Steven N. Durlauf | Lightnews

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 1d

Fantastic opportunity!

Herman van de Werfhorst 🟥 @hermwerf.bsky.social · 1d

Come and do a PhD at the #EUI! We are five professors in sociology, within the department of Political and Social Sciences. Social stratification, education, family demography, analytical sociology, experimental sociology, it’s all here!

European University Institute @eui-eu.bsky.social · 24d

🚨 Applications Now Open for the EUI PhD Programmes 2026-2027!

📊 Economics |⚖️ Law |📘 History | 🏛 Political and Social Sciences

Join the EUI's 50th PhD cohort!

Apply by 15 January 2026 (14:00 CET) for the academic journey of a lifetime! 👉: eui.eu/phd

#EUIPhD #PhDOpportunity

Herman van de Werfhorst 🟥 @hermwerf.bsky.social · 1d

Come and do a PhD at the #EUI! We are five professors in sociology, within the department of Political and Social Sciences. Social stratification, education, family demography, analytical sociology, experimental sociology, it’s all here!

European University Institute @eui-eu.bsky.social · 24d

🚨 Applications Now Open for the EUI PhD Programmes 2026-2027!

📊 Economics |⚖️ Law |📘 History | 🏛 Political and Social Sciences

Join the EUI's 50th PhD cohort!

Apply by 15 January 2026 (14:00 CET) for the academic journey of a lifetime! 👉: eui.eu/phd

#EUIPhD #PhDOpportunity

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you!

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 1d

In contrast, I emphasized what I believe are unique types of distributional instabilities that can arise in growing societies, specifically as technical change occurs. And I questioned whether the selection mechanisms Sam described well capture history.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 1d

Sam's remarks were optimistic. He emphasized capacities of societies to act to reduce inequality and goes so far as to suggest that, in the spirit of Talcott Parson's evolutionary universals, more egalitarian societies are selected for over time.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 1d

Delighted to post this recording of my public conversation with Sam Bowles, moderated by @ethanbdm.bsky.social,
on Why Economic Inequalities Endure.

Our discussion ranges from the distant past to speculation on how AI will affect future inequality.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0C...

UChicago Stone Center | Why Economic Inequalities Endure

YouTube video by Harris Public Policy

www.youtube.com

Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 2d

It's not a perfect analogy but I've been thinking about this 1792 cartoon ever since I saw yesterday's photo

Caricature of Louis XVI ("The Last") drinking from a wine bottle. He wears "bourgeois" garb [think "dressed up Benjamin Franklin" with a black coat over white breeches shirt jacket etc) a red ribbon and crucially a "phrygian cap" (liberty cap) with a revolutionary tricolor cockade. Supposedly a scene from the Tuileries Palace June 20, 1792

Trump, grinning, with goofy thumbs up, next to Mamdani, in front of portrait of FDR at his desk.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 2d

Sam's thinking has also evolved in deep ways over time. His incredible interest in all domains of social science and his complete comfort in adapting his thinking are another type of courage.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 2d

Sam's dedication to understanding inequality and his particular modes of analysis were deeply controversial in the early parts of his career. This courage in challenging conventional paradigms regardless of professional cost are well known.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 2d

In my opinion, there is no economist who has contributed more to understanding inequality in the last 60 years than Sam Bowles.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 2d

Honored to introduce Samuel Bowles Public Lecture The Origin and Future of Inequality, part of 3 days organized by
@ucstonecenter.bsky.social.

Sam has been an inspiration, both intellectually and morally to me, as well as to so many in the profession.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV-9...

UChicago Stone Center | The Origin and Future of Economic Inequality by Samuel Bowles

YouTube video by Harris Public Policy

www.youtube.com

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 4d

Great paper with important implications for understanding life cycle inequalities. For example, one can see how strong memory of in labor market trajectories can lead to amplification of the experience of early career discrimination. Recommended!

NBER @nber.org · 9d

Studying the causal effect of different early career occupational experiences on labor market outcomes, from @jessebruhn.bsky.social, Jacob Fabian, Luke Gallagher, Matthew Gudgeon, Adam Isen, and Aaron R. Phipps www.nber.org/papers/w34463

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 5d

Very pleased that this interesting conversation between Doug Downey and @gtwodtke.bsky.social on schools and inequality has posted.

UChicago | Stone Center on Wealth Inequality & Mobility @ucstonecenter.bsky.social · 5d

Doug Downey wants to convince you that schools actually reduce inequality, not expand it. In his conversation with @gtwodtke.bsky.social, they examine how the education system likely compensates for SES gaps and why school reforms are a band-aid fix to root problems.
Listen now → bit.ly/48nPLij

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you @aeacswep.bsky.social.

Who will follow and do the right thing?

CSWEP @aeacswep.bsky.social · 5d

CSWEP strongly condemns Larry Summers’ behavior as revealed in the email correspondence with the late Jeffrey Epstein. While abuse of power in the economics profession is not new, rarely has the intent behind such abuse been so clearly stated.

CSWEP @aeacswep.bsky.social · 5d

CSWEP strongly condemns Larry Summers’ behavior as revealed in the email correspondence with the late Jeffrey Epstein. While abuse of power in the economics profession is not new, rarely has the intent behind such abuse been so clearly stated.

UChicago | Stone Center on Wealth Inequality & Mobility @ucstonecenter.bsky.social · 5d

Doug Downey wants to convince you that schools actually reduce inequality, not expand it. In his conversation with @gtwodtke.bsky.social, they examine how the education system likely compensates for SES gaps and why school reforms are a band-aid fix to root problems.
Listen now → bit.ly/48nPLij

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 7d

The proudest moment of my life was my admission to
Harvard in 1976. Today I am deeply ashamed. @harvard.edu must revoke Summers' University Professorship. His holding the school's highest honor debases the university and is an insult to every woman and person of color in the academic community.

The Harvard Crimson @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social · 8d

When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: Jeffrey E. Epstein.

Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.

As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson

When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender…

www.thecrimson.com

The Harvard Crimson @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social · 8d

When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: Jeffrey E. Epstein.

Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.

As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson

When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender…

www.thecrimson.com

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

9/To be clear, I do not dogmatically oppose price controls. FTR, I support higher minimum wages. But the failed price control policies described by the authors require that one make serious arguments about mechanisms producing welfare improvements treating implementation as more than details.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

8/ The Public Choice and Chicago Regulation Schools (I am a member of neither) critiques cannot simply be dismissed; they need to be addressed. Little is explained here. The time inconsistency problem cannot be wished away by sunset clauses.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

7/ What confidence should one have that a regulatory authority has the information to do this, let alone what confidence should one have that the political pressures associated with the regulatory agency will not cause the careful setting of controls to go awry?

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

6/One answer is that such argumentation is unneeded, which we are told should be set “carefully, temporarily and alongside measures that expand supply.” (Note the putative economists who are "terrified" of price controls are unanimous in supporting efforts to expand supply.)

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

5/Other potential justifications are possible, which involve thinking about the role of prices outside the Walrasian framework. Implicit contract theory and efficiency wage theories are classic examples in labor markets. Not obvious to me these would apply here.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

4/ I suspect that the authors are invoking this view in the narrow sense that short run housing supply is sufficiently inelastic to constitute a pure transfer from owners to renters.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

3/ A second possibility is that the reductions in supply induced by price controls are justified on social welfare grounds. This requires specifying the social welfare function and the price/quantity tradeoffs involved in the controls. Likely agree with authors’ social welfare functions, fwiw.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

2/ Such arguments can be made. One possibility is the presence of monopsony or monopoly power so that controls may be efficiency-enhancing in the usual sense. No evidence is provided here that the markets where they recommend intervention have this feature.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

T1/ his article deserves the Scottish verdict for op eds. It does not make the case for the policies it advocates.

The first problem is that the authors do not make clear arguments about the justification for price in housing and energy markets. Invocation of public support is not a justification.

New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 8d

In a cost-of-living crisis, the question for policymakers “isn’t whether to intervene, but how to do so in a way that delivers relief today without creating new problems tomorrow,” Neale Mahoney and Bharat Ramamurti write.

Opinion | Economists Hate This Idea. It Could Be a Way Out of the Affordability Crisis.

Voters are demanding short-term price relief, and temporary price controls may be the only viable way to provide it

nyti.ms

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

3/ One other point. The book is good on the failings of the Decembrists in terms of the aspirations of the non-Russian peoples of the empire as well as their retrograde (even for the times) attitudes concerning women.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

2/ The book is persuasive that the Decembrists on the seriousness of the Decembrists' thinking on political theory and the desired new regime. It also makes clear the comparative lack of clarity on transition had the revolt been successful.

Steven Durlauf @durlauf.bsky.social · 8d

1/ I highly recommend The First Russian Revolution by Susanna Rabow-Edling. She provides an extremely readable narrative history of the Decembrist Revolt. A path not taken? Too speculative. But certainly the book succeeds in demonstrating longstanding important liberal currents in Russian thought.

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news