WATCH: Prof. @meganstevenson.bsky.social discusses the role of quantified metrics in democratic systems. @publicpolicylab.bsky.social

PPL15: On Value: Measurement, Democracy, and Design

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New paper by @meganstevenson.bsky.social now appearing @i4replication.bsky.social & forthcoming in the JEL. Economics is fundamentally about how incentives affect behavior — yet incentives in our own research practices are largely ignored. Humans in the loop! www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10...

Law professor friends, any suggestions for favorite papers on juvenile justice, public defense, or prosecutors? I'm looking for thought-provoking ideas that will generate good discussion in my seminar. Self-nominations welcome! #lawprof

Excited to share a new paper with @jfischman, just accepted at JEL. We argue that empirical research tends to be biased and overconfident due to a weakness in the dominant econometric framework: insufficient attention paid to humans “in the loop” with the research process. 1/

Holy crap we spent 11.3 *billion* in one week bombing the shit out of Iran

Excited to share a new paper with @jfischman, just accepted at JEL. We argue that empirical research tends to be biased and overconfident due to a weakness in the dominant econometric framework: insufficient attention paid to humans “in the loop” with the research process. 1/

I wonder how many law professors wrote two versions of an article about tariffs and have just decided which one to post.

I don't think it's wrong to have a warm relationship with somebody who‘s done some really shitty things in their life. Which means I don't get canceling most of the people in the Epstein files. I think I might be the only one here.

This is a good paper. There's a sort of parallel literature in psychiatry developing (though a bit later) around length of stay in mental hospitals, and suicide risk. Unemployment insurance and other social programs develop similar questions. Any recommendations for histories that connect this?

Megan Stevenson@meganstevenson.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/

Just built a skill in Cursor that automatically extracts every figure, table, and equation in a paper and puts them in sequential order in a PowerPoint presentation with the paper title on the first slide. So useful for teaching a paper! And so satisfying to have built this. :)

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/

I've been using Cursor but am just trying Claude Co-Work (Windows). Compared to Cursor, Claude is just terrible. Is this others' experience as well? Everyone seems to be raving about Co-Work, so I'm wondering if there's something weird going on with security on my computer that is messing things up.

Stevenson and Cox on Eugenic Criminology and the Birth of Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Justice / @meganstevenson.bsky.social lawlit.blogspot.com/2026/02/stev...

Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/

The president of the National Prison Association in 1915 called for abolishing prisons.

My sister is a goddamn genius. Just sayin’. @rebeccaste.bsky.social

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that there are no 4th Amendment rights in your Google search terms. When you search on Google, you tell them your search terms; the government can get those queries without a warrant. The third-party doctrine applies. www.pacourts.us/assets/opini...

PSA: does everyone know about the unclaimed funds thing? It seems like each state has a website where you can look for unclaimed funds, like checks you forgot to cash or whatever. I just got $2,000 back, spread across 5 different separate checks and 2 states.

I spoke with the @chronicle.com today about the Oklahoma woman with the zero grade. Link below, you may need to make a free account. nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

A Conservative Student Got a Zero on Her Paper about Gender. Did She Deserve It?

A University of Oklahoma student says a graduate student’s harsh grading of her assignment amounts to religious discrimination.

nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Alice is the gold standard of what Twitter was when it was great - how you could just find these brilliant, remarkable people with the kind of voices that rarely get platformed or taken seriously, and hear about their lives in their own words without intruding on them or demanding emotional labor

Last words from the inspirational disability activist, Alice Wong.

I'm sad to hear this. Alice Wong was an inspiration, a leader, and a visionary.

Phil Yu@angryasianman.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Alice Wong, writer and disability activist, has died. She was an educator and a communicator and a warrior who lit the way. I’m grateful to have crossed paths with her. Rest in peace.

So amazing to celebrate @payvandahdout.bsky.social on her tenure!! Brilliant scholar, extraordinary teacher, incredible colleague. A wunderkind!!

Here's a law professor lamenting the fads in legal theory popular among law professors that become popular for a decade or two and then fade away— written in 1950. Specifically, it's Roscoe Pound, reflecting on trends since he became a lawyer in 1890. jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcont...

When the literature systematically produces massive, unrealistic estimates, we should approach the research design as if there are flashing red lights and blaring sirens warning danger, not a "keep calm and ujive on."

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The takeaway seems to be: Keep calm and UJIVE (unbiased jackknife instrumental variables estimator) on!

Strong disagree. Judge IV is a high-variance, low-power estimator that tends to be extremely biased in the presence of publication bias and specification search. So proceed with caution and take those large effect size estimates with a grain of salt.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The takeaway seems to be: Keep calm and UJIVE (unbiased jackknife instrumental variables estimator) on!

MEDICAL research. This is such a travesty.

John Holbein@johnholbein1.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Look at the distribution of z-values from medical research!

It’s true. Not all of economics is totally insular.

Anna Gifty@itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 9mo ago

I don't know a single Black economist who doesn't cite widely and source inspiration from history, sociology, gender studies, Black studies, psychology, or a combination of all them. Stop saying all [fill in field experts] are the same when a search on #bluesky would disprove that in two seconds.

Many people know that there are multiple metrics for racial bias in algorithms -- and that they can yield *very* different results. In a new paper with Aurelie Ouss, we show the same is true for racial disparities in treatment effects. 1/ #econsky #polisky