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Elisa Xi Chen

@elisaxchen.bsky.social

Artist cursed to be a female economist in this life. PhD student @Harvard. Building a Roman Empire: Labor, AI, Education, Development, Gender https://elisaxchen.github.io/

77 Posts1140 Follower456 Folgt
Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 3w ago

And if you want to know how this will likely affect American citizens: force international students into STEM by making other majors impossible, you increase competition for STEM jobs and reduce your wage. Policies have consequences even when they do not target you personally.

Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Whenever a new hostile immigration policy comes out, there are always people saying, “It’s not that bad. Here’s why.” I’m an economist. I study policies at the margin. A policy may or may not affect you personally, but it will affect people whose lives hinge on that margin.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My new theory paper (early draft) A new reason why concentrated wealth destroys democracy: common ownership A standalone media owner maximizes profit. A common owner like Musk (who owns X + SpaceX) will run the media firm at a loss to increase the $ of his total portfolio tinyurl.com/mcekr7cd

Wealth Concentration and Democratic Erosion: A Theory of Media and Common Ownership* Jacob M. Grumbach„ June 18, 2026 Abstract I develop a model of how extreme wealth concentration harms democracy through a common ownership problem. A standalone profit-seeking media firm will maximize advertising revenue and audience size, producing content that is orthogonal to democracy. In contrast, an owner who controls both a media firm and other large firms can use the media firm to produce anti-democratic content, which reduces the profitability of the media firm but maximizes the profitability of the overall business portfolio through greater rents from an authoritarian leader (e.g., preferential regulatory treatment or public contracts). Anti-democratic content grows in the owner’s wealth and in the authoritarian premium, the differential value of concentrated capital under authoritarian governance. I theorize three extensions: an oligopolistic setting in which reduced democratic content is a common pool resource; an endogenous authoritarian premium based in the authoritarian’s targeting problem; and owners that vary in proactively or reluctantly supporting the authoritarian.
Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Wealth concentration was already way off the rails before Musk became a trillionaire. The wealthiest megabillionaires in the country have basically been doubling their wealth annually in recent years. Feels near impossible to maintain a liberal democracy in this kind of situation.

Internet Archive@archive.org · 3mo ago

🧵1/4 African folktales were once passed down through generations as community treasures. Today, many survive only through preservation efforts and digital access. 🌍 Laura Gibbs & Helen Nde fight to preserve African folktales before more cultural memory disappears 🕳️ 🔗 archive.org/details/vani...

Teal graphic quoting Helen Nde, African folklore scholar, for the Vanishing Culture series. Headline: "Why is it important to preserve African folktales?" with the quote "That's a culture that has either completely vanished or is vanishing."
Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I come from an immigrant community where so many of my friends’ families own ethnic diners and pubs. Many of them are struggling now, and NJ Senator Paul Moriarty’s SODA POP Act will help them survive. Support small homes for culture, memory, and community bonds. SIGN!!

NJ.com@nj.com · 3mo ago

Family-owned diners like Cherry Hill Diner and Collingswood Diner have closed permanently, prompting lawmakers to advance the Saving Our Diners and Preserving Our Past Act through committee.

Kolina Koltai@koltai.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Sorry for the delayed update, but the bill has passed! 🎉🎉🎉 It will go into effect in August. this really is the first law in the US explicitly prohibiting the technology/service of AI nudification/deepfake pornography. Would love to see this as a model nationwide www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...

Minnesota Gov. Walz signs first-of-its-kind law to stop AI being used for CSAM

Minnesota is now the first state in the country to enact a law that prohibits access to what's known as "nudification" technology​.

cbsnews.com

Kolina Koltai@koltai.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm tentatively excited about the potential passing of bill HF1606 in Minnesota. This bill will make it illegal for people to own a website, app, software, program, or other service to allow users to "nudify" images or videos and prohibit advertising such services. It passed 132-1 in the House

Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How much do we trust people’s texts as their revealed preferences? This paper is revolutionary to social sciences and everyone should pay attention to it.

Omar Wasow@owasow.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“Writing is hard.” Thrilled to share that this simple idea led to a new paper in Political Analysis! Where most text methods focus on content, I test if expression is also effortful action. I find simple measures like character counts reveal attitudes and predict voting. cup.org/4cUmoXi 1/

Text as Behavior Text as Behavior published in Political Analysis by Omar Wasow Abstract Text analysis typically focuses on content—such as sentiment or topic—but expression is also a form of effortful action. Building on this insight, I propose using simple features of open-ended tasks to study text as behavior. This approach treats expression, such as writing, as cognitively, emotionally and temporally “costly” for subjects but inexpensive for researchers. I show basic statistics like the number of characters can approximate effort and significantly improve estimation of quantities of interest, including candidate choice, the probability of turning out to vote and psychological states about which a subject may not be fully aware. Further, these methods can convert nonresponse into informative data; validate survey instruments; serve as mechanism checks; be hard for a subject to “game”; work across different languages and analogize well to real-world situations. In sum, text as behavior can help address a range of issues related to quantifying attitudes and actions.
Larry Glickman@larryglickman.bsky.social · 3mo ago

In my new piece in @theatlantic.com, I argue that the consensus about birthright citizenship extended far beyond elite legal circles to readers of newspaper advice columns and letters to the editor pages for well more than a century. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Americans Once Understood Birthright Citizenship

Newspaper columnists instructed generations of citizens about the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, the country seems to have forgotten how clear the law is.

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

@lgilbert.co told me about this magazine a few days ago and my first thought was: when can I publish here? Check it out, for development researchers, policy makers, overthinkers, contrarians, the justice-minded, the word-obsessed, dreamers, and poets.

Lauren Gilbert@lgilbert.co · 4mo ago

We've launched In Development! It is aiming to be the New Yorker for global development. We want to promote discourse on development without dogma - stories doing deep-dives into pressing development issues, backed up by evidence, argument, and experience. Subscribe here: indevelopmentmag.com

Anna Gifty@itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 5mo ago

Through #SINNERS, Ryan Coogler is giving us a masterclass in creating a legacy that outlasts you. Setting new precedents for Black directors, employing Black women and women of color, giving new and old generations opportunities to shine. May his cup runneth over for as long as he lives. #Oscars

Elisa Xi Chen@elisaxchen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Anna Gifty chatted with me about PhD programs when I was an anxious little predoc at UChicago in 2024. Her audacity is quite contagious, and I’ve been living my unabashedly audacious, beautiful life ever since.

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