iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 02/10/2026

Cool event for prospective PhD applicants, and faculty who write letters for them! Register here: yale.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/10/2026

And here's Chad: www.linkedin.com/in/chadsterb...

linkedin.com

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/10/2026

More info here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... And here: malengo.org/malengo-appo...

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/10/2026

A million thanks to all the staff, board members, partners, and friends, for their dedication and support; and most of all, to our Scholars, who have trusted us with their futures, and whose talents we are only beginning to understand. Here's a picture of our very first cohort, in summer 2021! 3/3

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/10/2026

I will remain on the Board, where I will set up a new Impact & Evidence Committee that will advise the organization on how to learn about our impact; more on that soon. 2/3

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/10/2026

Five years after founding @malengo.org, it’s time to let it fly! Today I’m stepping down as CEO, and Chad Sterbenz is taking over. He brings decades of experience in related roles, and I’m grateful that he is throwing his talents behind our mission. 1/3

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Hillary Turinawe @turinawehillarie.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Greatful to @johanneshaushofer.com and @malengo.org for the opportunity! @unibonn.bsky.social has been a good place to study medicine.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/09/2026

Hillary Turinawe is a @malengo.org scholar from Uganda. Within a year of arriving in Germany, he taught himself C1 German and was accepted for medical school at @unibonn.bsky.social. This week, he passed his "Physikum", the tough two-year exam on the way to becoming a doctor. Congratulations!!

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 01/09/2026

Ein phänomenaler Erfolg für die Kolleg*innen der @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, @albaerbock.bsky.social als Professor of Professional Practice gewinnen zu können. Für die ausgezeichneten Studierenden der @columbiasipa.bsky.social ist dieser Zugang zu Erfahrung & Expertise ein gigantischer Zugewinn

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/08/2026

Arrrgh you are so right! 🤦‍♂️

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/08/2026

On August 18, 2022, the "Deutsches Institut für Normung" (German Institute for Standardization) called this format "A0". Its 4-fold smaller sibling is used for documents the world over: 210 mm x 297mm.* (*Not the whole world. There's also 8.5x11 inches, because screw it.) Happy birthday, DIN A4!

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/08/2026

How long do the sides have to be for the sheet to have an area of 1 sqm? b * sqrt(2)*b = 1 ==> b = 2^(-1/4) ≈ 841mm ==> a ≈ 0.841 * sqrt(2) ≈ 1,189mm 3/n

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/08/2026

To see this, suppose I cut a sheet with long side a and short side b, with a/b = sqrt(2), in half along the long side. Each resulting piece has long side b and short side a/2, for an aspect ratio of b / (a/2) = 2 / sqrt(2) = sqrt(2). So the two pieces have the same aspect ratio as the original! 2/n

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 19/08/2026

In October 1786, the German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg wrote to fellow scientist Johann Beckmann that if we want a sheet of paper to retain the same aspect ratio when it is halved or doubled, the aspect ratio must be sqrt(2). 1/n

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 26/06/2026

🗣️ Published today in @aeajournals.bsky.social. Ethan Lewis and I use a visa lottery, as a nationwide randomized experiment, to test the effects of foreign labor on US firms and workers. doi.org/10.1257/app.... A concise summary from @nber.org —> www.nber.org/digest/20221...

Abstract:
US firms hiring foreign workers in low-skill nonfarm jobs face a binding quota on the "H-2B" visa, allocated in part through a randomized lottery. We evaluate the quota's marginal impact using the lottery, a novel firm survey, and a pre-analysis plan. Firms exogenously employing more H-2B workers in low-skill jobs increase production (elasticity 0.20–0.22), investment (1.5–2.1), and profits (0.15). The elasticity of substitution between H-2B and US workers is very low (0.8–2.2). Thus, the effect on US employment is zero or positive overall, and positive in rural areas. Forensic analysis suggests similarly low substitutability of black-market labor.

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Pia Raffler @piaraffler.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Publishing null results *is* hard. Thrilled to finally see this paper with @danielnposner.bsky.social and @dougparkerson.bsky.social investigating the impact of bottom-up accountability on healthcare outcomes in print in the JOP. Thread 👇 doi.org/10.1086/736577

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deankarlan.bsky.social @deankarlan.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

See www.nber.org/data-appendi... for a reply from BBBGH that we hope others find as useful as we did, thank you BBBGH team for laying out the heterogeneity issue so eloquently and clearly. We agree!

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deankarlan.bsky.social @deankarlan.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

New working paper with Amol Singh Raswan and Chris Udry: "The Sisyphean Pursuit of Evidence for Poverty Traps." A central idea in development economics is that poverty can trap people. We went looking for the cleanest evidence. Here's what we found – and didn't.

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Lexi Schubert @schubertlexi.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

⏳DUE TOMORROW!⏳ Calling all liberal arts college development economists: Submit your best work to LACDev at Wesleyan by May 18! 🔥 #EconSky #EconConf #LACDev #Wesleyan

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

I got rid of the reserve fuel, dodged another line of storms, and finally landed in Ithaca. Good to be home! Thank you for reading!

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

The next day began with the dodging of thunderstorms on the way to Burlington, VT, where the little planelet was re-admitted to her home country. John said goodbye here and flew back home to Chicago.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

Goose Bay felt like being back amongst people! But they had a power outage. We had flown about 15 hours by that point, but (because we could take turns flying) decided to press on to Québec City, where we had a beautiful night landing.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

Northern Canada means having to buy fuel by the barrel, but at least in Iqaluit you don't have to use your own wiggle pump. We continued on to Goose Bay, happy to be over land again most of the way.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

From Kangerlussuaq we continued to Canada. We passed through a spectacular canyon between Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung and flew past Mount Thor, Earth's greatest vertical drop (4,100 ft). We continued to Iqaluit, visiting the site of a DC-3 that crashed in 1975 just before reaching it (nobody died).

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Wingtip Camera: Kangerlussuaq to Iqaluit in a Cirrus SR22

YouTube video by jh

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

In Nuuk, we were initially confused why they insisted on securing the plane with massive concrete blocks. We finally understood when the United flight from Newark was diverted to Iceland because of the strong winds the next day. Nuuk itself is very cute and lively.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

Once the weather allowed, we had a spectacular flight to Kulusuk; then Narsarsuaq on the Southern tip; and finally to the capital, Nuuk. The detour South bypassed the ice shelf, which is 9000 feet thick and dangerous because you cannot escape to lower altitudes if you encounter icing in clouds.

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Wingtip Camera: Reykjavik, Iceland to Nuuk, Greenland in a Cirrus SR22

YouTube video by jh

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

We got stuck for a few days in Iceland while waiting for better weather in Greenland. The first stop there, Kulusuk, is surrounded by mountains, the approaches have minimums of 900 feet, and the "point of no return" is 30 minutes before reaching it, so you can't attempt an approach and turn around.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

Stornoway to Egilsstaðir, Iceland is one of the longer overwater legs at 483 NM, but the Faroe Islands offer an emergency out. In Eglisstaðir we refueled and then continued to Reykjavik, across glaciers and past volcanoes. Reykjavik offered another IFR approach to minimums.

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Wingtip Camera: Stornoway, Scotland to Reyjkavík, Iceland in a Cirrus SR22

YouTube video by jh

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

We refueled in Stornoway and said hi in the tower before putting on the survival suits for the first ocean crossing.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

The next morning we flew from Glasgow to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, with beautiful views of the highlands. First use of the GoPro on the wingtip! (Sound on for Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations!)

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Wingtip Camera: Glasgow to Stornoway, Scotland, in a Cirrus SR22

YouTube video by jh

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

En route to Glasgow, typical confusion with UK ATC: basic service, traffic service, deconfliction service... 😅 Overnight in Edinburgh with a beautiful view!

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

On departure the next morning, we didn't close the door properly, leading to a drafty flight and an unplanned landing in Oostende, Belgium. Then across the channel to the UK with a beautiful view of the cliffs of Dover, and a fuel stop in Norwich.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

We set out in Frankfurt. Amsterdam welcomed us with a thunderstorm and an approach nearly to minimums, but dinner with @haushoferl.bsky.social made up for it

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

Route: Frankfurt, Germany Amsterdam, Netherlands Oostende, Belgium Norwich, UK Glasgow Stornoway Egilsstaðir, Iceland Reykjavik Kulusuk, Greenland Narsarsuaq Nuuk Kangerlussuaq Pangnirtung, Canada Iqaluit Goose Bay Québec City Burlington VT, USA Rochester NY Ithaca NY 5200 NM, 43h of flying

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 09/05/2026

For your weekend entertainment, here are some impressions from a trip in a small airplane from Germany to the US last summer! I first did this in the other direction five years ago. My friend John came along again this time — he's a very experienced pilot, and of late also a world record holder!

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Toman Barsbai @tomanbarsbai.com · 06/05/2026

The second 2026 Bristol Applied Economics Meeting is on the Economics of Migration. We have an amazing program ahead of us. Stay tuned for one key takeaway per talk. Program: www.baem.info/Program_MIG_...

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 17/04/2026

Congratulations to my awesome friend and former colleague @martinmattsson.bsky.social on winning the David Dollar Memorial Prize for this great paper! www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/david-dol...

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 22/03/2026

I’ve had many more failures since then, one of which is to add them to the CV

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Stanislav Avdeev @stnavdeev.com · 19/03/2026

Forthcoming in AEJ: Applied Economics “University as a Melting Pot: Long-term Effects of Internationalization” Debates on international students often focus on capacity, funding, or competition. My paper shows the main effects on natives are not academic or economic, but social.

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 17/03/2026

WOW that's amazing! Just tried it, works like a charm. Incredible.

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Lee Crawfurd @leecrawfurd.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The Nazis stopped Jewish doctors from practising, so thousands of them left the country (my great grandfather was one of them). So many left that this was a good natural experiment for estimating the causal effect of losing doctors on infant mortality (& thousands died)

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 26/02/2026

I think it was a good pedagogical choice! Baby steps!

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Johannes Haushofer @johanneshaushofer.com · 26/02/2026

The way to solve this (and perhaps a nice addition to future iterations of your great paper) is to instrument treatment status with treatment assignment. The resulting estimator has a clean causal interpretation under standard LATE assumptions. Econs sometimes call it treatment-on-the-treated (TOT).

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