Adam Sacarny
@asacarny.bsky.social
6.8K followers 540 following 240 posts

Associate Professor @columbiahpm.bsky.social visiting this fall @beckerfriedman.bsky.social. Also @nber.org & @j-pal.bsky.social. Economics & health policy. #econsky #healthpolicy #medsky 📈🚞🐈🗽🏳️‍🌈 http://sacarny.com Posts represent my views, not my employer's .. more

Economics 44%
Public Health 18%
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Reposted by Adam Sacarny

fishkin.bsky.social
I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
The 2025 academic econ job market is trending better than the first COVID market year but worse than the rest of 2019-present

www.davidvandijcke.com/joe_tracker/

asacarny.bsky.social
I think at Mailman at least there is an opportunity to request an extension, it isn't automatic. Just based on an email I saw from earlier this year. I'm not sure how hard it is to actually get the extension

asacarny.bsky.social
The bus I've been taking this week makes local stops then runs on the highway. Like the bus in the movie Speed. It's all I can think about on my way in.
Screenshot from the movie Speed of the bus making a high-speed turn surrounded by police vehicles

Reposted by Evan Roberts

asacarny.bsky.social
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the Broad Street pump! Sadly, I saw that the pump handle had been removed. I worked to reinstall the pump handle so local residents would not be deprived of this vital resource. So glad to bring some of the latest American public health ingenuity to London!
Selfie of me smiling in front of the Broad Street pump
dynarski.bsky.social
Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal
August 1, 2025
AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations


Statement from the American Economic Association on the
Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner

Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today.
The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day.
Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias.
The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity.
Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions.
We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure.

Lawrence Katz
President, American Economic Association
Katharine Abraham
President-Elect, American Economic Association
Karen Dynan
Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics
Kenneth Troske
Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

asacarny.bsky.social
Congrats Arrianna!!!
News reports say Columbia paid a "fine" of $200 million, which is grossly excessive, given the lack of any government authority to impose such a fine. On the blog, I parse the agreement and the stakes to explain what the dollar figure really reflects and its ominous implications. 👇
How Bad is the Columbia Settlement Agreement?
Reporting (e.g.,  in the NY Times ) on the settlement agreement between Columbia University and the United States government describes the $...
www.dorfonlaw.org

asacarny.bsky.social
If you end up using it please let me know how it goes! It seems like the RxNorm data is good for this application but would love confirmation...

asacarny.bsky.social
A lot of you have been asking how my 10 million beneficial nematodes are doing. Well the answer is that me and my 10 million microscopic sons are doing great! Thanks so much
asacarny.bsky.social
I know a lot is happening right now, so I want to pass along some happier news: I just purchased 10 million beneficial nematodes.

asacarny.bsky.social
Currently in an ASHEcon session where my collaborator will be presenting our paper so I’m covering my name tag and whispering to people in the audience that I heard the last paper is really good with a very solid identification strategy

asacarny.bsky.social
Just amateur horticulture

asacarny.bsky.social
I know a lot is happening right now, so I want to pass along some happier news: I just purchased 10 million beneficial nematodes.

asacarny.bsky.social
In a symptomatic coincidence, I literally just pulled up the wikipedia page on the Niemoller poem because it seemed relevant to ANOTHER issue

asacarny.bsky.social
Extremely bad news is right. And I worry the same forces are coming for federal health care data.
aaronsojourner.org
EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn.

BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS.
#EconSky
aaronsojourner.org
EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn.

BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS.
#EconSky

asacarny.bsky.social
The other thing that comes to mind: I seem to recall the IRB being one of many smoking guns in the LaCour scandal too

asacarny.bsky.social
Still, the proper channel is going to involve seeking a no human subjects research determination from the IRB which would typically involve a faculty PI. I'm guessing this did not happen lol

And it took me years to understand that this is the *correct* way to do QI work... many wasted hours on IRB🤦

asacarny.bsky.social
I don't want to enable any criminal masterminds here, and I doubt the grift was this advanced, but there are ways to evade review that look like "I'm helping this organization do quality improvement and the data sits with the org"

asacarny.bsky.social
… my concern would have been “you didn’t do a great job assessing quality so you need to either improve the method or caveat your findings more” and not “your data is fake lol”

asacarny.bsky.social
Like for example I peeked at the paper and I was immediately surprised he could assess the “quality” of the materials. Turns out this suspicion may have been warranted, per the link you shared. So if I read the paper as an advisor I’d probably flag it. But …

asacarny.bsky.social
Ugh it’s tough because pretty much everything we do (advising, peer review, collaboration [!!]) rests on the assumption that people are not making things up from whole cloth. idk how these systems can work if they are supposed to detect that too

asacarny.bsky.social
… rather than catapulting the results to international attention.”

I see this whenever I run an RCT and I’ve watched it play out in countless other RCTs too. The data never looks THAT nice and priors are almost never TOTALLY validated

asacarny.bsky.social
“Learning new things about the world is hard, and generally randomized trials on such a complex topic should show much more ambiguous results. The fact that the data was so beautiful and fit such a perfect narrative should have raised alarm bells …