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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Lancaster University media relations team @lancasteruninews.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

@rfoucart.bsky.social from Lancaster University Management School explains how high petrol prices are fuelling interest in EVs, and how this could bring down electricity bills, in @uk.theconversation.com 👇

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Electricity in the UK will not be cheap in the foreseeable future. It will also largely be intermittent. What if we had a bit of ambition and used this situation to do what we do best: services and innovation? Me in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-uks-high...

theconversation.com

The UK’s high electricity prices are here to stay. But could they offer an opportunity?

The next big innovations will centre on energy efficiency.

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Carlo Prato @carloprato.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Very attractive postdoc opportunity at the University of Padua. While the position is advertised as Econ, the group has strong interests in political economy and would consider seriously quant polisci students. inomics.com/job/two-year...

inomics.com

Two-year Postdoctoral Research Position in Economics | INOMICS

The Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padua invites expressions of interest from outstanding young scholars for a two-year, research-oriented postdoctoral position in Economi...

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

No one knows how to end the US trade deficit, but those who failed all won something in return. Obama got energy independence. Biden a manufacturing revival. And Trump bullied his allies into submission. My latest in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-supreme-...

theconversation.com

The Supreme Court has curbed Trump’s ability to bully his allies. But tariffs were never going to end the US trade deficit

The country remains the world’s largest consumer.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

What it means to be middle class today is confusing because the relative price of stuff is totally different from previous generations. Me in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/are-you-a-di...

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

I wrote a piece in @uk.theconversation.com in the simplest words I know to explain to your grandma why, 3 years after chatGPT, employment remains at record low. And why what matters is how AI will affect how much of the money workers get, and how it is shared theconversation.com/why-ai-has-n...

theconversation.com

Why AI has not led to mass unemployment

Slow revolutions give people time to adjust.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Results of the new CfD allocation round is out. Is £91.20/MWh a burden that will impede electricity prices to go down, or an insurance that saves us when the next war bring prices up? In ten years, a lot of people will shout "I told you so." Ignore them.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Not always a fan of the Guardian often sensasionalist science coverage, but this is the kind of moment when you can tell who is still in the realm of normal debate, and who is full on propaganda. Well done to the Guardian www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body

Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

No one will kill you in London, but if your phone is stolen the police will not look for it London is young, vibrant, people take the risk The rest of the country is increasingly old and scared, they hate it Don't think it's much more complicated than that

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I was on Fr24 yesterday to discuss why French farmers are so poor when CAP is 25% of the EU budget and France #1 recipient -- and why it matters so much for the EU to sign trade deals to exist outside of the US-China bipolar world (Mercosur today, India in the coming weeks)

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

MTurker urgently need to pay for a premium version of Claude in order to provide credible answers to qualitative studies

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Sumitra Badrinathan @sumitra.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

new vox dev piece on our recent RCT to counter misinformation in classrooms in india:

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 07/01/2026

At the University of Alabama at Birmingham we had students protesting the module on evolutionary game theory on religious grounds. So we renamed it "the dynamic theory of games" and the students were none the wiser. >

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Too bad -- I often think most of today's incel philosophy is just re-heated Pausanias from Plato's symposium

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

My attempt to explain a country with the population density of the Netherlands and the urban choices of Arlington, Texas, who also happens to care about inclusion and ends up bringing kids to school in taxis and giving cars to 860,000 disabled people because that's the only way to give autonomy

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

My preface to the UK budget in The Conversation about three things no one is talking about: the Covid debt, the energy support scheme, and Brexit. Three political choices that we treat as shocks and refuse to discuss to avoid sounding awkward. theconversation.com/the-three-sp...

theconversation.com

The three spectres hanging over Rachel Reeves’ make-or-break budget

These are the conversations the UK still refuses to have.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

- high gas prices have driven up the price of electricity - consumers pay surcharges on their bills to develop renewables - renewables lower the price of electricity - nuclear is complicated - The UK has less sun than Spain. Me in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/why-electric...

theconversation.com

Why electricity costs so much in the UK (it’s not all about the weather)

Many countries in Europe pay much less for their energy.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

People love to be in control. They also love to take credit for success and blame others for failures. When we offer subjects a chance to delegate to a lottery that might pick their choice or someone else's, they stop being control freaks (1/6) (in econ letters) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

So, here in sunny Lancaster, we have this rockstar student on the market this year. Before him, the world thought that increasing the number of economic graduates (the best paid ones) should strongly decrease their salaries. Joseph shows it is not the case. (1/3)

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Joseph Richardson @josephmrichardson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

I'm happy to share my job market paper. It asks a simple but classic question: to what extent are graduate wages affected by the supply of graduate labour in the economy? 🧵

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

I guess it's time to open Thomas Schelling again! What should Europe (and the US???) do to get us closer to peace as Russia is probing attacks on Eastern Europe? Four points. (1/7)

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

François Picard @francoisf24.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Yes, François Bayrou precipitated his own downfall, but at least the 74-year old outgoing PM broached the politically explosive topic of how boomers benefit above the odds from the French state, argues @lancasteruni.bsky.social’s @rfoucart.bsky.social 🇫🇷 Full itw ⤵️ f24.my/BPzV

f24.my

'Intergenerational fairness': In final speech to parliament, Bayrou unveils how pension is funded

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I wrote on a paradox of the latest Google ruling: as time passes, even illegal monopolies disappear because of innovation. Monopolies may actually encourage radical innovation. But this also means zero accountability for those who break the rules. theconversation.com/google-avoid...

theconversation.com

Google avoids being dismantled after US court battle – and it’s down to the rise of AI

AI poses a risk to Google’s main revenue source: online advertising.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Perhaps the one absolute success of 14 years of Conservative party rule in the UK will be claimed by no one www.ons.gov.uk/employmentan...

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 08/07/2025

How can central banks deliver difficult messages when politicians say they're "morons"? With difficulty... because people don't like listening to outsiders. Lagarde has more difficulty reaching Italians and Draghi (and vice versa) My @financialtimes.com newsletter ft.com/content/2082...

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

To benefit from advice, you need to follow advice first! Our experiment on chess players and why a world democratising access to expertise will not necessarily be a more equal one, is now published in JEBO. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

When expert advice fails to reduce the productivity gap: Experimental evidence from chess players

We study the impact of external advice on the relative performance of chess players. We asked players in chess tournaments to evaluate positions in pa…

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Reposted by Renaud Foucart

Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

We were lucky enough to have our YouGov/The Economist poll in field when the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. You can see the partisan realignment in real time

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

In this piece, I very strongly argue that I have no strong views on whether spending £14bn on a new nuclear reactor is a good idea. But I try to make what I think is the best possible case for it. theconversation.com/nuclear-ener...

theconversation.com

Nuclear energy is a risky investment, but that’s no reason for the UK government to avoid it

National energy shouldn’t rely on private or foreign money.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I wrote in @uk.theconversation.com about the price of everything and our aversion to talk about tradeoffs. (in the context of the UK's review of its green book to evaluate public investments) theconversation.com/where-should...

theconversation.com

Where should governments spend your money? The impossible maths of political and moral decisions

Behind every hospital and railway is a cost-benefit calculation.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Completely lost at the "AI means everyone is cheating at University" discourse. I teach in 2 universities, we have in-person invigilated exams. AI can help for coursework but it's our job as teacher to still make the work useful. What is the problem exactly? Have some places no exam anymore?

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

I love you, @theguardian.com, I truly do. But could you not refrain from those regular pieces "champagne reduce risk of cardic arrest," "coffee is good for you." All it would take is one employee with basic training in causal inference with a veto right. Please. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

theguardian.com

Drinking champagne could reduce risk of sudden cardiac arrest, study suggests

Maintaining a positive mood and eating more fruit may also help lower risk, researchers find

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

I used to believe some people were angry at the use of lotteries in school choice for selfish reasons -- in the hope of gaming the system or keeping segregated schools. Our paper, now out in Games and Economic Behavior, tells the story of how I was at least partly wrong: (1/11)

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

If you ever felt bad for a mistake in your exam questions, the 10,000-candidate EU translator exam is cancelled because they set a multiple choice questionnaire as a multiple answer

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

@theguardian.com has a very long explanation of why the UK got the 10% tariff and why it is genius diplomacy without even mentioning it was applied the exact same (x-m)/2m formula as everyone else www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

‘It could’ve been much worse’: how UK avoided a bigger blow from Trump tariffs

No 10 has been criticised for ‘sucking up’ to Donald Trump, but believes its defensive strategy has been vindicated

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Playing it nice and giving enough rope for the US admin to climb down, or going nuclear with the EU anti coercion instrument and ending US intellectual property right? Me in The Conversation: theconversation.com/how-the-uk-a...

theconversation.com

How the UK and Europe could respond to Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs

One bizarre consequence of Trump’s tariff wars could be the chance to watch Netflix for free.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Having an office in Ireland will become, more than ever, the place to be for fiscal optimization. Pay RoI tax. Send to NI via Windsor framework. Export to the US at 10%.

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Renaud Foucart @rfoucart.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I don't know if tariff retaliation with the US is good or useful, but in a post WTO world, the most obvious sector to tax without hurting domestic producers is digital services: Amazon, Google, Meta, ... not car parts and industrial components. Might also be politically astute.

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