iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

A really fantastic few days in Maputo 🇲🇿 for the IGM Annual Conference & Policy Symposium, hosted by @unu-wider.bsky.social. A wonderful city with many challenges but no shortage of super welcoming people. I hope to return soon!

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SALDRU @saldru.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Join us at UCT for our 2-day December Workshop co-hosted with ERSA, discussing frontier research in applied economics for developing countries! 2 keynotes: Taryn Dinkelman & Joseph Kaboski. 12 presenters from 7 international & 4 local universities, & PhD student panels.

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Great to be in Sydney🇦🇺 for the first time for the 2025 @sioecon.bsky.social Conference hosted by UNSW. Turns out koalas are indeed real (and adorable!), and apparently sleep even more than academics after conference dinners.

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Very grateful to be in Senegal 🇸🇳 for the first time this week for @j-pal.bsky.social’s Summer School on advanced randomised evaluation design. Many thanks to J-PAL, CESAG, @afd-france.bsky.social, and others for hosting me!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

A fantastic and timely summer school, thanks very much @rodrigooliveira.bsky.social and the @unu-wider.bsky.social team for organising!

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David McKenzie @dmckenzie.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Now up: the 9th in my annual series of efforts to put together data on development journals: rankings, number of papers submitted (over 12,000 last year across 12 journals), number published (937), acceptance rates, time to review, open access stats, and more... blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...

blogs.worldbank.org

The State of Development Journals 2025: Quality, Acceptance Rates, Review Times, Open Access, and What’s New

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Thank you for being such a fantastic Chair, Rachel. And so great to finally meet in person!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Grateful to be attending the 2025 @unu-wider.bsky.social Development Conference here in Helsinki, which explicitly focuses on the role of social protection in driving growth and equality. Only Day 1 and I’ve learnt so much from everyone’s impressive work already!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Great to be a part of this work. Excited to see how it evolves!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

It’s been a really great two months so far, very grateful to be here! Thanks very much to the welcoming folks at @unu-wider.bsky.social for having me.

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

How have the returns to education evolved during the post-Apartheid era in South Africa?🇿🇦 Read about it in a new short Econ3x3 blog I’ve put together below, summarizing a 2024 RESEP paper also below. www.econ3x3.org/article/how-... Full paper for those interested: resep.sun.ac.za/wp-content/u...

econ3x3.org

How have the returns to education evolved in post-apartheid South Africa? | Econ3x3

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Presented some work at the University of Turku🇫🇮 today. Grateful for the opportunity to share some ideas & learn from such a welcoming & kind group of researchers - an impressive bunch doing great work. Thanks to @jerniemin.bsky.social @asfandyk.bsky.social @selcencakir.bsky.social for organising!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Really kind of you to share, @leightjessica.bsky.social! I've long admired your efforts to help promote young scholars. Thank you very much!

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @TimothyKohler @timkohler.bsky.social @DPRU_UCT who works on topics related to labor + development

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Very grateful to be in beautiful Maastricht🇳🇱 today to present some work at @unumerit.bsky.social. Thanks for having me! If you’re interested in attending in-person or online: go.unu.edu/9zq7Q

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Very excited and grateful to be in beautiful Helsinki 🇫🇮 for the next few months as a Visiting Scholar at @unu-wider.bsky.social. If you’re around and would be keen to connect, please get in touch!

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Children's Institute, University of Cape Town @childrensinstitute.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Hi Bluesky! We're a research unit at University of Cape Town, addressing challenges facing children in South Africa through research, advocacy & education. We explore tensions between policy, practice & lived realities, to promote design & implementation of laws & services enabling kids to thrive 🌱

The six thematic areas that are the focus of the research, advocacy and education of the Children's Institute: Monitoring the advancement of children's rights; reducing poverty and inequality; protecting children from violence; enhancing health and development; promoting children's voice and agency; and securing futures for children.

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SALDRU @saldru.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Hello, Bluesky #EconSky! We're the Southern Africa Labour & Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at UCT, dedicated to challenging inequalities through policy-relevant academic research. We are one of the leading Labour & Development #Economics units on the continent. Explore our work: saldru.uct.ac.za

A picture of the University of Cape Town, where SALDRU is based.

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DataFirst @datafirst.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

🔊Postdoc Research Fellowship at DataFirst! Analyze large-scale African foundational learning data, conduct original research, & shape education policy. Apply now! ➡️https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/articles/2025-02-04-postdoctoral-research-fellowship-opportunity

datafirst.uct.ac.za

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Opportunity

We invite applications for a postdoctoral position to work in the AFLEARN Data Hub. The successful candidate will be involved in original empirical research; collating and analysing large-scale Africa...

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Excited to be joining @unu-wider.bsky.social in Helsinki 🇫🇮 as a Visiting Scholar for 3 months starting in April! While there, my work will focus on social protection policy & labor market inequality in lower-income countries, with a particular focus on South Africa. Very much looking forward to it!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Thanks for reading. This work is ongoing, so any feedback is of course welcomed!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

A large amount of between-race wage inequality, which has ⬇️ over time, remains due to differences in education levels. However, differential returns to education across race groups are playing an increasingly important role. 5/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

⬆️ in both (i) educational attainment & (ii) returns to education have driven real wages ⬆️. While, on average, the former is dominant, the latter has ⬆️ in importance over time. At the bottom of the wage distribution, where wages have ⬆️ the most, the latter is dominant. 4/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

While previously being relatively constant across the wage distribution, the returns to education have ⬆️ at the bottom and ⬇️ at the top, placing downward pressure on wage inequality which has decreased but, nevertheless, remains extremely high. 3/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Following international trends, the returns structure has shifted to favour tertiary education. The returns to tertiary education have at least doubled in size, while those of lower levels have shrunk. The consequence: an increasingly convex education-earnings relationship. 2/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Despite a substantial ⬆️ in educational attainment (by 25% on average), the average return to education has also ⬆️ (by 8-12% on average), implying that the increased demand for higher-educated workers has outpaced the increased supply. 1/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

How has the return to education evolved in post-Apartheid SA?🇿🇦 Happy to share a new working paper where I use reliable earnings data not publicly available to provide a more precise analysis than previously possible. 🔗: tinyurl.com/educ-returns... 5 key findings below!

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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Been a while since we shared this! Here is a selection of our favourite sources of research, newsletters, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos related to development economics, including researchers who have written for VoxDev. go.bsky.app/4rsxm7G

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NBER @nber.org · 18/02/2025

Adaptation helped Cape Town, South Africa dodge the Day Zero drought (where city's pipes run dry), but with long-term fiscal, distributional, and environmental consequences, from Alexander C. Abajian, Cassandra Cole, Kelsey Jack, Kyle C. Meng, and Martine Visser www.nber.org/papers/w33468

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Oļegs Tkačevs @otkacevs.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

📢CALL FOR PAPERS 7th annual conference of the Baltic economic association 📅Deadline: 15 March 2025 👨‍🏫Keynote: Luigi Guiso ➡️Learn more and submit: conf2025.balticecon.org #EconSky #EconConf

conf2025.balticecon.org

BEC - 26-27 June 2025 - Vilnius, Lithuania

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Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) @dpru-uct.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

In the News: 'Noncompliance with minimum wage rising, study finds' New Business Day article referencing Haroon Bhorat, @timkohler.bsky.social, and Ben Stanwix's evaluation of the labour market effects of the 2024 ⬆️ in South Africa’s🇿🇦 National Minimum Wage. www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/...

businesslive.co.za

Noncompliance with minimum wage rising, study finds

National minimum wage is a theoretical exercise that does not take cognisance of stakeholder inputs, says Neasa

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Jonathan Stäbler @jonathanstaebler.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

📢 Call for papers #YEM2025 📅 May 22-23 2025 in Brno, Czech Republic 🗒️Topics: Applied Empirical Research, Labor Economics, Experimental Economics and Behavioral Theory 👥Keynotes: @dkuebler.bsky.social @neumarkecon.bsky.social ✅Submit paper by Feb 17 ℹ️Details: yem.econ.muni.cz

yem.econ.muni.cz

YEM 2025 | YEM: Young Economists' Meeting

YEM: Young Economists' Meeting in Brno, Czech Republic

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Overall, our study shows that outages have significant ⬇️ effects on labour market outcomes, on both the extensive & intensive margins, especially for workers in small firms. Given these effects, it’s encouraging that SA has avoided outages for 9 months now. Thanks for reading!

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

By doing so, using varied control groups, we show that Cape Town’s @CityofCT outage mitigation: - ⬆️ employment by 3.7% which = saving ~60,000 jobs - ⬆️ working hours by 2% which = ~1 hour per week (driven by small firms) - No conclusive evidence re wages or earnings 9/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Our causal (diff-in-diff) analysis addresses endogeneity by exploiting the facts that they didn’t occur in certain years & that only Cape Town, SA’s 2nd-largest city, has been able to ⬇️ the intensity of them through ⬆️ power (mostly its own hydroelectric plant). 8/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

In our descriptive analysis, we find: - ⬇️ associations with employment & working hours (especially the former) - These ⬆️ in size with more intense outages - Workers in smaller firms are more vulnerable - No meaningful association with hourly wages or monthly earnings 7/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

We merge individual-level labour force survey data with high-frequency electricity supply & demand data from 2008-2023 & provide both descriptive & causal (through a canonical diff-in-diff) evidence of effects on employment, working hours, hourly wages & monthly earnings. 6/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Many studies show that outages in LMICs ⬇️ economic growth & firm-level outcomes eg sales, productivity. These are expected to translate into ⬇️ labour market effects, but strikingly, almost no study examines this (notable exception of @myjumens’s fantastic 2024 JDE paper). 4/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Electricity access in low- & middle-income countries (LMICs) has greatly ⬆️ in recent decades, reaching 90% of people as of 2021. However, access alone = necessary but insufficient. Many LMICs experience frequent + severe outages which ⬇️ the benefits of improved access. 3/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

We’re very grateful to UNU-WIDER for funding an earlier version of this work, available here: www.wider.unu.edu/sites/defaul... 2/n

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

🚨New paper!🚨 Now published in Energy Economics, we (w/ @HaroonBhorat) provide the 1st estimates of the labour market effects of frequent & severe power outages (known as “load shedding”) in South Africa 🇿🇦 Full (OA) paper available here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en... 🧵 below! 1/n

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Enkelejda Havari @enkehavari.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

#econsky Interesting workshop for early career scholars working on education.

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Hi Aeimit! @paulgp.com has a great guide here which might be helpful! paulgp.substack.com/p/setting-up...

paulgp.substack.com

Setting up Github Copilot and VSCode

Get in on the AI train

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Tim Köhler @timkohler.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

A great way to end the year 🎉 My paper, co-authored w/ Haroon Bhorat, on the labour market effects of SA’s🇿🇦 SRD grant is now published in World Development. We began this work back in 2020. So happy it found a good home! Full (OA) paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #EconSky

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Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) @dpru-uct.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

✍️Read the full report here: www.labour.gov.za/DocumentCent... 📃Read the relevant government gazette, which includes a summary of the report's findings alongside ongoing work on the effects of all of the NMW adjustments over the past 5 years, here: static.pmg.org.za/1/NMW.pdf

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Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) @dpru-uct.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The report focuses on causal effects on hourly wages, employment, working hours, and monthly earnings. The authors find: - Large ⬆️ effects on hourly wages - Small ⬇️ effects on working hours - Consequently, large ⬆️ effects on monthly earnings - Small ⬇️ effects on employment #EconSky

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