iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Now feel more confident I'm receiving a pace of referee requests significantly above prior yrs + consistent w/AI-linked submission growth [though referee requests also grow over time organically] Mostly growth in requests from lower-ranked journals (many I've never heard of tbh)

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @viniciusccicero @DenisonU, previously @ColoradoStateU, who works on topics related to trade + development, particularly in Brazil

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @TCarnap @UniOslo who works on a range of topics including economic geography + use of remote sensing data in developing countries

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Surprised that economists seem generally so quiet about the rapidly escalating debate around AI safety; and (relatedly) growing evidence of political backlash, the contours of which seem highly unpredictable

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

OpenAI taking over the world sounds like me going rogue on my expense reports

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @resuf_ahmed @StanfordKingCtr who works on topics related to development + political economy .

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is Moritz Poll, previously @Brown_Economics, now a brand-new PhD heading to UChicago @RiceEcon, who works on topics related to poverty, structural transformation, + health and early childhood development

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Inmo the use of the name "hugging face" is a significant barrier to an informed discussion around AI safety because I find the name hard to take seriously + my eyes glaze over whenever I see an article on the topic Why is it called this?

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

We survived the first day of school + my toddler distinguished himself by having clearly* the largest amount of snot on his shirt while hysterically crying when I dropped him at te same place he's gone to school for the last 2 years Yay, I guess? *he won by a mile, no contest

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @oscargalvez89 - instructional professor @UChi_Economics who works on topics related to labor and education, particularly in Mexico

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @souvik_dutta05 at IIT Delhi who works on topics related to political economy, theory + development

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

1/ A few reflections on this thought-provoking post from Vijayendra Rao — an economist I greatly admire (and a coauthor, many years ago). 2/ Part of this reads as a critique of economics as it was.

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

New blog post joint with my colleagues @ifpri: when the rain falls, who goes hungry? Evidence around gendered effects of low rainfall on stunting in PNG is important as much of the Pacific faces potentially massive effects of the huge el Niño forecast this year

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The Economist article seems oddly content-less, other than rehashing very old debates about Acemoglu's work. Hardly newsworthy Very curious as to why it came out now

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @NimmagaddaSneha @DILatUChicago who works on topics related to nutrition and health, particularly in South Asia

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @sleeffers @UCLIRDR who works on topics related to risks, disaster + social protection

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

True productivity maxing in 2026: supervising multiple Claude sessions while I simultaneously sent evites for my son's 6th birthday Wish Claude could help with the evites tbh

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Third R&R of the summer accepted! 💪

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Sobering findings #econtwitter #econsky in latest @J_HumanResource from Bhat + Thakur analyzes intergenerational effects of a reform in India (1985) ⬇️ dowry: reform ⬆️ domestic violence, ⬇️ height-for-age and completed schooling among children.

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

What share of recent development RCTs report preregistration and a pre-analysis plan?

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @rama_mosh @geai_afep who works on topics related to education + labor, particularly in southern Africa

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Sobering fact #econtwitter #econsky re U.S. dominance in top general interest econ journals: from 2021 to 2025, there were more papers about SNAP/EITC/Medicare/Medicaid alone (66, by my count - abstract + title coding) than about Mexico (a country of 133 million ppl - 50 papers).

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Happy to share a new paper @JPubEcon #econtwitter #econsky, "Do ultra-poor graduation programs build women's resilience to dryness shocks?" Joint with Kalle Hirvonen, @dogilligan, Tambet + Villa. We explore effects of a lighter-touch graduation program (SPIR)

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

As part of a recent discussion around agentic coding, I developed my "top 10" in agentic coding applications, and thought I would share it here. (Note these are not ranked!) 1) Re-organizing project folders! No more floating, disorganized, mislabeled files!

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @ArlenGuarin at DIME who works on topics related to conflict, human capital + development

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

A fresh take on challenges for funders drowning in a higher volume of applications: at Wellcome trust (where they report 50-100% ⬆️) - if they receive applications above predetermined cap (unclear if it will be public), then they'll randomly select applications to move forward

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This one hit home (+ not in a good way) expansion of high-speed internet in Uruguay *worsens* child development indicators. Why? Parents spend more time online, engage in more high-risk activities. from @kari_colombo @EFailache in JDE

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I love that Claude is constantly asking me if I'm ready to "wire something in" to the pipeline I feel like an electrician. Or a plumber. Or like a mega electrician-plumber

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Essential life-saving services uninterrupted, you say?

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @mhigar @Uniandes who works on topics related to environment and transportation, particularly in Latin America

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @pallaviprabhak, a recent PhD from NHH + soon to be postdoc at Stockholm School of Economics

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

As a counterpoint to all the posts describing an incredibly detailed + convolute agentic coding set-up: your regular reminder that if you are an applied economist, you probably don't need any of that detail (at least to start)

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @Leo_Czajka at the EU Tax Observatory - PSE who works on topics related to public finance in LMICs

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Tried to offer my 3 year old m&ms when he asked for jelly beans and he said in a surprised voice "no, those are m&ms!" How the f did he figure that out. Kids are so hard to fool

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is Sabareesh Ramachandran at the Indian School of Business - Hyderabad, who works on topics related to health, education + public economics

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

For those #econtwitter #econsky constantly fundraising (like me): using agentic AI tools to facilitate grant writing is a game changer. You can -repurpose sections from one proposal (or presentation) to the next -shorten proposals quickly -turn into academic papers into text

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

How many seminars + individual acknowledgments do development RCT papers report? Around 5 on average in a field journal and closer to 10 in top-5-journals, largely following the gradient you would expect . . .

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @ChristinaSaraha @CollegioCA - soon moving to @tcddublin! - who works on topics related to health and gender in development

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

What does disclosure of IRB approval look like in a recent sample of published development articles (2025-2026)? Not great, tbh. Only about 2/3 disclose IRB approval in full text, for papers published in top general interest journals + JDE

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Looking for referees for a qualitative paper on cash transfers / social protection - if you're interested, let me know!

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Icymi #econtwitter #econsky: a new RCT showed that mentoring ⬆️ successful applications from students in SSA to masters' + PhD programs in economics: the percentage of successful ⬆️ from 16 to 32. From Adhar @OdhiamboFrank_O Poensgen

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @rduartegonzalez, a brand-new PhD (congrats!) currently a postdoc at Yale and soon joining FIU who works on topics related to political economy + governance in LMICs

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I like to index my sleep disruption based on how successful I am in using my basic coffee maker in the morning. This morning I removed the basket for grounds to dump it in the trash, and left the entire reusable basket there and just put grounds directly in coffee maker.

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Starting my #ashecon2026 recap 🧵 #econtwitter #econsky - day 1 morning. In the first session on shocks to reproductive care, @BaumSarah shows that closure of title X clinics ⬇️ STI case detection

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @fabalbav @WakeForest who works on topics related to education and health, particularly in Latin America

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Excited to be here ASHEcon #ashecon2026 in Minneapolis - if you're here #econtwitter #econsky, say hello! In the trade-offs column, I missed the first day of camp drop-off! But I heard I have one very excited owl and osprey, + my little one [a falcon] only cried a bit

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

This morning I opened the laptop to check email, realized I needed some additional (simple) robustness checks for a paper, opened Claude and entered my prompt; then my toddler climbed on my lap + I cuddled himwhile answering simple Qs so the agent could do tedious coding

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Who funds development RCTs? Using my new database of dev papers 2021-2025, I pulled information from funding acknowledgments. (This requires, generally, full-text, and is not feasible using metadata; thus I did not do this for non-RCTs.) #econtwitter #econsky

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

How many authors of development economics papers are women? Around 30% #econtwitter #econsky. Updated calc using my trusty new database of recently published (2021-2025) economics papers, and using the functions gender_guesser and Namsor to infer gender.

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

What are the most common topics in development economics? Following on the analysis of what % are RCTs, I developed a Python script to assign topic fields. (All the code + results are public here - anyone is welcome to use it.) #econtwitter #econsky github.com/leightjes...

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