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Nathan Lane

@nathanlane.bsky.social
8.8K followers 752 following 412 posts

Economist and professor at LSE. “Posting through it."

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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Centre for Economic Policy Research @cepr.org · 28/09/2026
Join us on 16 October for an insightful conversation on European competition with Anthony Whelan, Director General of DG Competition, @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social & @tomasoduso.bsky.social 📆5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (CEST) | Online Register now: ow.ly/uWVn50ZS7Qk
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
VoxEU @ CEPR @voxeu.org · 25/09/2026
The chat logs of AI companies are often used to measure what work AI actually does. A Bick, A Blandin, D Deming, & T Schumacher argue however that chat classifiers cannot see a user’s occupation and therefore classify use into a few generic activities and misattribute AI use across occupations.
Figure: Illustration of the classification chain for a chat asking for help analysing trends in data and showing how a task misclassification becomes an occupation misclassification.

The chat logs of AI companies are often used to measure what work AI actually does. This column uses a nationally representative US survey that links generative AI use to workers’ detailed tasks and compares them with task shares derived from Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI chat data. The four sources disagree sharply, largely because chat classifiers cannot see a user’s occupation and therefore classify use into a few generic activities. Chat logs are informative but on their own can misattribute AI use across occupations and cannot substitute for measurement anchored in who the worker is.
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Not been much noticed so a helpful column from @profamydonovan.bsky.social about how cuts to the aid budget have also hit valuable research to help the world’s poorest www.thetimes.com/article/87e9...
thetimes.com
Cuts to scientific research are an act of national self-harm
When Starmer’s government cut 40 per cent from the international aid budget, it presumably did not intend to shred scientific research
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
The Economic Journal @theeconjournal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
In 2005-9 eight big tech firms (incl. Apple, Google, Intel, eBay) secretly agreed not to compete for each other's workers. This “no poaching” scheme reduced salaries by about 5.6%. In total workers lost at least $3.1bn, while the tech firms settled litigation for just $435mn.
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Bentley Allan @bentleyallan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Time to check in on this 2017 call to not worry about rare earths because substitution and efficiency gains will resolve all the problems...
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Yes!
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I was evaluating multi-agent workflows from this summer. The most successful models have been Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3s. Especially for reviews. Their successes come from catching and correcting insane Claude Opus errors 🙃
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"I am among those who think those profits are not going to be nearly as large as anticipated. Competition among labs will drive the subscription prices of models down (unless labs can cartelize, for example, by appealing to “AI security”). Over 95%...of the gains from AI will pass to the final user"
x.com
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde (@JesusFerna7026) on X
David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) has a nice post today explaining how he fixed his dishwasher with the help of ChatGPT. We have all been there over the last couple of years. In my case, from fixing a ...
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
How Minnesota Became the Front Line in the Fight Over Prediction Markets www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/b...
nytimes.com
How Minnesota Became the Front Line in the Fight Over Prediction Markets
The state was the first to pass a law banning Kalshi and Polymarket. A lawsuit filed by a federal agency may set a precedent on who gets to regulate them.
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For those of us using OpenRouter and similar services, it's always been striking how much of the market share in API use comes from the open and open-ish models. It's been like this for some time too.
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Harry Rasmussen 🇨🇦 @harryrasmussen.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
a lot of people have heard about the rooftop solar boom in Pakistan Looks like same thing is now unfolding in the Philippines www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
Philippines leads the world in rush to solar as power prices soar
People in the Philippines are flocking to install solar power ​on rooftops and escape the burden of soaring electricity prices, making it the world's biggest spender on solar panels since ‌the war in ...
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
VoxEU @ CEPR @voxeu.org · 26/06/2026
Organisational capital is shaped by managerial decisions. Wei Cai, @andreaprat.bsky.social, & Jiehang Yu propose a new way of measuring this capital using employee reviews on Glassdoor. CEO-related variation accounts for roughly 1/3 of organisational capital. cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky
The figure tracks organisational capital around CEO turnovers. It compares organisational capital before and after a change in leadership while controlling for firm characteristics and aggregate shocks.

The way firms coordinate activities, motivate employees, accumulate knowledge, and adapt to changing environments evolves gradually over time, and is shaped by managerial decisions. This column proposes a new way of measuring this organisational capital using employee reviews on Glassdoor. The measure shows that CEO-related variation accounts for roughly one-third of organisational capital and that CEO turnovers are immediately followed by significant declines in organisational capital. The findings reveal how listening to employees’ voices can help firms detect organisational weaknesses before they show up in financial performance.
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Some economists argue that the strain led to technological change that only amplified substitution
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I can('t) believe we're still months into this.
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 26/06/2026
"one of the biggest ever job-cutting programmes by a European company." www.ft.com/content/d076...
Volkswagen to axe up to 100,000 jobs in sweeping cost-cutting drive
Restructuring follows blockbuster sale of marine engines unit to US private equity firm Bain
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This is fascinating
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Going to go out on a limb: I don't think being anti-airconditioning will be a winning political strategy for EU parties.
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Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Poor Anthropic. Imagine having your intellectual property illicitly extracted, what kind of company would even do that?
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It's kind of wild--I was taking a normal train to Oxford yesterday for a conference: a normal commute I've done for years. Yes, there have always been issues. But yesterday, the system seemed to be melting down over the heat. It seemed pretty ominous, even for the state of UK infrastructure.
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Yakov Feygin @buddyyakov.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Are you a graduate student, recent graduate, or anyone else interested in building decarbonization, infrastructure finance, or thermal energy networks? CPE has an opening for a temporary fellowship supporting our work on thermal energy networks. DM me for more info! publicenterprise.org/careers/
publicenterprise.org
Careers
Jobs Thermal Energy Networks Fellow Location: Remote Job Type: Part-time, contractDuration: ~10 hours/week up to 8 monthsCompensation: $12-25,000; negotiableReports to: Director of Energy  Th...
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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
ANDY BURNHAM HAS RETURNED FROM EXILE
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martha shearer @marthashearer.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
lmao
Keir Starmer is coming out.

There is loud applause from his staff and supporters.

He looks miserable.
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Look what they took from you.
The cool kind of 3.5 inch floppy disc, with colorful shells and translucent cases
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Changing your name to the Department of War, starting a war, and then immediately losing that war. 10/10 bit.
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Gabriel Zucman @gabrielzucman.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
It seems we are now entering a new phase of the rise of inequality in the US. It's not just wealth and billionaires — it's a broader acceleration. Here's who benefited from economic growth in 2025, according to the latest estimates available on realtimeinequality.org
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I thought about this a lot today
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This is antithetical to industrial strategy and the UKs innovation ambitions.
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LSE Impact @lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
💥New | Without guidelines academic authorship defaults to power politics ✍️ Lorenz Graf-Vlachy #AcWri #AcademicSky #ECRchat
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Without guidelines academic authorship defaults to power politics - LSE Impact
In many areas of social science co-authorship is the default. Drawing on a meta-analysis of academics in fields related to management, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy outlines a pervasive culture of questionable a...
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Rebecca Williams @rebeccawilliams.info · 10/05/2026
lovely bsky.app/profile/tyle...
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Reposted by Nathan Lane
Joe Noonan @joenoonan.se · 08/05/2026
This is a very good and thoughtful paper. I recommend reading the papers that this workflow actually produces. They are quite strange to read: signals of competence such as rigorously explained empirics but much more underdeveloped positioning of the research. www.nathanwilmers.com/paper_factory/
nathanwilmers.com
Paper Factory
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Soumaya Keynes @soumayakeynes.ft.com · 10/05/2026
US supremacy in nuclear submarines is under threat v good from The Economist www.economist.com/internationa...
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
France’s mandated profit-sharing distributes excess profits to workers. This paper shows that the policy raises the labor share and reduces the profit share, with little to no effect on investment, productivity, etc academic.oup.com/qje/advance-...
JOURNAL ARTICLE
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
The Effects of Mandatory Profit-Sharing on Workers and Firms: Evidence from France
Get access >
Elio Nimier-David X, David Sraer X, David Thesmar X
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, qjag022, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag022
Published: 24 April 2026
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Abstract
Since 1967, all French firms with more than 100 employees have been required to share a fraction of their excess profits with their employees. Through this scheme, firms with excess profits distribute, on average, 10.5% of their pre-tax income to workers. In 1990, the eligibility threshold was reduced to 50 employees. We exploit this regulatory change to identify the effects of mandated profit-sharing on firms and their employees. The cost of mandated profit-sharing for firms is evident in the significant bunching at the 100-employee threshold observed prior to the reform, which completely disappears post-reform. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that, at the firm level, mandated profit-sharing (a) increases the labor share by 1.8 percentage points, (b) reduces the profit share by 1.4 percentage points, and (c) has small to non-existent effects on investment and productivity. At the employee level, mandated profit-sharing increases lower-skilled workers' total compensation and leaves high-skilled workers' total compensation unchanged. Overall, mandated profit-sharing redistributes excess profits to lower-skilled workers in the firm without generating significant distortions or productivity effects.
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NBER @nber.org · 04/05/2026
For a climate treaty to be maximally robust, strong, and self-enforcing, it must properly balance supply- and demand-side instruments, from Geir B. Asheim and Bård Harstad www.nber.org/papers/w35128
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Take a look at these fantastic photographs of Indian life by Raghu Rai. He has died aged 83 www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
Raghu Rai’s masterful images of Indian life – in pictures
Recruited to Magnum Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1977, the veteran photographer, who has died aged 83, made defining images of grand and intimate Indian life for five decades
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
‘When Queen Elizabeth II flicked the switch at Calder Hall, an electronic dial immediately lit up showing the number of kilowatts the station was generating. Years later, one of the engineers discovered that this was powered by a man turning a handle.’ www.worksinprogress.news/p/why-britis...
worksinprogress.news
Why British nuclear flopped
Britain gave an elite group of engineers sweeping power and massive resources to deliver a nuclear power revolution. But their nuclear dreams crumbled.
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Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke @kevinhorourke.eurosky.social · 28/04/2026
@sabineweyand.bsky.social is a superstar and history will remember her as such. And she is very obviously correct on this matter. And the issues at stake are really important. www.ft.com/content/a714...
ft.com
EU’s top trade official leaves after clashing over Trump deal
Sabine Weyand refused to endorse US tariff agreement as WTO-compliant
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
This captured things I haven’t been able to articulate
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
This wild document is the basis for the State Department's decision to cancel the visas and green cards of tech researchers who study the social media platforms and of tech regulators who enforce privacy and transparency laws. Disclosed to us last night in @thecoalition.bsky.social v. Rubio.
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
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Ersatz Doctor @ersatzdoctor.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
We need more viewpoint diversity among journal referees who read my papers. More “accept” and “R&R” viewpoints. Fewer “reject” and “this is the worst paper I’ve ever read” viewpoints.
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Nathan Lane @nathanlane.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
A new margin of slop
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Graham Lanktree @glanktree.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
New UK steel tariffs ‘threaten’ British manufacturing, steel importers warn ministers. Letter from Confederation of British Metalforming to the U.K. trade department warns that protections meant to boost homegrown steelworks risk “severely disrupting supply chains.” www.politico.eu/article/new-...
politico.eu
New UK steel tariffs threaten British manufacturing, industry warns
Letter from Confederation of British Metalforming to the U.K. trade department warns that protections meant to boost homegrown steelworks risk “severely disrupting supply chains.”
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Quite a week for us! 1/ our podcast is launched: “Electric World Order” is a short series about the geopolitics of energy transition; ep 1 is about how China’s industrial strategy kinda accidentally created Pakistan’s solar boom:
thepolycrisis.org
The Polycrisis
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