
Reposted by Ben HoFlorian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 26/11/2024Papers authored by Black, Hispanic or Asian economists receive 5.1% to 9.6% fewer citations than those by White scholars. The citation gap is largely driven by homophily in citation patterns and racial clusters in networks (i.e., cite authors from own racial group). www.nber.org/papers/w33150 1320979