iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

During a recent seminar visit, a number of people asked about use of AI in the refereeing process. Every AEA journal includes the following in the email you get after agreeing to do a review. If you have any doubts about what constitutes appropriate use, please ask!

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 14/09/2025

Colleges and universities are going way too soft on policing AI, Tyler Austin Harper argues. “Institutions of higher learning can abandon their centuries-long educational project,” he writes. “Or they can fight.”

bit.ly

Universities Can Abdicate to AI. Or They Can Fight.

Too many school leaders have been reluctant to impose harsh penalties for unauthorized chatbot use.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

For no obvious reason one of Kei Hirano's classic economics haikus just popped into my head. Apropo of nothing: T-stat looks too good. Use robust standard errors-- significance gone. I'm sure it could be updated to reflect modern methods.

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Journal of Public Economics @jpube.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Just published in @jpube.bsky.social: "The undoing of economic sanctions: Evidence from the Russia–Ukraine conflict" By @rfisman.bsky.social, Giovanna Marcolongo, & Meng Wu www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #econsky #publiceconomics

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I should say that his was a non-partisan statement about the practice of politics in general. And certainly not specific to the U.S.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I have a friend who had a successful career as a politician. When he retired from politics, I asked him what he was happiest to get away from. Without a moment's pause he answered, "The constant lying." www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

pbs.org

Speaker Johnson says he misspoke about Trump being an FBI informant in the Epstein case

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that he didn’t mean to suggest in a recent interview that Trump had or had not been an FBI informant in the case against disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Seriously lots of people have read that opening paragraph and liked it just fine. But I have to say all of his comments were right on the money. Maybe the kids are alright

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

My 15 year old is proofreading my latest book manuscript. After the first paragraph he asked, “do people really consider you to be a good writer?” It’s only gone downhill from there.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Is @wbur.org (very subtly) trolling the Trump administration ?

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

If you think this is possible you don’t know much about bill ackman…

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Dev Econ people: I was trying to access the DHS data, and got the message below. Can anyone help and/or have ideas for access? Any suggestions much appreciated!

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Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

As a 4th of July special, here's another piece with @rfisman.bsky.social, on how some of the institutional features we used to think as protective of American democracy are now accelerating its decline. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

The Institutions Protecting US Democracy Have Turned Into Traps

America’s two-party system has long been intended as a barrier against an extremism. Polarization is making it an accelerant instead.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Talking to my wife - a 3rd generation American - I realized that something many people here don’t understand is that the immigrant mentality is a willingness to move. I was an immigrant. My parents were. Their parents were. It feels easy to move again. She doesn’t feel the same way.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

(Though sometimes it can end up okay financially, if you pay off the right people. So maybe that's the right way to think about this.)

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Dear Nippon Steel: You would be insane to buy US Steel with the current American government holding this much control: www.reuters.com/business/us-... Signed - someone who used to teach business in emerging markets, where this sort of thing happened a lot and rarely if ever ended well...1/2

reuters.com

Nippon Steel could offer Washington golden share to seal U.S. Steel deal, Nikkei reports

Nippon Steel is considering offering a so-called golden share in U.S. Steel to the U.S. government in order to finalise its long-sought acquisition of the iconic American firm, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on Tuesday.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Congrats and well-deserved!!

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

A bit of personal/professional news: I'm sad to be leaving the wonderful editorial team at @restatjournal.bsky.social now that my terms are up, but excited to be joining AEJ: Applied as editor in January. www.aeaweb.org/news/member-...

aeaweb.org

Annual Elections and Other Announcements

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Jesse Eisinger @jeisinger.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Corruption Watch: Trump Media edition

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

It's amazing that markets these days are so completely driven by whether the U.S. president says he'll do something completely unhinged, or says he *won't* do something completely unhinged.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

The most jaw-dropping thing that came up in this week's Freakonomics story was Phil Zimbardo, in recounting the story of the Stanford Prison Experiment, casually mentioning that he'd just started dating his PhD student like it was no big thing, and the podcast just continuing without a beat.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Thanks. Given the comovement in stocks these days, trading on individual companies is of secondary importance. A simple fix would be public disclosure of any purchases or sales of any equities etc X days in advance?

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

A question about the proposed bill on stock trading in Congress (www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...). It wouldn't prevent someone from trading on macro news anyway, right? If I could have had inside info on tariff announcements, e.g., I still would've minted a fortune trading index funds.

congress.gov

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Summer office is open for business

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Since, until 2016, he had little to do and no one who would listen to him, he used to sit in their offices and natter on and on and on about his crank theories. But then, I'm afraid we all know the rest of the story... Be careful what you wish for. 🙁

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

A little story I once heard, on good authority, about Peter Navarro. Some faculty at UC Irvine joked back in 2016 that they hoped Trump would get elected because then they'd at least be rid of Navarro, who was then an econ professor there. 1/2

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

From what I have heard doctors at VA hospitals are doing some of the same

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Yes I keep saying something like this. It ain’t 10 dimensional chess

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Yes, I'm a huge Chris Murphy fan.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

I don't want to add speculation to what sort of motivations he might have but behavior is certainly consistent with the screaming-toddler-wants-attention view.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Yes, if you're using the negotiating strategy that sometimes you do apparently off-equilibrium things because you are a crazy, vindictive psychopath and it gives you joy, you can't reverse yourself at the last minute every time.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

A serious question: Is Trump doing this just so politically-connected investors can profit from insider trading, or is that merely a side benefit?

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

this is particularly helpful. thanks so much!

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Agree with the first three…

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Yes, but how are the announced tariffs correlated with implied non-tariff barriers... 🤷‍♀️

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Canadian economists (and others): I'm running a survey in Canada for the first time, and need to "translate" some U.S. questions. Could someone point me to what the equivalent of either/both of these would be?

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Finally an idea that can unite us as a nation (the second sentence, not the first one)

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Or maybe multiply by 2 instead🤷

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

On tariffs, straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Dear CEA: at least divide by 4. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Why Trump’s Tariff Math Is a Joke

A look inside the administration’s methodology is a real eye-opener.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

I disagree. If you want to stick with the metaphor, they wanted to crash the plane and looked for a map that would give them an excuse for why they flew into a mountain.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Seems like it's worth asking again this morning...

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Mister Magic @mistermagic.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Only 90s kids

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Yes, I've become strangely fixated on this. Like, you're credited with calculations that underly the potential destruction of the global economy, and you have no comment?

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

“They must have known” lots of things…cc @brendan_duke

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Yes was thinking the same thing. This has aged very well so far ☹️

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Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

After the craziness of “Liberation Day”, I am forced to return to what @rfisman.bsky.social and I wrote the other day. Personalistic systems are subject to the whims of unconstrained rulers, and we’re seeing the results very, very fast… www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

Once an Economy Switches from Rules to Deals, It’s Hard to Go Back

Americans of all political affiliations will miss the checks and balances that Donald Trump is trying to dispense with.

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