My friends over at @povertycenter.bsky.social are looking for a researcher to join as their new Research Director. This is a PhD level position suitable for someone with 6 or more years of social scientific research experience. povertycenter.columbia.edu/lead-our-res...

Just read this compelling (and funny and clever) highly critical review of _The Social Genome_. I would be hard pressed to find a perspective as far over its skies as we see in this book.

Bird account@dialecticbio.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Marcus Feldman and Jessica Riskin review 'The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture' by Dalton Conley. www.nybooks.com/articles/202... (it's a scathing critique)

Using German SOEP 2014-2024…concern about immigration accounts for 75% of variation in AfD support and 90% of variation in voting behaviour. “Therefore, variables that measure deprivation explain comparatively little.” @martinschroeder.bsky.social ! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Supporters of Germany’s far-right AfD party are concerned about immigration rather than feeling deprived

Is concern about immigration sufficient to account for the increasing success of Germany’s right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)? Or does socio-economic deprivation also matter? ...

journals.plos.org

Further evidence inclusionary zoning reduces housing supply. open.substack.com/pub/theargum...

Should we bribe the NIMBYs?

Why some YIMBYs tolerate a tax on housing

open.substack.com

globalnews.ca/news/1200322...

U.S. says ‘error’ mislabelled every African country on AIDS conference map - National | Globalnews.ca

The mislabelled map was shown during a presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro on the U.S. State Department's new health program agreements with African nations.

globalnews.ca

If you’re like me, you sort of vaguely had impression the lab leak and gain of function theories of Covid’s origins were not credible. You sort of vaguely heard that the wet market theory was the most plausible explanation. Here’s science to back you up: substack.com/@davebrady72...

David Brady (@davebrady72)

If you’re like me, you sort of vaguely had impression the lab leak and gain of function theories of the Covid’s origins were not credible. You sort of vaguely heard that the wet market theory was the ...

substack.com

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · last wk.

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Ever estimated a bunch of specifications, glanced across the coefficients and said “eh, looks robust to me!” Who *hasn’t*?? Then my new working paper is for you! www.djaeger.org/research/rob.... Be the first on your block to stop eyeballing…. Bonus R and Stata packages, just ‘cause I like you.

Why are Americans so skeptical that social policies can work? @davebrady72.bsky.social thinks it's less about a policy's measurable success, and more about an exaggerated myth we can't stop telling ourselves. Listen here for more on the politics of poverty → bit.ly/4vPYJNS

Congrats to Prof. @mivich.bsky.social whose book The Division of Rationalized Labor (@harvardpress.bsky.social) received three awards this year! sociology.stanford.edu/news/three-n...

Three national awards recognize Michelle Jackson's book on labor | Department of Sociology

Michelle Jackson's recent book, The Division of Rationalized Labor (Harvard University Press, 2025), has received three national honors in 2026. The book won the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award fro...

sociology.stanford.edu

It was really engaging to talk w/ the terrific Geoff Wodtke in the Inequality Podcast. Their Podcast hosted by Geoff & @durlauf.bsky.social is one of my favorite podcasts, and regardless of my episode, I strongly recommend. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

David Brady on the Politics of Poverty

Podcast Episode · The Inequality Podcast · July 27 · 58m

podcasts.apple.com

VERY significant news for higher education. International student visas capped at four years! “New rule caps foreign student visas at four years, jolting California campuses” www.latimes.com/california/s...

New rule caps foreign student visas at four years, jolting California campuses

A new Trump administration rule limits international student visas to four years, forcing students who need more time to seek federal extensions. California faces a big impact, with 140,000 internatio...

latimes.com

The Sears Baby Book keeps talking about babywearing as if a baby was some piece of clothing which gives rise to this very important question:

Strongly recommend this excellent set of videos for learning about formal models in political science by @nicholasnapolio.bsky.social youtube.com/@animated-po...

Nico Napolio (@nicholasnapolio.bsky.social)

Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Riverside 🏳️‍🌈

nicholasnapolio.bsky.social

An amazing quote from Lindsey Graham in this Atlantic story. It really captures an essential truth about politics that too few people ever really come to terms with. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The great hall at the National Academy of Sciences. The domed ceiling reads: “To science: pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature’s laws, eternal guide to truth”

Nice reminder from Richard Feynman of some of the benefits of teaching.

‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...

As a supporter of birthright citizenship, I like this about Balogun: “Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Nigerian parents, he was in the U.S. only because his parents were visiting New York and his mother was deemed too pregnant to fly back to London.” www.nbcnews.com/sports/socce...

U.S. star Folarin Balogun eligible to play vs. Belgium after FIFA suspends red card ban

Balogun was given a controversial red card during the team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and was initially not allowed to play in the round of 16.

nbcnews.com

Here is a useful paper from the JCI on the topic. The community has too narrow of a focus on internal validity from years of preaching "RCT as the gold standard." There should be no hierachy of preferences for internal, external and construct validity. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

There’s been a lot of buzz around the Borjas/Breznau (2026) paper (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and potential ideological bias in research. We took a closer look at the data. Could there be a "bias in bias research"? Here is what we found: www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10...

RFP: The Historical Political Economy of Taxation and Regulation. Conference and journal special issue opportunity!

Congratulations to Jared Schachner @jaredns.bsky.social on being appointed Research Assistant Professor in the Wilbur H Smith Department of Real Estate Development and with the Lusk Center for Real Estate in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.

This passage from @davebrady72.bsky.social's 2025 JCI article is 🔥

For years I've tracked billionaire excess. Each year I show students a chart that blows their minds. This year I had to redraw it for a trillionaire: Elon Musk, $1.32T. Depressing that we're here. Silver lining: couldn't have happened to a less deserving person, proof that wealth ≠ merit.

Elon Musk's $1.32 Trillion, to Scale

The first trillionaire's fortune, one pixel per $1,000 — scroll past every dollar, and see what a fraction of it could do instead.

stanford.edu

You can go through the strait free, but it takes 2 days, or you can subscribe to Hormuz Plus.

visionBoy@rsek.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Iran will charge ships a convenience charge, sorta like concert ticket sellers charge. Not a toll, but a convenience charge.

Similar applies to "natural" phenomena. This paper is very useful for reconsidering the use of weather events as instrumental variables (IVs) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library

Instrumental variable (IV) analysis relies on the exclusion restriction—that the instrument only affects the dependent variable via its relationship with the independent variable and not via other ca...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA@arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Identification strategies based on spatially allocated resources / outcomes usually aren't actually isolating random or chance patterns. Very little is actually random when it comes to the spatial distribution of goods / services / people / outcomes.

Identification strategies based on spatially allocated resources / outcomes usually aren't actually isolating random or chance patterns. Very little is actually random when it comes to the spatial distribution of goods / services / people / outcomes.

How has the US added housing supply since 2000? Are conservative places building a lot more than liberal places? In new research, I show that: —Additional homes were disproportionately in high-income, conservative, greenfield areas —BUT infill growth was more likely to be located in liberal areas

The Paradox of Housing Supply Growth: Conservative Sprawl and Liberal Infill in the 21st-Century United States

Housing affordability is declining in the United States. To explain this phenomenon, many scholars and policymakers point to slowing construction, which they argue is particularly troublesome in co...

tandfonline.com

Nice piece by Dennis Culhane on how to reduce homelessness: www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

How Can We Reduce Homelessness? These Success Stories Point the Way

Programs aimed at families and veterans offer a road map to address the problem in the coming decades.

wsj.com