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Joel Ferguson

@joelferguson.bsky.social
572 followers 213 following 25 posts

Assistant Professor @ Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW Madison Remote Sensing + Machine Learning for Ag/Dev econ questions joelferg.github.io

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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Notebooks for my new “Spatial Data Analysis” course: github.com/joelferg/spa... This class is being taught at the advanced undergrad level and focuses on using python tools for working with spatial data and conducting statistical analyses. Hopefully a useful intro for someone here!
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Center for Effective Global Action @cega-uc.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
In honor of the late Betty Sadoulet, a conference is being held on the UC Berkeley campus. The conference invites submissions for papers by graduate students or early-career researchers on all topics in development economics. Submit a paper by March 15: go.cega.org/are-CFP
go.cega.org
Announcement and Call for Papers for UC Berkeley conference and JDE special issue in honor of Professor Elisabeth “Betty” Sadoulet | Agricultural & Resource Economics
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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Growth plays an extremely powerful role in determining conflict outcomes under climate change. Growth-promoting policies provide a large additional social benefit in the form of reduced future conflict incidence in Africa.
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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
🆕 Why irrigation infrastructure projects are key to food security and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa Abdoulaye Cisse, Alain de Janvry @natureatcal.bsky.social, @joelferguson.bsky.social, @marcogn.bsky.social, Samba Mbaye, Elisabeth Sadoulet & Mame Mor: voxdev.org/topic/agricu...
voxdev.org
Why irrigation infrastructure projects are key to food security and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa
Expanding irrigation infrastructure in Senegal led to significant and sustained increases in cultivation rates and reduced sensitivity to temperature shocks.
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Caroline Krafft @ckrafftc.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Call for Papers: 23rd Midwest International Economic Development Conference. April 24-25, 2026. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Details: mwiedc.org Submit: editorialexpress.com/conference/m... #EconSky
mwiedc.org
Midwest International Economic Development Conference
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
I really like that we combined remote sensing and primary data collection in an interesting way in this project: RS showed us an issue and where it occurs, and we surveyed those affected about the causes. I’m hoping to do more at that intersection going forward
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Next, we survey owners of land that hasn’t been cultivated in recent years to better understand what drives disuse. We find that, despite all of these lands being serviced by an irrigation project, farmers point to difficulty accessing water as one of the main drivers of disuse!
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
First, we use over 3000 Landsat images of the SRV from 1985-2019 to classify land as cultivated or not at the 30m pixel level. This lets us answer questions like “How much does project completion increase cultivation rate?” and “What share of projects cultivate less than 1/3 of their area?”
An image showing NDVI values in the Senegal River Valley with irrigation projects delimited.
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
We explore how large-scale irrigation infrastructure, which has expanded in the Senegal River Valley (SRV) to service over 100k ha, has altered the amount of land cultivated and patterns around cultivation and disuse. We combine administrative data on irrigation projects with two data sources.
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
“Irrigation infrastructure and satellite-measured land cultivation impacts: Evidence from the Senegal river valley” is now live at the JDE! I’m really proud of the work that my coauthors - Abdou, Alain, @marcogn.bsky.social, Samba, Betty, and Mame Mor - and I put into this. doi.org/10.1016/j.jd...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 18/06/2025
New Nature paper (open access!) from the Climate Impact Lab, led by Andy Hultgren (UIUC).
impactlab.org
Climate change cuts global crop yields, even when farmers adapt - Climate Impact Lab
A new study finds the global food system faces growing risks from climate change, even as farmers seek to adapt.
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Max(imilian) Auffhammer @auffhammer.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
We are back! EEE Summer School @ Berkeley! 🔗 Info + application: www.auffhammer.com/summer-school 📅 Deadline: May 14 | Program: Aug 18–22 at Berkeley We especially encourage early stage Ph.D. students with possible interest in EEE topics! Must be enrolled in North American Econ"ish" Ph.D. program.
auffhammer.com
summer school — Maximilian Auffhammer
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I’m super excited to share that this fall I’ll join the faculty of University of Wisconsin in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies! Special thanks to @marcogn.bsky.social @tedmiguel.bsky.social and Sol Hsiang for all their support throughout my PhD/postdoc and the job search
A picture of me in front of Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin
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Andreas Schmittner @andreasschmittner.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
🚨Job Alert Earth System Modelers wanted at Oregon State University Hiring multiple tenure-track/tenured faculty in Computational Earth System Science, at Assistant, Associate and/or Full Professor ranks. Deadline 15th April jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings/165...
jobs.oregonstate.edu
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor: Computational Earth System Science
The College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences invites applications for multiple part-time (.75 FTE), 12-month, tenure-track/tenured Assistant, Associate or Full Professor positions (depending o...
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
The last time I visited my grandparents my grandpa came in and wrote something on the calendar. Turns out he’s been measuring precipitation there since 1991! Here are his measurements against PRISM
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ClimateFran @climatefran.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Applications open for the The Workshop in Environmental Economics and Data Science! This is a fantastic and fun small workshop and this year featuring the great Jen Burney as keynote. Applications due Jan 15th tweeds.io
tweeds.io
TWEEDS | The workshop in environmental economics and data science
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
What can policymakers do to help reduce the horribly costly impacts of climate change on conflict? We draw on our recent NBER WP to highlight 3 areas: strengthening the social safety net, reducing the sensitivity of income to weather shocks, and political inclusion.
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David Ubilava @davidubilava.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Created this starter pack of scholars who have worked on economic causes and consequences of conflict. The list is inevitably non-exhaustive, so please let me know if you would like to be added to it (or know of someone who should be on the list). go.bsky.app/PTSxCQf
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Florencia Torche @ftorche.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Important PNAS article on the impact of climate change on migration by Garip et al. Undocumented migration MX->US increases when communities experience droughts. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Weather deviations linked to undocumented migration and return between Mexico and the United States | PNAS
As the world’s climate continues to change, human populations are exposed to increasingly severe and extreme weather conditions that can promote mi...
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/10/2024
www.nber.org/papers/w24645 Light on math (I don’t think there’s any), heavy on economic intuition, covers a lot of ground
nber.org
The Critical Role of Markets in Climate Change Adaptation
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 14/10/2024
I’ve been saying Acemoglu, Johnson, Robinson for so long my friend assumed they were my pick for this year
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AERE @aereorg.bsky.social · 08/10/2024
📣 AERE@OSWEET returns *this Friday* 10/11 at 2pm Eastern (11am Pacific) with 3 terrific talks on agriculture! Presenters: ✨ Joel Ferguson (Stanford, @joelferguson.bsky.social ) ✨ Na Zhang (UIUC) ✨ Micah Cameron Harp (Kansas State) Register & learn more: cornell.zoom.us/meeting/regi... 📈📉 #EconSky
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
What makes for a “good” question from the audience in a research talk? Or (probably easier to answer) what makes for a “bad” question?
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
Say T=3 and D in {0,lo,hi}. My idea is in new DiD stuff with D in {0,1} everything is estimated based on cohorts - eg Di=(0,1,1), Dj=(0,0,1) - then averaging somehow In this setting there’s a natural analogue of trajectories, eg Di=(0,lo,lo), Dj=(0,lo,hi). Seems like a similar logic could apply
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
Thanks for pointing me to that paper, definitely interesting! I don’t think it captures what I was thinking though. I also thought about it more and I think you would need to restrict HTEs within cohorts to make what I said in my 2nd response true
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
Oops, just realized that’s just the link to the search, but I think it should be the first result there
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
I’m not familiar with the Xu paper, are you referring to this one? scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e... If so, I’ll take a look and get back to you
scholar.google.com
Google Scholar
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
There are potentially ways to leverage additional comparisons in this setting to get at effects of changes in treatment intensity. Eg two units treated with low intensity at the same time can be compared when one of them gets increased intensity later Just some quick thoughts based on new DiD logic
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 22/09/2024
Here’s how I think about complicated rollouts like this: Instead of treatment cohorts like in the new DiD lit, there are treatment trajectories. Unique paths in time x intensity space are like cohorts Since there are finite intensities, i think this is an easier problem than cont. treatments.
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 14/09/2024
I recently remembered the time when I was doing a lit review for @seankhiggins.bsky.social in my first RA job and I told him about a cool paper I’d read in “some journal called ‘Econometrica’” The lab really got a kick out of that one
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 26/08/2024
Cool/interesting to see so many recent follows on here! I’ll try to make it worthwhile and post more
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Pierre Biscaye @pbiscaye.bsky.social · 01/12/2023
Excited to see my JMP in the World Bank DIME Blog today! tinyurl.com/3aa5w7bc Many studies show short-run effects of agricultural shocks on violent conflict. My JMP asks: what about the long-run? I find that desert locust swarm exposure persistently s conflict over the next 14 yrs. A 🧵 1/13
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 15/11/2023
Today I’m leading a methods workshop at Berkeley ARE on shift share designs and the slides are up on my website! I go over three different paths to identification and the implications of each joelferg.github.io/blog/shift_s...
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Caroline Krafft @ckrafftc.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
Pacific Conference for Development Economics (PacDev) Saturday, March 9, 2024 Stanford King Center on Global Development Submit Your Paper Paper submissions are due by 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, December 10, 2023 #Econsky cega.submittable.com/submit/27734...
cega.submittable.com
Center for Effective Global Action - Pacific Conference For Development Economics (PacDev) 2024 - St...
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
We’re also looking for a technical post doc to work more on the data-side of things making sure the mosaics and models we produce are as high-quality as possible www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing....
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
We’re using these images to construct measures of population, wealth, land use, building footprints, and road networks. You would be using these new data to answer a causal question related to e.g. long-run growth, land degradation, urban form, etc
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
Come join our awesome team working to understand long-run outcomes in Africa using a massive newly-digitized collection of aerial photographs spanning the 1950s-80s! www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing....
aeaweb.org
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Joel Ferguson @joelferguson.bsky.social · 15/10/2023
I like Brian’s suggestions. One thing we show in one of the appendix figures is that it looks like the rate of adoption goes up after big institutional changes/events e.g. the introduction of the AEA RCT Registry (no formal test of this though)
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