A great table from Glen Wright’s Academia Obscura

We live in an era of “hot takes”, where being first to complain is often valued more than being right. But a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment project that could redefine Drew Park and the Dale Mabry Sports Corridor for the next half-century deserves more than a knee-jerk reaction. Let your elected officials and financial analysts do their due diligence, but demand that it be rigorous, transparent and grounded. Then let’s all sit down and determine whether a deal is truly worthy of all our trust.

Gosh, if only there was 50 years of research on this subject, which had reached a definitive conclusion that public stadiums are universally awful public investments....

The Legacy of Growing Up in a Recession on Attitudes Towards European Union: Despina Gavresi; Anastasia Litina

WP Alert: "Forecasting the Economic Effects of AI."

I understand why students don’t love spending a semester drawing supply and demand curves, but this is why we make people students spend a semester drawing supply and demand curves

When gender quotas protect the powerful: Lessons from China’s civil service. Guest post by Jiawei Lyu

In today's JMP blog, @jiaweilyu.bsky.social studies impact of affirmative action for men in China's civil service. Women outperform men in the entry exam, so quotas were introduced to balance gender. Fewer women were hired, quality declined, & tax collected fell. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?

The Role of Race in the Legal Representation of Low-Income Defendants (Forthcoming Article) - Little is known about the role of race in the defense of low income defendants by court-appointed attorneys. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of court-appointed attorneys...

Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "The Role of Race in the Legal Representation of Low-Income Defendants" by Maya Mikdash and Suhyeon Oh. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Denver Broncos to pay $46M for Burnham Yard — less than the state did Colorado is selling the land at a loss, having paid $50 million for the 58-acre property in 2021.

Surprise! The state is selling the Broncos land for its new stadium at a loss.

Up to $142M in economic benefits could come from being World Cup-adjacent, one city finds Decatur, Georgia, could see as many as 10,000 visitors a day during the FIFA World Cup soccer events in nearby Atlanta, according to an economic impact report.

Decatur, GA claims it will benefit to the tune of $142M from World Cup games in Atlanta.

Let's just say I would take the under on that bet.

www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/fifa-wo...

🚨Replication alert🚨
I'm pleased to announce that my replication of Moretti (2021) is now accepted as a comment at AER.

I find ten issues in the paper. My comment focuses on two major problems; in the appendix, I document eight (relatively) minor problems.

1/

🔴 I’m on the #EconJobMarket this year‼️

🔍 My job market paper asks whether paternity leave affects intimate partner violence #IPV

🧵Thread below:

Breaking News - Chattanoogan.com County Attorney Janie Parks Varnell said in a letter that a lack of development around the new Erlanger Park is poised to harm taxpayers. She said under current projections the delay would result in an approximate shortfall of $880,000 per year, or approximately $73,300 per month." A large portion of that amount had been projected to be covered by incremental tax revenue generated by the area around the stadium, which is set to open in a month as the new home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. The letter was sent to master site developer Jim Irwin and Gary Chazen and Andy Stone of Perimeter Properties, owner of the foundry site. Mr. Stone and Mr. Irwin said, “We have participated ... (click for more)

If only there had been some sort of indication that this is exactly what would happen...

County Attorney Says Lack Of Development At Stadium Site To Hurt Taxpayers - Chattanoogan.com share.google/n3gN92vAxDpe...

Description of the figure: AI intensity across European regions (left panel) and the cumulative change in the labour share between 2000 and 2017 (right panel). In regions with higher AI intensity, the labour income share tended to decrease during the overall time span. The swift rise of artificial intelligence is raising fundamental concerns about the future of work. This column uses data from 238 regions across 21 European countries to examine how AI-related innovation influences the distribution of income between labour and capital, and among different skill classes of labour. Regions with more intense AI patenting tend to experience a decline in the labour share of income, especially in areas with a strong industrial base, indicating that AI acts as a capital-biased innovation. Without appropriate policy intervention, this trend could exacerbate existing inequalities.

Antonio Minniti, Klaus Prettner, Francesco Venturini, & David Bloom find that European regions with more intense #AI patenting tend to experience a decline in the labour share of income, indicating that AI acts as a capital-biased innovation.
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky

NAASE invites nominations for the 2026 Larry Hadley Service Award recipient. Nominations should explain how the person “has distinguished herself or himself through service to NAASE and the field of sports economics” and be sent to Frank Stephenson (Berry College) by 3/31/26.

NAASE invites nominations for the positions of President-elect (to serve 2026-2028, then 2028-2030 as president) and at-large executive committee member (2026-2030). Nominations should be sent to the chair of the nominating committee Mike Leeds (Temple University) by March 31, 2026.

📢 Open Call for Chapter Contributions – Financial Mismanagement and the Soft Budget Constraint in Sport

We are pleased to announce an open invitation to contribute to a new edited volume exploring financial mismanagement in sport through the lens of the Soft Budget Constraint (SBC) 🧵👇

NAASE is organizing sessions for the SEA conference to be held in Houston, TX Nov 21-23, 2026.

To submit a paper, please email Frank Stephenson (Berry College) by March 28:
--Name, affiliation, and email for presenter and all coauthors
--The paper's title and abstract.
--Two JEL codes

Plot with error bars of change in traffic fatalities versus day relative to album release

bar plot showing the number of traffic fatalities on "Non-album release days" and "Album release days"

US traffic fatalities increased 15% on the release days of the top 10 most-streamed albums. That's 18 more deaths per day

new research from Patel @chrisworsham.com Liu & Jena

Based Bears proposed uses at AH, I estimate the value of the property assessment freeze to the Bears in HB2789 is worth about $2b over 30 years, or $67 million a year before PILOT. I low ball multiple things to create lower limit. I wouldn't be surprised to see the est closer to $3b at build out.

This is on a different planet when it comes to bad analysis.

We have a contender for the wrongest thing written on the internet this week. Economists will tell you *the exact opposite* of this.

Following a trip to the Second Circuit on an appeal by Defendants of the Court’s March 1, 2023, Order at Dkt. 76 (“March 1 Order”), which resulted in an appellate decision favorable to Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs filed a motion asking the Court to reconsider aspects of the Court’s March 1 Order that were adverse to Plaintiffs (and thus were not appealed by Defendants). Dkt. 153. Plaintiffs’ Motion is GRANTED. Defendants’ Motion to Compel Arbitration at Dkt. 47 is now DENIED in full. All of the claims of Plaintiffs Brian Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton against the NFL and various member teams may now proceed in this Court.

FOOTBALL & RACE 🧵
1/ Four years ago, Brian Flores sued the NFL alleging that the "Rooney Rule" requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching vacancies is a sham.

Today, the judge ruled that ALL claims must be litigated, not arbitrated.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

World Cup hosting expected to bring global attention, economic boost to Cobb MARIETTA — After a busy year of hosting major sporting events in 2025, Cobb and Atlanta’s hosting duties will catapult to the global level this year when the FIFA World

Why do these stories persist? Megaevents have been well-studied by economists and determined that the economic impacts are tiny. And any increase will barely ripple out to Cobb. Yet, this is the banner headline in today's MDJ.

Oregon bill offers Blazers owner all income taxes from in and around arena in exchange for not threatening to move yet The Portland Trail Blazers are in the middle of being sold to Carolina Hurricanes owner/subprime auto loan baron/"glass chewer" Tom Dundon, and apparently the threat of the team's expiring lease in…

We've got to start electing better people. There is zero legitimate policy justification for this. Oregon voters probably don't like this either. Vote these incompetent jerks out.

The Physician-Patient Match and Health Inequality Abstract. This study explores the impact of primary care physicians’ childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on their patients’ health and socio-economic inequality in health. We measure physicians’ SES by their parents’ education and find that SES concordance decreases low-SES patients’ mortality substantially, while high- SES patients’ mortality does not depend on their physicians’ family background, resulting in a reduction in the SES-mortality gradient of 25%. SES concordance improves low-SES patients’ health by increasing care at the intensive margin, increasing detection of chronic conditions, and improving adherence to treatment. SES concordance elevates communication, fosters empathy and trust between physicians and low-SES patients.

Physician–patient SES match improves low-SES health, reducing socio-economic health inequality. Just Accepted new paper by Ida Lykke Kristiansen @idalykkekr.bsky.social and Sophie Yanying Sheng zurl.co/R7Sx8

My article (with @bradhumphreys.bsky.social ) "Yes, There is an Economic Consensus That Professional Sports Facilities are Inadvisable Public Investments" is now published in Economic Development Quarterly. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

📣Hi #EconSky! I am on the job market! 📣
My JMP builds a 20-year panel showing an after-school care reform increased university grad. rates. 🎓
The key: moving children from home 🏠 to care centers 🧑‍🧒‍🧒, where peer interactions shaped preferences and beliefs — not skills🧮.

For more: sevinkaytan.com

Identifying the general equilibrium effects of narcotics enforcement I analyze the demand side impacts of a supply-side intervention into the market for illegal drugs in what has been described as America’s largest open…

Happy to finally have this paper out now in JUE. It's open access.

Cell phone location data can reflect what's happening in illicit markets and well targeted narcotics enforcement efforts can reverberate regionally.

Anyways here's the link:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Your reminder that local elections matter, and we need to elect better people. This is *indefensible* public policy. There's no reasonable expectation that spending $250 million of taxpayer money to upgrade an NHL arena might promote community welfare. None.

3rd UMBC Sports Economics Conference
June 9th through June 11th, 2026 at
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Any topic in sports economics and sports management. Submit paper titles and a 200-word abstract to Dennis Coates coates@umbc.edu. Submissions should arrive by March 1st.