The kids played legos all morning like it was 1990 or sitting something. Then they showed me their houses. "Mom, this breaks all the zoning rules!" My heart great three sizes.
Allison Shertzer
@econhist-allday.bsky.social
Economic historian of U.S. cities. Interested in infrastructure, land use regulation, and housing prices over the long run. Views expressed here are my own. Personal website at allisonshertzer.com.
I ended my last class today to my masters students who are graduating by saying “And if I could give you one piece of advice it would be…to never put grease down the drain.” Student in front row “WHAT? Why? I do that all the time.”
Excited to share a new @nber.org paper w/Blonz/Hossain/Mulder/Weill where we show credit scores impact homeowners insurance premiums as much as disaster risk. Here’s what happened in WA when they banned credit scoring:
My husband was watching the Muppets movie with the kids and was *delighted* when the villain of the film was shown reading the Economist. Does our profession have a branding problem?
One of the great experiments in space exploration history was putting one of these naval officer brothers in orbit while keeping the other on the ground. Talk about a good control group!
Captain Mark Kelly@captmarkkelly.bsky.social · 6mo agoFrom climbing on roofs, to falling out of trees, to flying airplanes off of ships and rockets into space, I’m kind of shocked both of us made it this far. Happy Birthday, Scott.
New year, new op-ed from me and Vincent Reina on the need for aggressive multifaceted action to address the housing affordability crisis: It’s not simply a zoning story! thehill.com/opinion/fina...
Don’t let this housing crisis go to waste
Overly restrictive zoning, cautious lending and anti-development politics created a long freeze in housing production.
thehill.com
Just looked in my son's room and I think I need to accept that he does not share my views on optimal urban transportation.
Join us Saturday at 10:15am for an #ASSA2026 session on Development of American Cities featuring papers on mortgage markets, slavery, migration & ghost towns by L D'Amico, S Naidu, T Jaworski, M Hoelzlein Discussants: @econhist-allday.bsky.social, S Heblich, @allie-green.com, @jeffrlin.bsky.social
HPV Vaccination Tied to Huge Reduction in Cervical Cancer Risk www.medpagetoday.com/hematologyon...
HPV Vaccination Tied to Huge Reduction in Cervical Cancer Risk
Two large meta-analyses reassure on safety, efficacy
medpagetoday.com
NYT: “.. high insurance costs are cascading into the broader real estate market, suppressing home values by an average of $44,000 in the top 10 percent of U.S. ZIP codes most vulnerable to hurricanes and wildfires ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
NEW: In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant. She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency. Then she died. www.propublica.org/article/texa...
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
propublica.org
🚀 I'm on the #EconSky Job Market! My JMP asks a classic question: Do large, dominant firms foster or hinder innovation? To study this, I turn to the Great Merger Wave (1895–1904), when >2,600 U.S. firms combined into corporate giants like U.S. Steel and DuPont. A JMP 🧵👇 (1/13)
After 15 years together, it was time to refresh DRECON.
Rick, you dropped this. 👑 Seriously what an incredible data project!
Rick Hornbeck@rickhornbeck.bsky.social · 10mo agoHi all, please spread the word and we hope everyone can make good use of this new data drop: cmfdata.org The full surviving establishment-level Census of Manufactures manuscripts and digitized data from 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880!
This Day in Labor History: October 26, 1825. The Erie Canal opened, eight years after construction commenced. This engineering marvel would have enormous impacts on the future of American work, including spurring ever-greater industrialization. It also killed over 1,000 workers building it!
Thrilled to work with @andrewvandam.bsky.social on this piece! wapo.st/46ZuESX
Column | The cities where home prices have changed the most (and least) over the past 130 years
Did your grandparents and great-grandparents really pay less for their homes than you did, even after inflation? The Department of Data might have the answer.
wapo.st
Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006,” by Lyons (@ronanlyons), Shertzer (@econhist-allday), Gray (@econhistoryorbust), and Agorastos: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006*
Abstract. We construct the first annual market rent and home sales price series for American cities over the 20th century using 2.7 million newspaper real
doi.org
@enghin-atalay.bsky.social, Ali Hortacsu, Nicole Kimmel, & Chad Syverson argue that standard measurements understate true #productivity growth in the US #manufacturing sector, especially in industries were it is difficult to track changes in quality growth. cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky
Mokyr's work could not have been done today in most economics departments, but the irony is that his work would not fit in history departments today, either. Methodologically he seems more 'history' than 'economics' to economists, but the content and reasoning are too 'economics' for most historians
Ronan is dropping more facts about the U.S. housing market over time and space using the HHP dataset: ronanlyons.substack.com/p/101-things...
101 things we now know about US housing markets (Part IV)
World War I and the Roaring Twenties
ronanlyons.substack.com
Help my colleague find all the ways in which his work is reaching your students!
James Feigenbaum@jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · last yr.Are any of my papers on your syllabus? Undergrad, PhD, econ history, or (preparing myself for crickets) a non-econ history class are all great. DMs are open and huge thanks in advance (I guess @barbarabiasi.com is a month ahead of me on tenure packet paperwork)
Examining the effects of public debt on municipal services and real outcomes during financial crises using data on US cities from 1924 to 1943, from Pawel Janas https://www.nber.org/papers/w34011
New release for the HHP project. We now have rent and sales price indexes for 30 cities along with rental yields, capital gains, and housing returns for the years 1890-2006. Online data viz tools and download here: www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-...
Historical Housing Prices Project
The Historical Housing Prices (HHP) Project at the Philadelphia Fed provides new data on the price of housing for sale and for rent over the 20th century using the real estate sections of historical n...
philadelphiafed.org
One of the most surprising details in the latest CPI: an increasing share of price data was estimated, not observed. In June, over 1/3 of #CPI imputations came from other items or locations likely due to budget cuts and staffing shortages at BLS. We can’t fight #inflation without reliable data.
