Chinemelu Okafor
@chinemeluokafor.bsky.social
Fourth-year PhD Candidate at Harvard University studying political economy🧚🏿♀️ White House CEA (2023-2024) www.chinemeluokafor.com
“Maxxing” is an online trend applied to advice for aspects of health including sleep, diet and fertility. But much of this maxxing advice can be unhelpful or unhealthy or go against the steady, personalized changes many experts recommend. https://cnn.it/3RqOhyo
It's impossible to ignore the stories to be found around every street corner in Iowa City, a laid-back Midwestern destination that has become the engine room of literary America. https://cnn.it/4wQtdjR
Serbian President Vucic announced he’ll resign after 18 months of student protests. That’s Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar, Bulgaria, Hungary, and now Serbia, all in the past two years. Anti-corruption is the most potent force for positive political change right now. The US remains ripe.
Serbian President Vucic says he will resign within weeks
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday he would resign within weeks and the country will hold early presidential and parliamentary elections, following 18 months of anti-government prote...
reuters.com
I genuinely cannot get over how incredible this paper is from top to bottom. Easily the best paper I’ve read all year. 📚🤓
The Quarterly Journal of Economics@qjeharvard.bsky.social · 3w ago#QJE Aug 2026, #11, “Praying for Rain,” by Espín-Sánchez, Gil-Guirado and Ryan: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
#QJE Aug 2026, #11, “Praying for Rain,” by Espín-Sánchez, Gil-Guirado and Ryan: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
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doi.org
"We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth is that America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place .... You each hold a special power. The power to determine what America means." www.nyc.gov/mayors-offic...
Remarks as Prepared: Mayor Mamdani Delivers Address Marking America’s 250th Birthday
nyc.gov
There is nothing more patriotic than wanting better lives for your neighbors.
Mamdani: "Those who led through exclusion & isolation have tried to win power & enrich themselves by turning us against one another ... today, too many of our leaders do not believe in a vision of this nation as an asylum for the persecuted, but rather as one that persecutes those seeking asylum"
“The party base is looking for fighters and disrupters—and will cast aside solid politicians who they don’t think will aggressively battle Donald Trump, MAGA, and right-wing billionaires.” Latest from @perrybaconjr.bsky.social
The Left Wins in Colorado—and It’s Not Because of Gaza or Socialism
What the insurgent wave in Democratic primaries really proves is this: It’s no longer enough to be a liberal who votes the right way most of the time.
newrepublic.com
If you want to make the world a better place, you (yes, you!) are going to need to sacrifice a little sometimes. You’re going to need to pay taxes, you’re going to need to turn the A/C down you’re going to need to be a little less comfortable sometimes. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you.
🗣️ Published today in @aeajournals.bsky.social. Ethan Lewis and I use a visa lottery, as a nationwide randomized experiment, to test the effects of foreign labor on US firms and workers. doi.org/10.1257/app.... A concise summary from @nber.org —> www.nber.org/digest/20221...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s proposed limits.
That's right
Mike Frank@mcxfrank.bsky.social · last mo.Most of the statistical tests you learned in stats class — t-test, ANOVA, correlation — are actually special cases of a single thing: linear regression. Ch 7 of Experimentology argues that thinking in models, not tests, is more flexible and a better foundation for theory. 🧵 experimentology.io
A rent freeze tastes pretty sweet.
A rent freeze tastes pretty sweet
YouTube video by NYC Mayor's Office
youtu.be
🆕 Why Nigeria's smallholders remain stuck: Seeds, credit, and missing data Today on VoxDev, Khadijat B. Amolegbe (University of Ilorin) discusses why seed failures, credit exclusion, and poor data trap Nigeria's smallholders: https://ow.ly/EiAQ50ZgLCq
Why Nigeria's smallholders remain stuck: Seeds, credit, and missing data
Despite contributing nearly a quarter of GDP and employing half the workforce, Nigeria's agricultural sector is trapped in low productivity by mutually reinforcing barriers: dysfunctional seed systems, credit market exclusion, absent farmer registries, and federal–state coordination failures. Closing these gaps requires not piecemeal programmes but systemic investment in identification infrastructure, pluralistic seed supply, and risk-sharing mechanisms capable of reaching the most constrained smallholders.
ow.ly
🆕 Institutions, not innovation, are the barrier to Nigeria's agricultural productivity growth Today on VoxDev, Khadijat B. Amolegbe (University of Ilorin) discusses how institutional failures prevent Nigeria's smallholders from adopting technology: https://ow.ly/fxiP50ZgLSH
Institutions, not innovation, are the barrier to Nigeria’s agricultural productivity growth
Nigeria’s agricultural productivity deficit stems from overlapping institutional failures across seed supply, credit, insurance, extension, market access, and land tenure that collectively prevent smallholder farmers from adopting or benefiting from technologies that demonstrably work. Addressing these constraints requires coordinated investment in farmer identification systems, seed certification, and climate-adaptive tools, sustained across complex federal governance architecture.
ow.ly
🆕 Do protests work? Why political alignment determines economic redistribution Today on VoxDev w/ Belinda Archibong (Johns Hopkins University), Chinemelu Okafor (Harvard University ), Evans Osabuohien (Covenant University) & Tom Moerenhout (Columbia University): https://ow.ly/Sf3Y50Zg99M
Do protests work? Why political alignment determines economic redistribution
Evidence from Nigeria shows that protests can influence fiscal redistribution, but the manner and direction depend critically on the political relationship between disbursing governments and protesting regions.
ow.ly
Elif Shafak: “We’re living in [an] age that constantly tells us we have to think in dichotomies: are you one of us? Are you one of them? … What literature does is it melts away those dualities” – Part II of her interview with @afsee-lse.bsky.social #LSEInequalitiesBlog
How storytelling can transcend “us vs them” thinking – Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak on how storytelling can foster more pluralistic worldviews that counter “us vs them” thinking and teaching inequalities in ways which foster agency
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Research shows more and more people in the United States are becoming clinically addicted to ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs, that fill up to 70% of grocery store shelves. https://cnn.it/4vRnRUK
The performers for the Obama Presidential Library opening on June 18 have been announced: Stevie Wonder John Legend Jennifer Hudson The Roots Bruce Springsteen Christina Aguilera Marsai Martin Common U2’s Bono and The Edge Eddie Vedder Marc Anthony Tems
What happens when efficiency becomes the goal of policy? Philosopher Philip Kitcher (@columbiauniversity.bsky.social) argues prioritizing productivity has crowded out ethics, contributing to an "erosion of kindness." Listen to his full conversation with @durlauf.bsky.social here → bit.ly/4a03FI1
New technologies do not automatically benefit workers, even when they increase total productivity. The British economy boomed in the early Industrial Revolution, but workers did not reap the benefits. Read more on our Substack, The Work Ahead: mitstonecenter.substack.com/p/what-can-t...
ACES is pleased to announce the recipients of its Dissertation Fellowship and Research Awards! Congratulations to Guillermo Woo-Mora of the Paris School of Economics and EHESS for the top prize. acesecon.org/aces-dissert...
Americans say they want less inequality. Why don’t they support policies to reduce it? New paper: across 31 nationally representative survey waves (N=384,248) and a preregistered experiment (N=1,009), Americans favor PREdistributive over REdistributive policies 🧵 osf.io/preprints/so...
