iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Still bummed that Edward Leamer didn't live long enough to win the Nobel that IMO he'd richly deserved. Here's to hoping that Richard Lipsey or Charles Manski manage to snag a win in future years! That, or they allow for posthumous awards...

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Christian Zimmermann @czimm-economist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The RePEc author profiles of the economics Nobel laureates for all years are available here: ideas.repec.org/nobel.html #RePEc #econsky #nobel

ideas.repec.org

Economics Nobel Prizes at RePEc

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

His Wikipedia page gives a good feel for the breadth of his research interests: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_R...

en.wikipedia.org

Brian Regal - Wikipedia

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

RIP Brian Regal. Historian of science & technology, and lover of all things weird. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but based on his many talks and interviews, he seemed like a very kind-hearted and down to earth guy. He will be missed. www.instagram.com/p/DeKaa39lUi...

instagram.com

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

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Kevin Milligan @kevinmilligan.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I see COVID. I don't see a "lost decade". Beware people flogging graphs with preliminary data. Phil below uses the updated revised data. GDP growth is an important goal. But you need to start with the right data if you want an accurate diagnosis of our challenges.

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Trevor Tombe @trevortombe.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

There's a lot of variation across #cdnecon in exposure to the new 50% U.S. tariffs (on August 19). Here's a preliminary estimate of the share of exports affected (based on HS6, so a slight over-estimate). BC/ON/QC most exposed. Others far less so.

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Trevor Tombe @trevortombe.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

We’re hiring a Manager for Canada’s Productivity Initiative at @UCaglary! It's a great opportunity to help build a national partnership connecting universities, governments, and policy leaders. If it sounds like a fit, take a look and please share: careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/176253...

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Kevin Milligan @kevinmilligan.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Canadian Tax Journal call for proposals: Policy Forum on National Defence and Public Finances. Canada has set targets to sharply increase defence spending. What does this mean for public finances? Write for the CTJ Policy Forum! Proposals due April 15th. www.ctf.ca/EN/Publicati...

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

When did we start claiming that what we are doing in our philosophy papers is finding a ‘novel’ argument? I say it myself and I admit I do crave novelty. But what I admire in a paper is when people show that they have thought very deeply about a problem and found something surprising and insightful.

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Thanks to both for saying this. There seems to be a large constituency of evaluators/social scientists who want to use shoddy philosophy of science to add some caché to their questionable approaches to causal inference. And I say this as someone sympathetic to qualitative & multimethod research.

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David Slichter @davidslichter.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

My personal rule for IVs is that, if there's really only one reason why Z and Y are correlated, then you should be able to tell me Z and Y, and I'd be able to figure out what X is without you telling me. (1/n)

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Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 11/02/2026

It's ironic to see a discipline care **so much** about unbiasedness (causal inference!) at the level of a single test but then have a research production system and culture that is basically a ferocious bias generation machine. This is not good.

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

As compensation for our 2.5 hour train delay, ViaRail offered us a *free* muffin *and* a *50% rebate* off our next trip booking! 🤩 #LivingTheDream

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Nice chart from @ourworldindata.org showing the contrast between what Americans die of (heart disease and cancer) v what the US media reports on (homicide and terrorism). This naturally leads to it being trickier to build a fact based world view ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

What Americans die from
and the causes of death the US media reports on
Causes of death in the US in 2023
Heart disease (29%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (2.4%)
Liver disease (2.2%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)|
COVID-19 (2.1%)
Influenza/Pneu
monia (19%6)

Media coverage of these causes of death in 2023 in...
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Fox News
Heart disease (2.8%)
Heart disease (2.9%)
Cancer (4.1%)
Cancer (4.7%)
Accidents (5.9%)
Cancer (3.8%)
Accidents (6.1%)
Accidents (9.7%)
Suicide (4.1%)
Suicide (3.3%)
COVID-19 (6.0%)
COVID-19 (7.9%)
Suicide (3.8%)
COVID-19 (5.3%)
Drug overdose (7.5%)
Drug overdose (9.8%)
Drug overdose (9.5%)
Cancer (26%)
Accidents (9.5%)
Stroke (6.9%)
Lower respiratory diseases
(6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (24%)
Suicide (2.1%0)
COVID-19 (2.1%0
Homicide (42%)
Homicide (52%)
Homicide (46%)
Terrorism (18%)
Terrorism (12%)
Terrorism (11%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)
Note: Based on the share of causes of death in the US and the share of mentions for each of the causes in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News. All values are normalized to 100%, so the shares are relative to all deaths caused by the 12 most common causes + drug overdoses, homicides and terrorism. These causes account for more than 75% of deaths in the US.
A "media mention" is a published article in one of the outlets which mentions the cause (e,g. "influenza) or related keywords (e.g. "fu") least twice.
Data sources: Media mentions from Media Cloud (2025): deaths data from the US CDC (2025) and Global Terrorism Index.|
CC BY

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Alec Stapp @alecstapp.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Not sure how many people realize that battery storage already supplies 30% of California’s electricity demand at peak. Batteries aren’t the future — they’re here now.

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Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 19/05/2025

I think the current state of social science research is pretty bad and I wrote something for @asteriskmag.bsky.social about it. asteriskmag.com/issues/10/ca...

Text from an article:

Given the current state of evidence production in the social sciences, I believe that many - perhaps most - attempts to use social scientific evidence to inform policy will not lead to better outcomes.
This is not because of politics or the challenges of scaling small programs. The problem is more immediate. Much of social science research is of poor quality, and sorting the trustworthy work from bad work is difficult, costly, and time-consuming.

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Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

In 2004, it took the world a year to add one gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/03/2025

Who wants some good news? The overwintering monarch population, which had plummeted last winter, has doubled this winter! www.worldwildlife.org/stories/east...

worldwildlife.org

Eastern Monarch Butterfly Population Nearly Doubles

The population wintering in central Mexico's forests occupied 4.42 acres, up from 2.22 acres during the previous winter.

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Kevin Milligan @kevinmilligan.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

They are 10 times our size, but we are 10 times as united and 100 times as resolute.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

You want to know about this NASA Sea Level Projection Tool, which allows you to visualize and download the sea level projection data from the IPCC 6th Assessment Report (AR6).

sealevel.nasa.gov

IPCC AR6 Sea Level Projection Tool

Visualize and download global and local sea level projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report.

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Paging Free Speech Warriors!! Your time has come. Where are you? Speak up!! Still can’t hear you. Is your mic on?

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Seems like an apt time to post this meme.

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Stefan Dercon @gamblingondev.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Centre for the Study of African Economies at University of Oxford will automatically consider all applicants from Africa for full funding for the MPhil in Economics - we have new scholarships for eligible students. How? Just apply asap: deadline 4th March (extended deadline): see below

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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 15/02/2025

Canada’s new Rural Community Immigration Pilot offers permanent residence to skilled workers who want to work and settle in rural and more remote communities. 14 pilot communities will approve certain employers to hire for jobs that they can’t fill with local workers. More info here:

canada.ca

Rural Community Immigration Pilot - Canada.ca

How to apply for the Rural community immigration pilot as a candidate.

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Jon Mellon @jonmellon.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

New WP with @vincentab.bsky.social @ryancbriggs.net. We use LLMs and RAs to track publication trends in polisci. Here’s how subfields have changed in AJPS and JOP osf.io/v7fe8

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Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 07/02/2025

In 2004, it took the world a year to add a gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day

A line graph depicting the average number of days it took to install a gigawatt of solar energy capacity worldwide from 2001 to 2023. The vertical axis represents the number of days on a logarithmic scale, spanning from 1 to 1000 days. The horizontal axis indicates the years from 2001 to 2023.

In 2004, the average time was about 1 year, which is marked on the graph. A downward trend shows significant decreases in installation time over the years. By 2010, it took under 30 days, and by 2015, just over 7 days. The most notable point is in 2023, where it dropped to about 1 day on average for installation.

The data source is attributed to IRENA (2024), with calculation by Our World in Data, and the chart is identified as CC BY, indicating it is licensed for sharing and adaptation with appropriate credit.

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Jstheater @jstheater.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

If you're a fan of #DavidLynch's work, @criterionchannel.bsky.social & MAX both are featuring selections of his films (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, the shorts, etc.).

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Jonathan Slater @jonathanslater.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Fact: by replacing your morning coffee with Green tea, you can lose up to 89% of what little joy you still have left in your life.

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Our finest cultural export! 🥴

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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

this abstract is INSANE

We estimate productivity growth in England from 1250 to 1870. Real wages over this period were heavily influenced by plague-induced swings in the population. Our estimates account for these Malthusian dynamics. We find that productivity growth was zero prior to 1600. Productivity growth began in 1600—almost a century before the Glorious Revolution. Thus, the onset of productivity growth preceded the bourgeois institutional reforms of 17th century England. We estimate productivity growth of 2% per decade between 1600 and 1800, increasing to 5% per decade between 1810 and 1860. Much of the increase in output growth during the Industrial Revolution is explained by structural change—the falling importance of land in production—rather than faster productivity growth. Stagnant real wages in the 18th and early 19th centuries—“Engel’s Pause”—is explained by rapid population growth putting downward pressure on real wages. Yet, feedback from population growth to real wages is sufficiently weak to permit sustained deviations from the “iron law of wages” prior to the Industrial Revolution.

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Jon Drake @jondrake.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Dear Santa, You didn’t get me the thesaurus I asked for and now I’m mad. You made me really mad. I’m mad at you

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Shot and chaser. Don't listen to the nay-sayers who deny the reality of moral (and material!) progress.

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Florian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

It still boggles my mind that only 66 years separate these photos.

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H.K. Andersen @hkandersen.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Job ad for philosophers: PM me for more details, I don't have a link. "The Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary invites applications for a tenure-track transdisciplinary position with a focus on Environmental Ethics at the rank of Assistant Professor (Research).... #philsci #philsky

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Philip Luke Johnson @phillegitimate.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Anxiously checking my inbox, hoping for a seasonal greeting from my favorite university research center.

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Not recent by any means, but stumbled upon and really enjoyed this Rocking Our Priors podcast episode about Bayesian process tracing with Tasha Fairfield. open.spotify.com/episode/79Q3...

open.spotify.com

"Bayesian Process-Tracing!": Dr Tasha Fairfield

ROCKING OUR PRIORS · Episode

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Jesse D. Jenkins @jessedjenkins.com · 20/12/2024

This is probably the most important story of year in the energy transition. ~600 gigawatts of new solar added to world grids today. That will produce ~1,000 terawatt-hours of clean electricity, or ~25% of all US electricity use or 2/3 of India's. In one year! Simply massive & it's accelerating. 🔌💡

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British Ecological Society @britishecologicalsociety.org · 06/12/2024

Have you ever wondered what kind of research impacts real-world policy and practice? 💭 @jappliedecology.bsky.social 's new Virtual Issue showcases a range of articles that have led to management changes or have been highly cited in online policy documents! 📚 Read more: buff.ly/3OE10IY

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 17/12/2024

Saw someone upbraiding someone else for having a hobby while the world is on fire, and, my friends: 1. The world is ever on fire, this is today's conflagration; 2. If you don't find time for rest and joy the fire will consume you; 3. Don't let people shame you for being an entire human.

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Jack Fitzgerald @jackfitzgerald.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Super important resource for the field, give them a follow! #EconSky

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Simon Donner @simondonner.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

What a turnaround for typos and grammatical mistakes. After years of being irritants, they are now quaint and charming evidence that the text was written by a human being.

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Everything Hertz podcast @everythinghertz.com · 06/12/2024

In our latest episode we put out the call for good write-ups on the history of the replication crisis. @drcpennington.bsky.social has delivered as this is covered in her book "A Student's Guide to Open Science: Using the Replication Crisis to Reform Psychology" www.mheducation.co.uk/a-student-s-...

2005: loannidis publishes "Why most published research findings are false".

2011: Across 9 experiments, Bem provides 'evidence of pre-cognition; Stapel is found to have committed academic fraud. Simmons et al.
show how researchers can present 'anything as significant'.

2012: John and colleagues reveal that researcher QRPs are prevalent. Talks about a 'crisis' start emerging in a special issue led by
Pashler & Wagenmakers in the journal PoPs.

2014: 'Many Labs 1' publish the results of their large-scale replication efforts in a special issue on 'replications of important results in
Social Psychology.'

2015: The Open Science Collaboration (2015) publish results from 100
replications, showing a 36% success rate.

2016: Baker (2016) encourages 1,500 scientists to lift the lid on the crisis.

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Wonk Scot @wonkscott.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

My picks: Joseph Heath's "Filthy Lucre", John Quiggin's "Economics in Two Lessons", and Diane Coyle's "GDP: A Brief and Affectionate History".

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Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 10/12/2024

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems. We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

A chart in three parts showing data on child mortality to make the points that "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time."

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Sonia Laszlo 🇨🇦 @slaszlo.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Attention Econ Job Market Candidates! McGill Econ is hiring - apply now if interested

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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

A remarkable transition: Kenya is Africa's leading country when it comes to renewables. In 2000 fossil fuels contributed 60% to electricity generation. Today it is 6%. In 2023 electricity was from almost 50% geothermal, 20% wind+solar and 22% hydro.

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