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John A. List

@johnlist.bsky.social

4.9K followers 5.7K following 130 posts

I am an Economist leveraging the assignment mechanism in the field to test theory and help non-profits, govts, and anyone who will listen! My goal is to (hopefully!) change the world for the better. My picture is with my oldest son! .. more

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John August List is an American economist known for his work in establishing field experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis. Since 2016, he has served as the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he was Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2012 to 2018, and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics since 2025. Since 2016, he has also served as Visiting Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. In 2011, List was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society. In 2024, Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor society for economics, gave List the biennial John R. Commons Award. .. more

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John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · Mar 25

I finally have a publication date for my new Experimental Economics textbook: December 12. Equally as important, I am proud to have negotiated a low price for the book: $38.10...for a nearly 800 page book!
You can find the book here: www.amazon.com/Experimental...

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Reposted by Caroline Krafft, Lindsay M. Tedds, Samuel Bentolila , and 1 more Caroline Krafft, Lindsay M. Tedds, Samuel Bentolila, Lauren Hersch Nicholas

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 2d

The econ PhD market will be difficult this year. The exact same thing happened when I went on the market years ago: I sent out 150 applications...and got 1 interview! Then I wrote a paper about it! ideas.repec.org/p/feb/natura...

Both sides of the market responded. Is this happening now too?

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Reposted by Mika Maliranta, Klaus Adam

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 3d

Last night's conversation about AI's strain on our energy grid led us to the classic tragedy of the commons problem. When asked what single change could help, my answer was immediate: "Put women in charge." And I have some field experimental evidence to back it up! ideas.repec.org/p/feb/artefa...

Do women supply more public goods than men? Preliminary expe

No abstract is available for this item.

ideas.repec.org

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 4d

Why? Everyone had near-perfect quant scores—no variance to predict anything. Verbal scores actually differentiated candidates, and writing ability turns out to matter for research.

Please keep this between us because I want to maintain our competitive advantage and I want to avoid Campbells Law!

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John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 4d

Just chatted with some pre-docs heading to the grad school market. They all agreed: quant GRE matters for admissions, verbal doesn't. So they don't try on verbal.

Here's what I learned doing admissions at UChicago
(2007-12): verbal scores had the most predictive power for job market paper quality.

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Reposted by Omar Al‐Ubaydli

Reposted by John A. List

koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 9d

(How) should businesses apoligize when they screw up? Field experiment on Uber rides by Halperin et al suggests the best form of apology is to include a coupon for a future trip, while just apologies—especially repeated—may backfire:

buff.ly/UvPPkc7
via @johnlist.bsky.social

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Reposted by John A. List

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 13d

Just out in the NBER.....identification of a structural model of human capital skill formation amongst adolescents using a field experiment.

www.nber.org/papers/w34274

Why Don’t Struggling Students Do Their Homework? Disentangling Motivation and Study Productivity as Drivers of Human Capital Formation

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

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Reposted by John A. List

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 15d

"of laboratory and field experiments. It provides a sophisticated roadmap for designing experiments that are both internally valid and externally meaningful—making it essential reading for graduate students and applied researchers alike." ~Ernst Fehr
www.amazon.com/dp/022682067...

Experimental Economics: Theory and Practice

Experimental Economics: Theory and Practice: 9780226820675: Economics Books @ Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

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John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 15d

Quite happy to report that Blurb #2 is in for my new Experimental Economics textbook. From none other than the indomitable Ernst Fehr!

"This advanced textbook offers a rigorous and comprehensive exploration of the methodological design..

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Reposted by John A. List

John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 17d

Why Don't Struggling Students Do Their Homework? In a new study we use a field experiment to identify a structural model of learning.

We find that low productivity, not low motivation, is the stronger predictor of academic struggles. Study is available here: ideas.repec.org/p/feb/framed...

Why Don't Struggling Students Do Their Homework? Disentangli

Using field-experimental data (study-time tracking and randomized incentives), we identify a structural model of learning. Student effort is influenced by external costs/benefits and unobserved hetero

ideas.repec.org

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John A. List @johnlist.bsky.social · 17d

Great stuff @singhabhi.bsky.social!

Abhijeet Singh @singhabhi.bsky.social · Sep 5

Big picture: `science of scaling’ matters enormously for welfare.

Unlike medicine, social programs need iterative adaptation & testing beyond finding "what works" in small pilots.

Without this, as
@johnlist.bsky.social
notes, “we are performing efficacy tests on steroids”. 16/16"

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Reposted by Omar Al‐Ubaydli