Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 14h

My work on how pollution can cause poverty was covered by the @washingtonpost.com . Check it out ⬇️⬇️
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Column | Why this one area of cities is usually the poorest

The Department of Data went looking for geographic patterns in poverty, and stumbled upon a surprising culprit.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Stephen Jarvis @stephenjarvis.bsky.social · 7d

New paper out in @pnas.org! We study the effect of air pollution on pets, finding increased vet admissions when air quality is worse. Tackling air pollution doesn't just matter for human health - it's important for animals too, including people's much loved cats and dogs www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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American University School of Public Affairs @au-spa.bsky.social · 5d

Affected by the Government Shutdown*? Join SPA for a day of free classes covering career development strategies, current events, AI, & networking opportunities.
🗓️ Friday, 10/10 🕑 9:30 AM - 3 PM 📍Kerwin Hall
👉 Reserve your spot: american-spa.swoogo.com/classeswithoutquizzes

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Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 5d

Thanks to @ckcarruthers.bsky.social for a great breakfast and Maria for a fantastic dinner!

Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 5d

Had a great time visiting @utknoxville.bsky.social Economics this week! Also got great feedback last week visiting the @umaryland.edu MPRC. Knoxville is pretty!

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Health Economics @hec-wiley.bsky.social · 8d

📈 Once niche, health economics is now central to the field.

A new study shows its share in top journals tripled since the 1990s—driven not by conformity, but by innovative, high-quality research.

Health is shaping the future of economics.

Early View

The Rise of Health Economics: Transforming the Landscape of Economic Research

tinyurl.com

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Bat 🦇 Borus @matthewborus.bsky.social · 13d

So, a project that I’m working on is getting some media attention, and that feels pretty cool.

I should note: this article lets at least one highly dubious claim from administration brass go unchallenged. So bad as this picture of Trump’s SSA looks, the reality’s probably worse.

Gift link below.

A Diminished Social Security Work Force, and Its Customers, Feel the Strain

www.nytimes.com

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Health Economics @hec-wiley.bsky.social · 15d

Flu season is coming. 🍂💉

A French study shows that invitation letters & free vouchers boost vaccination—especially among the most risk-averse.

Clearer, targeted campaigns could save thousands. tinyurl.com/y7frzfk2 @universityofleeds.bsky.social

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Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 20d

It's in economics and health studies, but yes I think the econ department is hiring.

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Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 20d

Come be my colleague!

Erdal Tekin @erdaltekin.bsky.social · 22d

Professor in Health Economics. The position is in the departments of economics and health studies...
tinyurl.com/yvxfdrs4

American Economic Association: JOE Listings - August 1, 2025 - January 31, 2026

tinyurl.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23d

This is false. For example, the libertarian @cato.org breaks down the numbers, showing about 6 deaths from right-wing politically motivated attackers for every 1 from left-wing attackers.
Moreover, the claim that shooters represent anyone other than an unhinged fraction of society is the deeper lie.

The Cato Institute, the libertarian think tank, offers a breakdown of political violence in America. One basic point is that ideologically-motivated political violence mostly comes from the right

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Gbenga Ajilore @gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social · 23d

That statement is made not because it is a causal effect but you do see Black unemployment jump in advance of a downturn.

In the graph below, the Black unemployment rate starts to rise before each of the called recessions, while the White unemployment rises later.

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Billy Hanlon @bhanlon15.bsky.social · 28d

'Common diabetes drug metformin cuts long covid risk by 64 percent in UK study'

'The present study demonstrates the potential benefits of metformin in the effort to mitigate Long COVID....'

www.news-medical.net/news/2025090...

Common diabetes drug metformin cuts long covid risk by 64 percent in UK study

A large UK-based retrospective cohort study found that initiating metformin within 90 days of COVID-19 diagnosis reduced the risk of Long COVID by 64% in overweight and obese adults. The findings sugg...

www.news-medical.net

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 28d

You shouldn’t have to walk around with papers in the United States of America to prove that you belong.

All I can say is that this administration should understand Chicago is a place that’s going to protect its people.

Why Gov. Pritzker says Trump's threats to Chicago make him worry about 2026 elections

Steve Inskeep speaks with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker about President Trump's threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago and the future of the Democratic Party.

www.npr.org

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 29d

"It's impossible to do business under circumstances like this.

There are serious debates about whether tariffs could be good or bad.

But incompetence, incoherence, illegality -- that doesn't help anyone. "

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Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · 29d

Big hugs! I'm having some big feelings over here too. Let me know the next time you're in DC and want to get a drink or meal!

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Zoë Plakias @zoeconomy.bsky.social · 29d

In good news today...

KRQE News 13 @krqe.com · Sep 9

Governor announces New Mexico will now provide free universal child care

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico is becoming the first state in the U.S. to offer free early childhood education to every family in the state. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a universal ch…

www.krqe.com

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · Sep 8

Hi again US citizens.

If your skin is any shade of dark, and federal military troops or armed agents hear you speak a non-English sentence, they may now detain you with violent force.

For that reason alone.

Until you can produce a passport, however long that is.

The law of our land.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Sep 8

BREAKING: The Supreme Court — over the objection of Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — allows the Trump administration’s racial profiling of people working certain types of jobs in its immigration raids during litigation.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
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No. 25A169
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KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, ET AL. U. PEDRO
VASQUEZ PERDOMO, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY
[September 8, 2025]
The application for stay presented to JUSTICE KAGAN and by her referred to the Court is granted. The July 11, 2025 order entered by the United States District Court for the Central District of California, case No. 2:25-cv-5605, is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN and
JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting.
In early June, the Government launched immigration enforcement raids across Los Angeles and its surrounding counties. During the raids, teams of armed and masked agents pulled up to car washes, tow yards, farms, and parks and began seizing individuals on sight, often before asking a single question.
A Federal District Court found that these raids were part of a pattern of conduct by the Government that likely violated the Fourth Amendment. Based on the evidence before it, the court held that the Government was stopping individuals based solely on four factors: (1) their apparent race or ethnicity; (2) whether they spoke Spanish or English with an accent; (3) the type of location at which they were found (such as a car wash or bus stop); and (4) the type of job they appeared to work. Concluding that stops based on these four factors alone, even when taken together, could not satisfy the Fourth Amendment's requirement of reasonable suspicion, the District Court temporarily enjoined the Government from continuing its pattern of unlawful mass arrests while it considered whether longer-term relief was appropriate.

Instead of allowing the District Court to consider these troubling allegations in the normal course, a majority of
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NOEM v. VASQUEZ PERDOMO
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting
this Court decides to take the once-extraordinary step of staying the District Court's order. That decision is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.

*
*
The Fourth Amendment protects every individual's constitutional right to be "free from arbitrary interference by law officers." Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S., at 878. After to-day, that may no longer be true for those who happen to look a certain way, speak a certain way, and appear to work a certain type of legitimate job that pays very little. Because this is unconscionably irreconcilable with our Nation's constitutional guarantees, I dissent.

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 8

Let me say what the President won't: Domestic violence is not okay. It's immoral, illegal and abusive, and no real man is okay would do it, approve of it, or minimize it.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Sep 8

Trump minimizes domestic abuse during a talk at the Museum of the Bible: "Things that take place in the home, they call crime ... If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see?"

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 5

Drop a like to add your thanks to the BLS staff who put together the jobs numbers. They've done so yet again this month, despite the arbitrary firing of their boss, uninformed social media insults, and the prospect of being led by an unqualified ideologue.

Thank you BLS-ers!

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 5

The job market continues to slow, and it's pretty dramatic. Keeping our head above water (for now).

August jobs growth was only +22k. July revised up +6k to +79k. June was revised down by -27k to -13k. Average jobs growth over the three months = +29k.

Unemployment rose a tick to 4.3%

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 5

Updating my recession watch chart.

Note that you want to weight these measures according to their signal-to-noise ratio. The smoother lines are more signal, less noise, and they're suggesting the economy has slowed pretty sharply.

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VoxDev @voxdev.bsky.social · Jul 16

🆕 Measuring poverty using mobile phone data: Implications for targeting and impact evaluation

Today on VoxDev w/ Emily Aiken (@cmu.edu), Suzanne Bellue (ENSAE), Joshua Blumenstock (@berkeleyischool.bsky.social), Dean Karlan (Northwestern) & @christopher-udry.bsky.social: voxdev.org/topic/method...

Measuring poverty using mobile phone data: Implications for targeting and impact evaluation

In settings where reliable data on poverty is difficult to come by, non-traditional data sources such as mobile phone metadata has the potential to fill data gaps. New research on a cash transfer prog...

voxdev.org

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Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · Sep 5

a major concern coming out of the jobs report today is prime-age Black employment, which fell in 2025

these data are noisy and while it would be great if they turned around, I'm not optimistic: there will be downward pressure from federal job losses over the next few months

Line plot showing Black employment to population ratios for those ages 25-54 each month between 2023 and 2025. The title of the plot is "Black employment rates fell in 2025"

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Claudia Persico @claudiapersico.bsky.social · Sep 2

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to rescind the Administrator's prior findings in 2009 that GHG emissions from new motor vehicles and engines contribute to air pollution which may endanger public health or welfare. Comments are due 9/15/25