Todd Pugatch
toddpugatch.bsky.social
Todd Pugatch
@toddpugatch.bsky.social

education and development economist at University at Buffalo @ubuffalo.bsky.social, dad, Red Sox fan

Education 55%
Economics 13%
At the airport ...

Too soon

Take my class (if you are a @ubuffalo.bsky.social student)!
Interested in exploring the causes of economic growth and development and the relationship between economic growth and income disparity?

Join us for our #Spring2026 session of Economic Development (ECO 416)!

#UBuffalo @ubartsandsciences.bsky.social

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Interested in exploring the causes of economic growth and development and the relationship between economic growth and income disparity?

Join us for our #Spring2026 session of Economic Development (ECO 416)!

#UBuffalo @ubartsandsciences.bsky.social

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

We’re excited to announce Innovation Day, sponsored by Arnold Ventures! This interactive event brings policymakers, practitioners & researchers together for meaningful, evidence-based conversations led by experts. Learn more & apply by January 30, 2026: aefpweb.org/innovati...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

📣 Call for speakers!

The 2026 MeasureDev conference will gather experts to explore how rapid changes in technology and computational methods are shaping empirical research.

Applications for speakers are now open until January 30. Apply today!

🔗: go.cega.org/measuredev-2026
MeasureDev 2026: Open Science in the Age of AI: Balancing Privacy and Transparency
Over the past decade, social scientists and technologists have made significant advancements in transparency and reproducibility: from data and code sharing to pre-analysis plans and replication...
go.cega.org

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Hey #econsky: are you a researcher who secretly prefers your side teaching gig? Or is tenure looking like a reach because you “teach too much”? Or a liberal arts prof who’d prefer a big city with a larger pool of impressive, thoughtful students? Come be a Boston College PoP! 1/x

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Wow what an honor!
Authors: now you know who to be mad at.
🏆Congratulations @toddpugatch.bsky.social !
Thank you for your excellent work reviewing for the JHR in 2025.
A buddy in MN shared a drawing a classmate of his kid made. They've been making thank you notes for parents who have volunteered to carpool them to school so their own parents don't have to risk waiting out by the bus stop.

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

🏆Congratulations @toddpugatch.bsky.social !
Thank you for your excellent work reviewing for the JHR in 2025.
🎉 New article in the Review of Economics and Statistics!

Sibling Spillovers and Free Schooling

Congratulations to NOVAFRICA NovaSBE Prof @wsandholtz.bsky.social!

Using data from Tanzania, the paper shows Free Secondary Education reversed negative sibling spillovers in enrollment.

bit.ly/4jH4Tva

Dang, we are in a bleak timeline. Meanwhile, my neighbor is using his snowblower to clear the sidewalk in front of my house, just out of kindness. A small ray of light in a very dark time.
🚨📢 Call for papers - IV Workshop on Economics of Education, Valle Nevado 🇨🇱⛷️

📅 August 18-21
📍Valle Nevado, Chile

Keynotes by Josh Goodman (
@buwheelock.bsky.social ) and Chris Neilson (Yale)

Submit by March 6 👇
bit.ly/49QSsd3

@joshua-goodman.com @christopherneilson.bsky.social

Used to think this would change when my kids understood time. Now they do, but when they realize we're ahead on morning routine, they waste time so that we still end up rushing out the door. It's an immutable law of the universe.

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

How In-School Supervised Ed-Tech Support Produces Massive Learning Gains: A Khan Academy Field Experiment in India www.nber.org/papers/w34683

"randomly selected treatment schools received lab-in-charges to ensure high-fidelity implementation...Math achievement rose by half a SD over 31 weeks"
How In-School Supervised Ed-Tech Support Produces Massive Learning Gains: A Khan Academy Field Experiment in India
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
Check out our new VoxDevLit on International Migration! Thanks to co-editors @catiabatista.bsky.social, @econgaurav.bsky.social, @dmckenzie.bsky.social, @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social, & Caroline Theoharides!
We look to working together on this "living literature review" in the years to come...
📢 Our new VoxDevLit on International Migration is out now!

Senior Editor Dean Yang & Co-Editors Catia Batista, Gaurav Khanna, David McKenzie, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Caroline Theoharides review research on international migration.

Read & download here: https://ow.ly/qXx950XWAar

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

There is still time to sign up for one of our 400-level courses for the #Spring2026 semester, #UBuffalo!

Check out one of our financial economics electives: Financial Economics (ECO 426) and Practicum in Financial Economics II (ECO 489)!

More info: pub.hub.buffalo.edu

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "When the Effects of Informational Interventions Are Driven by Salience – Evidence from School Parents in Brazil" by Guilherme Lichand, Nina Cunha, Ricardo A. Madeira, and Eric Bettinger. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
When the Effects of Informational Interventions Are Driven by Salience – Evidence from School Parents in Brazil
(Forthcoming Article) - Do informational interventions work because they lead subjects to merely update beliefs in the right direction or, to a large extent, because they increase the salience of the ...
www.aeaweb.org

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📢 Applications are open!

This is an opportunity for evidence intermediaries to help test and shape an early-stage evidence repository, supporting policy- and practice-relevant education decision-making.

🛎️ Book a 15-minute slot with the help desk 🔗 www.wwhge.org/what-we-do/i...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

There is still time to sign up for one of our 400-level courses for the #Spring2026 semester, #UBuffalo!

Check out one of our econometrics electives: Time Series Analysis and Forecasting (ECO 461) and Big Data and Application of Machine Learning in Economics (ECO 485)!

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Hesitating very much to put this on the internet, but: any suggestions for guides for exploring Claude code for applied micro analysis (these days I mostly work on RCTs); primarily in R; not a current Github user (I'm open to changing); AND step-by-step from very beginning

Playoff gameday in Buffalo! My dog Taco is ready.
NBER @nber.org · 8d
A 3-week training program for secondary school students modeled after western business schools generated a return on investment of incremental business earnings 20 times program costs, from Laura Chioda, Paul Gertler, David Contreras-Loya, and Dana R. Carney www.nber.org/papers/w34637
All are welcome to the launch talk for the new VoxDevLit on International Migration! Co-authored with @catiabatista.bsky.social, @econgaurav.bsky.social, @dmckenzie.bsky.social, @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social , Caroline Theoharides.
Wed 14 Jan, 9 am US eastern.
📢 International migration is one of the most powerful tools available for poverty reduction and economic development.

At our VoxDevLit launch event on January 14, Dean Yang will summarise evidence on international migration.

Register➡️ https://ow.ly/y5n150XRWT9

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

There is still time to sign up for one of our core econometrics courses for the #Spring2026 semester, #UBuffalo!

We are offering Economic Statistics and Data Analysis (ECO 380), Econometrics I (ECO 480), and Econometrics II (ECO 481)!

More info: pub.hub.buffalo.edu
🆕 Everything you need to know about a PhD in economics

In this blog post, @AbdouNdiayeNYU provides a set of answers to many of the most common questions about economics PhDs: voxdev.org/topic/everyt...
Everything you need to know about a PhD in economics
A set of answers to many of the most common questions about economics PhDs, including: What is an economics PhD? Should I do an economics PhD? And how should I prepare and apply to a PhD programme?
voxdev.org

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

📢 Weiss Fellowship for Junior Researchers: Job market PhD candidates planning to work in low- and middle-income countries can apply for up to 3 years of supplemental funding.

🗓️ Applications review starting Jan 15, 2026 — early applications prioritized. Apply here: https://ow.ly/6yHi50XTbEF

Great podcast summarizing the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel report on how to improve literacy in LMICs.
🆕 How to solve the global reading crisis 📢

Today on #VoxDevTalks, @benlpiper.bsky.social (Gates Foundation) discusses how effective reading instruction can transform learning outcomes in developing countries: voxdev.org/topic/educat...

Many thanks to Journal of Economic Education for inviting us to write this paper. Ungated version here (3/3): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com