From The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge by Abraham Flexner (1939)

Everything you need to know about a PhD in economics A set of answers to many of the most common questions about economics PhDs, including: What is an economics PhD? Should I do an economics PhD? And how should I prepare and apply to a PhD programme?

🆕 Everything you need to know about a PhD in economics

In this blog post, @AbdouNdiayeNYU provides a set of answers to many of the most common questions about economics PhDs: voxdev.org/topic/everyt...

📢 International migration is one of the most powerful tools available for poverty reduction and economic development.

At our VoxDevLit launch event on January 14, Dean Yang will summarise evidence on international migration.

Register➡️ https://ow.ly/y5n150XRWT9

Elon Musk teams with El Salvador to bring Grok chatbot to public schools President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself ‘MechaHitler’ to create ‘AI-powered’ curricula

Watching how this will go...

‪
With @jeromevalette.bsky.social & Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, we are happy to announce the CfPapers for the

4th edition of the Junior Workshop on the Economics of Migration

on May 26-27, 2026 @uc3meconomics.bsky.social, Spain.

Submit until February 1, 2026 on economig2026.sciencesconf.org

The potential benefits of migration are not identical everywhere.

This remarkable new resource from @niskanencenter.bsky.social maps the US counties where the economic benefits of immigration might be highest —>

www.niskanencenter.org/mapping-amer...

What’s the Latest Research on Human Development in Economics? A Roundup from NEUDC 2025 Earlier this month, the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference hosted presentations of more than 150 recent economic development studies. We went through each of those 60+ st...

The North East Universities Development Consortium conference showcased 150+ new economic development studies.

@daveevansphd.bsky.social and Almedina Music break down 60+ of them, highlighting insights on childhood development, education, and more 👇
https://go.cgdev.org/43HWh0S

Reminder, last couple of weeks to get your papers in for a special issue of the WBER on migration and development.

Although machine learning models using mobile phone data can make poverty targeting faster and more cost-effective, traditional survey-based methods remain more accurate.

Read today's article to learn more:

In El Salvador, extreme heat lowers agricultural productivity and rural incomes, pushing farmers – especially those with strong migrant networks – to use international migration as a climate adaptation strategy.

Read today's article to learn more:

*** NEW RESEARCH ALERT ***

How do firms respond in the face of increased restrictions to hiring skilled immigrant workers?

[THREAD]

"The head of the American Immigration Lawyers Association decried bringing in temporary judges who lack expertise in immigration law, saying 'it makes as much as sense as having a cardiologist do a hip replacement.'"

Back to teaching or studying economics at university this September?

@voxdev.bsky.social has tons of useful resources for university economics courses - I have included some examples in this thread. 1/n

Call for Papers: The Role of SDRs for Global Stability and Sustainable Economic Transformation, Columbia University, December 5, 2025 - Initiative for Policy Dialogue Submission Deadline: September 15, 2025, 11:59 pm EDT

👉Call for papers by @ipdcolumbia.bsky.social

The Role of SDRs for Global Stability and Sustainable Economic Transformation

Deadline: Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, at 11:59 PM
Conference date: Friday, Dec. 5, 2025

More info: ipdcolumbia.org/event/call-f...

On the Move: Rapidly Evolving Migration Trends and Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean - September 8, 2025 webinar

🌎 No region has experienced greater migration growth since 2010 than Latin America & the Caribbean.

Join our discussion on the migration story reshaping the Americas

If pundits would like to talk about violence, a terrorist recently shot up the CDC and another assassinated Democratic officials in Minnesota but they sort of let both stories disappear

Not as threatening as motorbikes in DC I know but maybe we could circle back?

Per Friends of BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics has lost 20% of its staff since Jan, including 1/3 of leadership.
As I wrote in July, I requested these figures at least a dozen times from BLS/DOL. They blew me off. Other agencies have sustained similar losses
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

📄📄📄Call for Papers is open!
RFBerlin invites submissions for the next Migration Forum "Migration: Drivers, Consequences, and Governance". Submit your work now and share this call with colleagues.
Submit now: app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/79526...
#Migration #Governance #callforpapers

Here is a screenshot, for when the Dept. of Justice is ordered to suppress those facts —> www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/v...

Graph of the effects of job mentoring on employment among asylum seekers. The number of people fleeing war and persecution worldwide has nearly tripled since the early 2010s, challenging European policymakers to ensure swift integration of asylum seekers into the labour market. This column assesses a pilot programme in Italy that provides early, personalised labour market support to asylum seekers. Even in resource-constrained settings, the early targeted support led to a 30% net increase in employment, improved the quality of employment, boosted language proficiency, and fostered greater social integration with the local communities.

Early targeted labour market support to asylum seekers = 30% net increase in employment, improved the quality of employment, boosted language proficiency, & fostered greater social integration with the local communities.
G Abbiati, E Battistin, P Monti, P Pinotti
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky

#Job alert | We are hiring a consultant #EvaluationSpecialist

Join us to help shape evidence-informed development in LMICs!

🗓️ Apply by 19 July 2025
🔗 3ieinternational.my.salesforce-sites.com/careers/fRec...
#DevJobs #MEL #ImpactEvaluation

🆕 Why ‘Brain Drain’ is an incomplete story of migration 📢

Today on VoxDevTalks, @catiabatista.bsky.social (@novafrica.bsky.social) & Caroline Theoharides (Amherst College) discuss the channels through which emigration can benefit origin countries: voxdev.org/topic/migrat...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Rapid Response Data Briefing: American Time Use Survey. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Did you know that the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) is up for renewal? Join us to learn: - What's in the ATUS? - Why is ATUS important? - What are the risks facing its continued collection and publi...

The American Time Use Survey is up for renewal, or cancellation.

OMB is gathering input on the data's importance.

@ipums.bsky.social organized a rapid response briefing to equip us with tools to effectively comment.
#EconSky #sociology #policysky

Register:
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The tragic Texas flood warning failure is a reminder: Government protections, like vaccines, save countless lives, but require trust and upkeep to work their quiet magic. When politicians claim these systems do more harm than good, people die. And we’re about to relearn that lesson, again and again.

Striking graph in the FT on how migrants drove the Biden boom. Also includes this stat: "60 per cent of the top US-based artificial intelligence companies had at least one immigrant founder" 1/2 on.ft.com/44frdpU

When we said the United States delivered people to a Salvadoran “torture prison,” it was no exaggeration.

Ábrego García:
- Was beaten with batons
- Was forced to kneel overnight, beaten if he collapsed, made to soil himself
- Heard screams as gang members freely harmed each other
- Lost 31 pounds

You've heard about how ICE deported a bunch of adults to a Salvadoran torture prison based on their tattoos. Did you know that the Big Beautiful Police State Act includes millions to identify "gang kids" the same way?

The White House has ordered the US Dept. of Justice to prioritize denaturalization: voiding the citizenship of US citizens.

Who will it denaturalize? "Any" case that it "determines to be sufficiently important".

Point 10 leaves the criteria opaque and arbitrary.

substack.com/redirect/169...

🧵1/4

🚨 We have finalized our DID textbook!
You’ve run out of excuses for sketchy pre-trends and mysterious TWFE coefficients.

📘 Credible Answers to Hard Questions: Differences-in-Differences for Natural Experiments
By Chaisemartin & D’Haultfœuille.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....