Four charts showing the extent of cuts to NASA in the FY26 budget:

- Cuts to every science division
- Smallest science funding since 1984
- 19 active, inflight missions cancelled
- Smallest NASA budget since FY 1961

This has been a major puzzle for energy/dev: Electrification is essential for a modern economy, but WTP in developing contexts (and impacts) seem quite low.

There's a JMP this year from Abdou Cisse @ Berkeley ARE that helps explain why: ⬇️ reliability, ⬇️ WTP. Impressive paper.

www.acisse.com

Second, can minor interventions help?
Increasing the font size of ratings reduced cancellations by 71.7%, effectively eliminating racial bias.
Displaying names upfront? Less effective. While there was a 30% reduction, it wasn’t statistically significant.

Excited to share our new working paper! A simple informational intervention dramatically reduces statistical discrimination in ride-sharing platforms.