Aaron Sojourner
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Aaron Sojourner
@aaronsojourner.org
29K followers 7K following 13K posts

Labor econ @upjohninstitute.bsky.social & @IZA.org. Formerly senior economist for labor at White House CEA, UMinn prof, union organizer, bike courier, house painter, dishwasher... Minneapolis. Views mine.

aaronsojourner.org

Be kind • Work hard • Have fun .. more

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Aaron Sojourner is an American economist and senior researcher at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He was formerly an associate professor of economics at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. His work has been widely covered by the media, particularly on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market in the United States. .. more

Economics 31%
Education 27%
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · Sep 11
For Bluesky-Curious Econ Lovers, a Quick Start guide to plugging into the economics community here.

It aims to lower the costs & boost the benefits for folks to engage here.

If it seems useful, please share it here & especially on X.
📉📈 #️⃣#️⃣
aaronsojourner.org/for-bluesky-...
For Bluesky-Curious Econ Lovers - Aaron Sojourner
This Quick Start guide aims to help econ lovers easily join Bluesky’s growing economics community. The Bluesky User FAQ covers generic basics, like how to start an account. This guide orients you to e...
aaronsojourner.org

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 24m
But also driving down taxes for some billionaires!
chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/12...
Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire at midnight, driving up health insurance costs for thousands
More than 500,000 Illinois residents are enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans, commonly known as Obamacare, including about 360,000 people in Cook County.
chicago.suntimes.com

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 2h
Find out what happened at a Heritage Americans rally in 1924
chadloder.bsky.social Chad Loder @chadloder.bsky.social · 2h
The KKK staged a big rally in 1924 in South Bend. The Klansmen were confronted by a group of about 500 Notre Dame students who chased them through the streets, jumped them, beat them up in alleys, ripped their KKK robes and masks off and used them as battle trophies.
An old newspaper front page headline "Students Rout Klansmen" showing terrified Klansmen running from students

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

egolberstein.bsky.social
Ezra Golberstein @egolberstein.bsky.social · 2h
🧵
johnmoe.bsky.social John Moe @johnmoe.bsky.social · 2h
I live in Minnesota. I’m not from here but chose it, in part because of the diversity, the supportive environment for kids and families, and the overall sense of community that makes those sides work well.

Now it’s all under attack by the federal government and the President of the United States.

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

chadloder.bsky.social
Chad Loder @chadloder.bsky.social · 2h
The KKK staged a big rally in 1924 in South Bend. The Klansmen were confronted by a group of about 500 Notre Dame students who chased them through the streets, jumped them, beat them up in alleys, ripped their KKK robes and masks off and used them as battle trophies.
An old newspaper front page headline "Students Rout Klansmen" showing terrified Klansmen running from students

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 2h
bsky.app/profile/vict...
victorerikray.bsky.social Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 2h
They are denying kids childcare and complicating parents’ lives over a racist moral panic drummed up by a fascist disinformation merchant.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2h
The Trump administration paused child care payments to multiple Minnesota day cares following allegations that they improperly collected millions of federal dollars, the latest federal action against the state as it grapples with investigations into fraud in its social welfare system.

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

victorerikray.bsky.social
Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 2h
They are denying kids childcare and complicating parents’ lives over a racist moral panic drummed up by a fascist disinformation merchant.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2h
The Trump administration paused child care payments to multiple Minnesota day cares following allegations that they improperly collected millions of federal dollars, the latest federal action against the state as it grapples with investigations into fraud in its social welfare system.
Trump administration freezes child care payments to Minnesota
The freeze of funds to day cares accused of fraud and stricter verification measures imposed nationwide comes as Minnesota grapples with widespread investigations of social service programs.
www.washingtonpost.com

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 3h
I do know that, thanks for remembering. 🤣

We just did a new round of data collection for that and they will launch a refresh in the new year.

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 3h
But grateful for all the work to produce this tool and story.

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 3h
Do not love that she's illustrating her national story about low measles vax rates with an image of my county.
caitlingilbert.bsky.social Caitlin Gilbert @caitlingilbert.bsky.social · 7h
You can also use the map in the story to look up vaccination rates in your local schools! This was a HUGE data lift: we reviewed and mapped tens of thousands of individual schools’ data, assembling the most comprehensive public database. And we published this data here: github.com/washingtonpo...
Screenshot of interactive look-up tool map where you can see the vaccination rates of individual schools as well as county and statewide rates

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 3h
On mobility, I wonder if people have estimated and compared the value of transportation systems (public and private).

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 3h
Paid days off are much more universally available.

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 4h
"The cost of maintaining the plant is likely to fall on the local ratepayers, who had already adjusted to the closure plans."
arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Here we go again: Retiring coal plant forced to stay open by Trump Admin This time, a Colorado plant scheduled to shut down will be kept on standby.

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 4h
Mobility? Vacations?

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 5h
I just did this too!

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 5h
"...our quantitative model prescribes a decline in the labor income tax rate by 7.7 percentage points [pp] & an increase in the profit rate by 2.2 pp on average, & by 29.1 pp at the top."
pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...
Optimal Taxation and Market Power† By Jan Eeckhout, Chunyang Fu, Wenjian Li, and Xi Weng* Should optimal income taxation change when firms have market power? We analyze how the planner can optimally tax labor income of workers and profits of entrepreneurs. We derive optimal tax rates that depend on markups and identify four distinct components: the Mirrleesian incentive effect, the Pigouvian tax correction of the negative externality of market power, redistribution through altered factor prices, and reallocation of output toward the most productive firms. We quantify the optimal tax for the US economy and provide concrete proposals how to use income taxation to redistribute income while incentivizing production in the presence of market power. (JEL D24, D31, D43, H21, H23, H24, H25)

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 6h
Manifesting better times ahead!

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 6h
Dean nails it here
bsky.app/profile/dean...

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 6h
I think @cedr.bsky.social is scraping a bunch of states. You might ask him.

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

deanbaker13.bsky.social
Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 6h
Trumpers are pushing the Somali Medicaid fraud because racism sells and it distracts from the Esptein files deanbaker22.substack.com/p/fraud-drug...
Fraud, Drugs, and Hope for 2026
Trump lies about Somali fraud and drug prices, but there is hope on global warming
deanbaker22.substack.com

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 6h
This may interest you.
research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcont...
Exploring the Landscape of Teacher Applications Upjohn Institute Working Paper 25-421 Dan Goldhaber University of Washington and The American Institutes of Research Email: dgoldhab@uw.edu Cyrus Grout University of Washington Constance A. Lindsay University of North Carolina Elton Mykerezi University of Minnesota Aaron Sojourner W.E. Upjohn Institute Lauren Dachille Nimble September 2025 ABSTRACT Despite widespread concern about teacher shortages, there is limited evidence on when job openings are posted and the supply of individuals applying for those openings. Using detailed job posting and application data from 19 school districts and 24 charter school organizations, we examine the seasonality of job postings, variation in applicant supply, and application patterns over the course of the hiring season. We find that 11% of jobs are posted late, with substantial variation across organizations. Regarding applicant supply, we find that school districts average fewer applicants per opening (3.3) than charters (6.1) and among districts, applicant supply is negatively associated with percentage of student eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and positively associated with salary. In contrast, among charters, we find no statistically significant relationship between applicant supply and either student demographics or salary. Timing also matters to applicant supply: for both districts and charters, jobs posted early in the hiring season attract roughly twice as many applications as those posted in the six weeks before school starts. While descriptive in nature, our findings add depth and specificity to the existing evidence on teacher supply.

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 6h
bsky.app/profile/thet...
thetnholler.bsky.social The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 7h
WATCH: Local CBS followed up with a day care in the viral Nick Shirley *report* — video shows kids were dropped off right before/after he demanded entry.

Would you have wanted want your kid’s day care to let him in? Now they’re getting harassed, and Trump has cut all Minnesota daycare funding.

Reposted by Gerald Friedman

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 7h
New claims for unemployment insurance fall 7% to low 199K in week ending (WE) 12/27.

Continuing claims up 6% to 1.977 million.

The low-fire, low-hire labor market keeps on.
#NumbersDay

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

thetnholler.bsky.social
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 7h
WATCH: Local CBS followed up with a day care in the viral Nick Shirley *report* — video shows kids were dropped off right before/after he demanded entry.

Would you have wanted want your kid’s day care to let him in? Now they’re getting harassed, and Trump has cut all Minnesota daycare funding.

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner, Greg Linden

caitlingilbert.bsky.social
Caitlin Gilbert @caitlingilbert.bsky.social · 7h
You can also use the map in the story to look up vaccination rates in your local schools! This was a HUGE data lift: we reviewed and mapped tens of thousands of individual schools’ data, assembling the most comprehensive public database. And we published this data here: github.com/washingtonpo...
Screenshot of interactive look-up tool map where you can see the vaccination rates of individual schools as well as county and statewide rates

Reposted by Simon Wren‐Lewis, Aaron Sojourner

jdportes.bsky.social
Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 9h
"Immigrant Derangement Syndrome is a top-down phenomenon, not a broad popular movement. It reflects the perverse obsessions of MAGAdom, with racism a key component.'

To state the obvious, this analysis by @pkrugman.bsky.social also largely applies in the UK/Europe.

substack.com/home/post/p-...
Immigrant Derangement Syndrome
Blaming brown-skinned people for everything bad
substack.com

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

irishtimes.com
The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 9h
Trump family business delays launch of gold smartphone
Trump family business delays launch of gold smartphone
US-made device planned for release by end of year hit by recent government shutdown affecting shipments
www.irishtimes.com

aaronsojourner.org
Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 9h
bsky.app/profile/dday...
ddayen.bsky.social David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 18h
In this case, "Biden administration successfully prosecutes fraud scheme" is somehow not the interpretation going out into the world!

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

eshconference.bsky.social
Essen Health Conference @eshconference.bsky.social · 9h
Friendly Reminder: The Call for Papers for #ehc26 is out, with an excellent line-up of keynote speakers Stephanie Von Hinke @bristoluni.bsky.social and Melanie Wasserman @uclaanderson.bsky.social
🗓️Submission deadline: 31 January 2026
🚨Details here - udue.de/ehc26
#healtheconomics #econ
Essen Health Conference 2026 - Call for Papers
udue.de

Reposted by Aaron Sojourner

benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org
Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org · 10h
I am personally matching the next the next $5,000 in 2025 contributions to @lawfaremedia.org. givebutter.com/journalism
Lawfare's Nonpartisan Journalism and Expert Analysis
Support the impactful and trustworthy coverage of Lawfare
givebutter.com