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Max Gallien

@maxgallien.bsky.social
653 followers 1.1K following 53 posts

Political Economy, Development, Informality, Tax, North Africa. Author, "Smugglers and States" (Columbia 2024). Research Fellow IDS and ICTD. 💚🐧

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Reposted by Max Gallien
Marie Gardiner @mariegardiner.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I think we're all ready for The Muppet Odyssey.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
The decision of so many people to keep using X in its race-war phase has made me a bit more cynical overall about the ability to draw moral red lines. It’s beyond disappointing.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
It's funny how no-one ever asks where the money is coming from when you announce a cut in immigration.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
every time you write overly defensively you should remember that you are pursuing a strategy of writing careful sentences specifically for people who demonstrably either won't or can't read them
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Glad to have been able to contribute a chapter on 'Informal Authoritarian Bargains' to this excellent handbook - it's all open acess, so perfect for next term's reading lists!
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Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
It's out! The full "Handbook on Authoritarianism in the Arab World" is available open access here: www.bloomsburycollections.com/encyclopedia...
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Ben Goldsborough MP @bengoldsborough.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
To all my colleagues still using X: is this not enough evidence that you must stop using it?
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
One of the most frustrating effects of AI in academia must be that it tinges the absolute joy of reading a set of great student essays with doubt and suspicion
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Stop Saying Maxxing
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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
This is an unforgivably stupid situation. It is an astonishing own goal to try and drive student numbers down to move an immigration number that in turn is totally ignored by the anti-immigrant head bangers.
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 08/05/2026
One of David Attenborough's best speeches. Today we're celebrating the 100th Birthday of the humanist and naturalist David Attenborough! Thank you for a lifetime of inspirational broadcasting and devotion to science and the natural world.
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I want a "conference" where every academic cooks a dish for everyone and we all talk about our work casually while cooking. People can sous chef for each other. We eat and talk about our work in progress. You submit an abstract and a recipe.
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Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
books: the rectangle that can’t send you push notifications. Try: books.
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Cameron Blevins @cblevins.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
This is so, so well-articulated.
People call this friction "grunt work." Schwartz uses exactly that phrase, and he's right that LLMs can remove it. What he doesn't say, because he already has decades of hard-won intuition and doesn't need the grunt work anymore, is that for someone who doesn't yet have that intuition, the grunt work is the work. The boring parts and the important parts are tangled together in a way that you can't separate in advance. You don't know which afternoon of debugging was the one that taught you something fundamental about your data until three years later, when you're working on a completely different problem and the insight surfaces. Serendipity doesn't come from efficiency. It comes from spending time in the space where the problem lives, getting your hands dirty, making mistakes that nobody asked you to make and learning things nobody assigned you to learn.
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International Labour Review @ilr-rit.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
👏 Congratulations, Max! In his new article with the ILR, Max revisits how we define and measure the informal sector, and the implications for research and policy. 🔔 Out now and #OA via @openlibhums.org with an early view from our Issue 2 for 2026 @ids.ac.uk
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
New article: why a lot of #informality research has been broken by poor measurements and inappropriate modelling - and what we can do about it. Completely open access in @ilr-rit.bsky.social: en.ilr-rit.org/article/pubi...
en.ilr-rit.org
Measurement and mirage: The informal sector revisited
Recent years have seen rapidly expanding scholarship and policy advice on the causes and consequences of informality, relying on the increasing availability of comparative measurements of informal sec...
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
If you're at #ISA2026 (or even if you're not), the good people at Columbia University Presa got you 20% off my book with the code below! (And for a couple of much more interesting books as well..)
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Rob Blackie @robblackie.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
It is completely mad that the government is expelling high flying Sudanese students from British universities - from a scheme that is explicitly aimed at the future leaders of countries.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
The government's immigration proposals are an obscenity: They needlessly punish refugees, make integration basically impossible, and introduce a sliding system of administrative abuse depending on how wealthy you are iandunt.substack.com/p/can-we-ext...
iandunt.substack.com
Can we extract the Reform nonsense from Labour?
These immigration proposals are obscene, but the government can be forced to think again.
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Every #Ramadan, the people of #Pakistan give over 600 billion rupees in #zakat - more than any state social welfare program. And, as our recent study found, the majority of that goes to women - a good reminder in these days of what people can do. Full working paper here: www.ictd.ac/publication/...
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International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) @ictdtax.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
🌙As Ramadan begins, attention turns to zakat — one of the five pillars of Islam. As many Muslims choose to pay zakat during Ramadan, this month represents a key period for wealth redistribution. But how much is actually paid? And to whom? Find out➡️ ow.ly/C9rk50YhJMN Max Gallien Umair Javed
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Zakat as Non-State Social Welfare Provision: Distributional Dynamics and Gender Equity in Pakistan - ICTD
We examine the distributional dynamics of zakat in Pakistan to help understand non-state welfare provision in a Muslim-majority country.
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Man I long for the day when I get to write opening paragraphs that aren't endless variations on "well, we know that the world is on fire".
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Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Letter of the day (in the Times)
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
An impromptu panel here at #FfD4...
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International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) @ictdtax.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
📝NEW POLICY BRIEF: With tax now the main source of dev't finance, countries are under pressure to raise tax revenue fast. But done poorly, these could have damaging effects. The key is to tax smarter - but how? ➡️ ow.ly/2VCf50Wg8NU #FfD4 #Tax4Dev #TaxResearch
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The Tax Era of Development: Taxing Smarter for Equity, Growth, and Resilience - ICTD
Tax is not only the primary source of financing in lower-income countries, but also the lynchpin of development finance.
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International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) @ictdtax.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
NEW RESEARCH: Are Pakistanis supportive of wealth taxes? Here is what we found⬇️ 1️⃣Support for wealth taxes cuts across class, income and gender 2️⃣It increases when people feel that taxes are spent well and transparently 3️⃣Trust in the state drives support Find out more: www.ictd.ac/publication/...
ictd.ac
Public Support for Wealth and Progressive Taxes in Pakistan - ICTD
This brief explores public support for wealth taxation and the factors that shape those attitudes in Pakistan.
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
If you're coming to #FfD4 in Seville next week and are interested in talking the future of tax & development, get in touch! I'll be there with a wonderful delegation of the @ictdtax.bsky.social - and we have a side event well worth checking out: www.ictd.ac/event/ffd4-s...
ictd.ac
FfD4 Side Event | From Insight to Impact: Harnessing Research Collaboration to Build Better Tax Systems - ICTD
On July 3rd, the ICTD will host a side event at the Fourth International Conference on...
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
📰New data: Is there public support for new #progressive and #wealth_taxes in Pakistan? Our policy brief dissects brand new public opinion data on a range of wealth and progressive tax proposals, based on a survey of 7500 voting-age Pakistanis. What do we find? (1/...) www.ictd.ac/publication/...
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Really nice to see that the Journal of Borderland Studies considers 'Smugglers and States' a "must-read for scholars of political economy, border studies, and state formation". If that's you, the book is available here: cup.columbia.edu/book/smuggle...
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Your email will not find me.
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Prof Melanie O'Brien @drmelob.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Despite the expansion of border fences, these barriers 'shift criminal dynamics, destabilize border communities, and have far-reaching implications for regional trade relations.' #humanRights
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Centre on Armed Groups @armedgroups.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
For those working on border governance: Centre Experts @maxgallien.bsky.social, Shalaka Thakur & Co-Director @weigand.bsky.social offer a valuable analysis in @foreignpolicy.com on what border walls actually achieve - and what they don’t 👇
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of border walls and fences around the world has sextupled. But do they actually work? In this piece for @foreignpolicy.com, Shalaka Thakur, @weigand.bsky.social and I draw on our research and share some scepticism foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/23/b...
foreignpolicy.com
Do Good Fences Actually Make Good Neighbors?
The number of border walls worldwide has surged since the end of the Cold War.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
theguardian.com
UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers
Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This blithe attitude- oh we'll figure out if current migrants have to wait five more years or not, maybe they'll satisfy our nebulous economic contribution requirement and get fewer. It cannot hold. No-one high skilled will come to a country making it up as it goes along. www.ft.com/content/7bad...
ft.com
Migrants who arrived in UK after 2020 face five more years on settlement path
Government’s migration crackdown set to double default period for those pursuing potential pathway to citizenship
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 12/05/2025
christ, what a day to be an immigrant cursed with the ability to read
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Lazy weekend rexommendation: always a sucker for coming of age but really enjoyed this book, it's got a unique voice, poetry, wit and force that stays with you.
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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 08/05/2025
Astronaut meme stating that it's all politics
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
This, so very much this. Having researched borders and their porosity for a decade - it is really stunning how resilient the myth of the 'complete border control' is, and how much chaos and and nonsense it has caused. It has never existed historically, and is entirely unreasonable to aim for now.
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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
"With #aid declining, FfD4 must include a concrete commitment to scale up investment in #tax systems" - as we are heading into the critical phase of #FfD4, a timely and insightful blog by @giuliamascagni.bsky.social @ictdtax.bsky.social www.ictd.ac/blog/aid-dec...
ictd.ac
With aid declining, FfD4 must include a concrete commitment to scale up investment in tax systems - ICTD
I recently took part in the third high-level symposium of the UNDP’s Finance, Integrity and Governance...
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Columbia University Press @columbiaup.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
We are delighted to announce that Max Gallien has been named as the recipient of the 2025 APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for his first book titled SMUGGLERS AND STATES. buff.ly/4G316B6 @maxgallien.bsky.social @ipsa.org @apsa.bsky.social
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Allison Hartnett @ashartnett.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Just a little over one week to submit your abstract for the 2nd Annual Historical Political Economy Conference at @usc.edu, co-sponsored by @usccis.bsky.social and the USC PIPE Collaborative. Keynote Address by @saumjha.bsky.social. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #econsky #polisky
docs.google.com
Second Annual Historical Political Economy Conference: Call for Papers
Co-organized by Allison Hartnett, Assistant Professor of Political Science; and Jeffery A. Jenkins, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law University of Southern California Oc...
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
"Western democratic partners of Tunisia have been strikingly and shamefully muted as Mr Saied’s campaign of repression has unfolded." A sharp and clear @theguardian.com view on Kais Saied's authoritarianism in #Tunisia: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The Guardian view on Tunisia’s democratic regression: burying hope where the Arab spring began | Editorial
Editorial: The sentencing of opponents and other public figures to as much as 66 years in prison highlights the president’s dismantling of political achievements
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Max Gallien @maxgallien.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
None of this is surprising in a #Tunisia that has become deeply authoritarian. But it is worth to continuously note the depth and extent of this regime's paranoia and vindictiveness, and the pain it insists on inflicting on its opposition. www.reuters.com/world/africa...
reuters.com
Tunisia hands lengthy prison terms to opposition leaders on conspiracy charges
A Tunisian court handed jail terms of 13 to 66 years to opposition leaders, businessmen and lawyers on charges of conspiring, a case the opposition says is fabricated and a symbol of President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule.
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Julie Cupples @juliecupples79.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Good news on steel, can MPs please do universities next Saturday?
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Institute of Development Studies (IDS) @ids.ac.uk · 11/04/2025
Congratulations to IDS researcher Max Gallien who has won the Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for his book Smugglers and States! 👏 🥳 👏
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Abu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Published in my @columbiaup.bsky.social series- congratulations and well-deserved!
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