iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If they do it while forgetting our names, that's exactly my parenting style

Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Sebastian Majstorovic @storytracer.com · 10/08/2026

Are open OCR models good enough to unlock historical knowledge? @danielvanstrien.bsky.social and I built a leaderboard using six expert-transcribed volumes from the @biodivlibrary.bsky.social sky.social. Meet FineBooks, from @hf.co and @eleutherai.bsky.social! huggingface.co/blog/fineboo...

huggingface.co

FineBooks: are open OCR models good enough to unlock historical knowledge?

A Blog post by FineBooks on Hugging Face

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

NBER @nber.org · 10/08/2026

How elite are the people we elect? Linking members of Congress born 1830–1950 back to the census household where they grew up, to trace the economic origins of political power, from @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social, Andrew B. Hall, Daniel M. Thompson, and Jesse Yoder www.nber.org/papers/w35569

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Massachusetts State Senate's new motto: better late than never! apps.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/stor...

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Damien C-C @dccc-phd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The North-South Rail Link will cure the male loneliness epidemic.

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Lectures vs papers is maybe the key distinction here? Lecture means we can bug you and ask our own random questions. Paper sort of has to do all that for an entire field in a way that isn't stale after like a week.

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Counterpoint. This is all valuable as hell for many of us and if it takes a sub field tag to smuggle it into field courses for phd students, maybe we should

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Another, at least re publishing stuff like this is... Do journals want to publish guides that go obsolete with every new model cycle?

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

One argument was... There are no stata for the economic historian or R for the economic historian or latex for the economic historian articles

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A conversation over several lunches last week at DAE. Does every field need or benefit from a "Using AI in {your fav subfield of economics}? Or should we just ask watch @paulgp.com on Markus Academy?

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I'm pretty sure (without reading) that the returns to federal spending on economics research are like $100 for every $1 spent

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

New CBO paper: every $1 of federal R&D returns ~$3–$4 of GDP in present value over 30 years www.nber.org/papers/w35472

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Marcella Alsan @marcellaalsan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Open access in QJE!📢 Using newly assembled archival data, we show how the AMA's nationwide campaign against national health insurance, labeling it "socialized medicine" and promoting private insurance, helped steer the U.S. away from universal health care academic.oup.com/qje/article/...

academic.oup.com

Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? The Political Role of the American Medical Association

Abstract. This article examines how the American Medical Association (AMA) helped shape the development of the U.S. health insurance system in the critical

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Saving pennies a day in sure. I'm already missing seeing my little halfway trash can sitting next to Kevin Lang's little halfway trash can. And they haven't taken it yet...

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Just published in Historical Methods: Chris Minns & coauthors link Ontario marriage to historical census records to show married women & men had similar rates of intergenerational mobility 1871-1901. Unexpectedly, the inclusion of more false positive links does not bias the mobility estimates. OA

tandfonline.com

Mobility and marriage: Preliminary findings from a new longitudinal dataset of Canadian women, 1871-1901

This article develops a methodology to create a longitudinal historical database of women by linking Ontario marriage records 1859-1938 to complete count Canadian census data between 1871 and 1921....

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

At BU this was just a covid era thing. They took our bins and put them in the hallway immediately outside our doors, no centralization at all

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Elsevier introduces required interactive visualizations written in proprietary language to be placed behind a paywall

static.klipy.com

The Simpsons Monkey Paw Wish

ALT: The Simpsons Monkey Paw Wish

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I think basically all local residential zoning laws should be eliminated. Build as much and as densely as you want. But also there should be a short and vetted list of historically appropriate colors you're allowed to paint your Victorian house cc my neighbors

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Grant Goehring presenting on the health externalities of trade. Another proud advisor moment for me at #NBERDAE

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

@qlquanle.bsky.social presenting "Network Competition and Exclusive Contracts: Evidence from News Agencies" at #NBERDAE IO in economic history? Dangerous territory (for reduced form applied micro ppl like me)

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

But I was told we could raise tariff revenue without raising prices

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

In equilibrium, everyone (at least every importer) lies and apparently this slide shows that

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Increasing specialization in the customs house, to Nathaniel Hawthornes great dismay apparently

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Apparently bill number two passed by the first congress was a tariff bill (first bill was an oath of office)

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Excited to have Martin Rotemberg present on tariffs and state capacity at #NBERDAE

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Apparently the kink is the rich marrying the rich

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Greg Niemesh presenting on elite marriage markets in the US #nberdae Excited to learn how to get rich by marrying right? Too bad: step one is be born rich to start

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Don't let your kids go to segregation academies

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Proud advisor moment as @daniellecgw.bsky.social presents her work on segregation academies at #nberdae

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

#NBERDAE Summer Institute starts today. And guess who has the timer and the bell

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

There's a potential diff in diff here because presumably chatgpt is more useful or used for some types of questions than others

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Two surely unrelated posts in my feed just now

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Someone who hates children and loves sunburns: Let's turn the splash pad on at 10am

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I don't have it yet, but there's an econ history paper in these transcripts or transcripts like them (that we can now turn into textual data at the cost of pennies per hour)

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Cam Arnzen @camarnzen.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Men still out-resource women on nearly everything known to predict voting: income, jobs, political interest. Except education, where women have pulled way ahead. @cohodes.bsky.social and I show how the education gap explains about half of why young women now outvote young men. 🔗 Link: bit.ly/4wwcd21

bit.ly

Education and the gender voting gap in U.S. presidential elections

Women in the United States have outpaced men in both voter participation and educational attainment in recent decades. Since education is closely tied…

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Joshua Mask @joshuafmask.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I'm happy to share a new working paper on remote work and AI: Same Occupations, Different Clocks: Separating Remote Work from Generative AI for Labor-Market Entrants www.joshmask.com/s/Mask2026c....

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This is cool and all, but has he considered not making the buses faster and instead proposing unrealistic plans for the Orange Line that will never actually happen instead?

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

If final < midterm, only the final counts. If final > midterm, average plus 10 or something. But that probably just makes students skip the midterm...

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Reposted by James Feigenbaum

Justin S. @jsaif.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Another MA state legislative session, another abject failure to do anything about MA’s housing shortage. Down to the smallest of small ball—municipal opt-in for allowing housing on religious properties (Yes In God’s Backyard) and commercial to residential conversions.

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Is it bad that I'm thinking about making my midterm take home just so I can generate data for a graph like this?

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

60? I've been around 40/year (minus paternity leaves) and I'm dying

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