This looks like the most fantastic postdoc position ever 👇👇

Apply now!

In our new research paper (joint work with Leander Andres, Gordon B. Dahl, Helmut Rainer, and Simone Schueller), we show that birthright citizenship substantially declines youth crime of children born to migrant families. Here are more details of the study design, data, results, and mechanisms:

Top DOJ antitrust official Gail Slater objected that a merger was illegal because economists had found it would hurt consumers.

The companies’ lobbyists talked to the US President.

She was quickly fired.

Our great American institutions are being perverted and corrupted. It will harm all of us.

Is Medicare Advantage still attracting the healthiest seniors? 🏥

New research shows a shift: Since 2017, MA enrollees actually have 5-6% higher predicted costs than Traditional Medicare.

The driver? A growing share of dual-eligible enrollees. tinyurl.com/2ef6v8e8

Competing Demographic Drivers of Hospital Expenditures: Coexistence of the Red Herring and the Steepening Effects The fiscal sustainability of healthcare systems is increasingly strained by aging populations with two competing hypotheses dominating the literature. The Red Herring Hypothesis suggests that…

Is aging really what drives rising hospital spending? 🏥

New evidence shows a more nuanced story: the “steepening” effect explains ~60% of growth, while the time-to-death effect offsets ~19%.

Demographics matter, but not in the way many assumed. tinyurl.com/5n85886e

Legalizing online sports betting may carry hidden public health costs.

New evidence shows a ~10% rise in binge drinking among young men after legalization—driven by more frequent episodes among existing binge drinkers, not new drinkers.

Policy spillovers matter. tinyurl.com/5ykmw8fu

NIH grant terminations affected women scientists more than men, study finds A new paper shows that women, particularly those early in their careers, have been disproportionately affected by NIH grant terminations.

No one could have foreseen this.

www.statnews.com/2026/03/23/n...

“This is about centralized control. About requiring that every research priority, every identified gap, every targeted funding decision be approved by political appointees rather than scientific program staff.” Elizabeth Ginexi.

The figure shows reports of economic insecurity plotted against earnings from paid work. Earnings increase from left to right. At zero, earnings cross the Carer's Allowance limit of around 150 GBP per week. Past this limit, a carer loses eligibility for the allowance. Carers who never report receipt of the allowance in the survey experience less and less insecurity when their earnings are higher. For those with a history of benefit receipt, instead, insecurity doesn't decline smoothly. Arrears, the inability to save regularly, and money worries all spike past the earnings limit set by the allowance.

For unpaid #carers, earning more does not always lead to economic security.

Motivated by the recent #Carer's #Allowance scandal, I have a new working paper @usociety.bsky.social on how much insecurity carers experience, for how long, who's most exposed and why:

osf.io/preprints/so... 1/2

The Iran War Is Creating a Public Health and Environmental Crisis The United States and Israel's war against Iran is creating a public health and environmental crisis, as attacked oil depots spew toxins.

I wrote about how the war in Iran is affecting public health and the environment for @rollingstone.com

'Catastrophic,' Says UNICEF: 1,100+ Children Killed or Wounded in Mideast Since US-Israel Launched Iran War | Common Dreams Since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran, more than 1,100 children have been killed or injured across the Middle East, UNICEF said, calling for a swift diplomatic resolution.

horrific

Exploring Home and Community-Based Service Needs Among Rural Family Caregivers of Older Adult US Veterans - Elizabeth Marfeo, Elizabeth Chamberlin, Maria Venegas, Victoria Ngo, Steven D. Shirk, Bret H... Objectives With an aging population and rural workforce shortages, family caregivers face growing demands. Caregivers’ ability to continue providing care depend...

New publication 🚨
Grateful for the family caregivers who took time to share with us their experiences of managing care, medical visits, and accessing home and community based services. #Qualitative #Research #RuralHealth

Exclusive | National Bureau of Economic Research Cuts Ties With Larry Summers The former Treasury secretary and Harvard president is no longer affiliated with America’s leading economics organization.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

The Criminal Justice team at Arnold Ventures is looking for a pending/recent PhD with strong causal inference skills, for a remote, part-time consulting position.

This is a great opportunity for someone considering a transition from academia to the policy space.

Deadline: March 15

Please share!

Why now is the time to be loudly anti-war We don't need the clarity of hindsight to know war in Iran—or anywhere—will end in physical, moral and financial ruin.

New — My case for why it’s not enough to call this “Trump’s war” when violence abroad implicates us all, and how we don’t need hindsight to know that unequivocally opposing this war will be the correct (and only morally defensible) choice:

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Are you a PhD student/postdoc/early-career scholar studying immigration?

Want to spend time this summer in Mexico City w other immigration scholars?

Apply to the UC Davis Global Migration Center summer school!

I'll be there w 3 other amazing economists!

globalmigration.ucdavis.edu/summer_school3

Repositioning care in economics: concepts, measurement, and policy implications Abstract. Care work, encompassing childcare, eldercare, disability care, household maintenance and emotional support, sustains the human capabilities upon

In their introduction to the OxREP’s issue on the economics of care, @profemilyjones.bsky.social , @isabel-ruiz.bsky.social, and Sarita Undurraga argue in favour of centring care in economic analysis. It is integral to the capabilities underpinning economic activity.
doi.org/10.1093/oxre...

The Trump administration is restructuring federal health agencies to implement a new policy agenda. Central to this agenda is the Make America Healthy Again movement, which prioritizes individual solutions to broader public health problems, disregards science and scientific institutions, and aligns closely with the “wellness” industry. While it is normal for each administration to establish its own public health priorities, previous administrations did not dismantle existing institutions to do so. In contrast, this administration is consolidating power and actively politicizing the federal health bureaucracy, undermining scientific expertise and agency independence in the process. These changes are likely to have lasting impacts on both federal health agencies and public health that will extend well beyond the current administration.

Open-access scholarly piece in @jhppl.bsky.social about RFK's assault on public health institutions by @pamherd.bsky.social
read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

Denmark’s childcare and parental leave policies erase 80% of the ‘motherhood penalty’ Strong financial support from the government can make motherhood more affordable and promote gender equality in economic resources.

A new article from The Conversation explores the effects of Denmark's policies on mothers' wages: tinyurl.com/39s6ukkc

Two JMF articles are featured: one examining fathers' wages, one testing how paternity leave affects the gender wage gap:
tinyurl.com/mtnwhymt
tinyurl.com/ntrtxyh5

Can feed algorithms shape what people think about politics? Our paper "The Political Effects of X's Feed Algorithm" is out today in Nature and answers "Yes."

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This thread shows a deliberate defunding of U.S. science, engineering, social science, innovation, and education excellence. It’s a U.S. national security, competitiveness, and economic disaster.

A new blog post co-written by our own @aaronsojourner.org, Colleen Manchester, and @gsgoda.bsky.social on saving, exponential growth, and financial education.

More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment by Chloe Gibbs, Esra Kose, and Maria Rosales-Rueda Abstract: Women’s employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers’ labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers’ employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal labor market outcomes.

🚨🚨 It's new research week for me on the socials! 🚨🚨

First up, just released today as an NBER working paper:

"More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment" with fantastic coauthors Esra Kose and Maria Rosales-Rueda

www.nber.org/papers/w34831

Reforming Long-Term Care Policy A summary of the current long-term care crisis, how we got here, options for reforming federal policy, and the costs of the status quo to the people affected.

Long-term care is an expensive problem for older adults, their caregivers, and the broader health care system.

How did we reach this point—and what policy solutions could chart a better path forward? Explore our recent Policy Brief. https://bit.ly/3MriUka

The Caregiver Artificial Intelligence Prize Challenge | ACL Administration for Community Living

Time to start looking at the odds for #SOTU. What are the chances that #caregiver or #caregiving get a mention?

Maybe tied to the new #AI challenge: acl.gov/caregiver-ai...

Major news outlets: Please consider prominently reporting what this all-star team of researchers has found.
www.nber.org/papers/w34791

Reimagining Support for Family Caregivers and Their Loved Ones Family caregivers face an immense burden. Duke population health researchers are gathering evidence to show what type of care leads to the best physical and mental health for the care recipients, and ...

Nice coverage of some of the caregiver research Megan Shepherd-Banigan and I are involved in. The Duke Daily. medschool.duke.edu/news/reimagi...