Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 2h

Reminder!

Sandy Black @econsandy.bsky.social · Aug 19

Society of Labor Economists (SoLE) Annual Conference will be May 1-2, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. Submission portal is now open! Deadline for submissions is October 31--don't forget to submit! It will be a great conference! (organized by me and @jrothst.bsky.social)

mailchi.mp/sole-jole/so...

SOLE 2026 Submissions Open

mailchi.mp

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Joaquin Carbonell @joaquinc.bsky.social · 7d

Policy research folks take note - CPL's research is very influential in California state policy and this high-impact role will help expand that influence. Consider applying and share with your networks!

The California Policy Lab @capolicylab.bsky.social · 8d

Please share with your networks: The California Policy Lab is hiring a policy director to amplify our policy impact in Sacramento. We're looking for a seasoned policy professional with deep experience in California state government. First review date is Oct. 10th: capolicylab.org/careers/poli...

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 8d

Come join us at the @capolicylab.bsky.social as our new policy director in Sacramento!

The California Policy Lab @capolicylab.bsky.social · 8d

Please share with your networks: The California Policy Lab is hiring a policy director to amplify our policy impact in Sacramento. We're looking for a seasoned policy professional with deep experience in California state government. First review date is Oct. 10th: capolicylab.org/careers/poli...

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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28d

Read this, by @jamellebouie.net. These are the stakes.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/o...

Opinion | They Don’t Want to Live in Lincoln’s America

www.nytimes.com

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 28d

New paper alert!

The @capolicylab.bsky.social and @thepeoplelab.bsky.social partnered with the CA Dept of Social Services and @codeforamerica.org to help low-income Californians find out about and claim tax credits and pandemic stimulus payments, and to learn what works in outreach.

The People Lab @thepeoplelab.bsky.social · 28d

New in @pnas.org! Light-touch government outreach boosted take-up of the Child Tax Credit & stimulus payments among very low-income families—while higher-touch strategies added little.

By: @elizabethlinos.bsky.social, J. Lasky-Fink, V. Dorie, @jrothst.bsky.social

🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Interventions to bolster benefits take-up: Assessing intensity, framing, and targeting of government outreach | PNAS

Behaviorally informed “nudges” are widely used in government outreach but are often seen as too modest to address poverty at scale. In four field e...

www.pnas.org

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reblong.bsky.social @reblong.bsky.social · Sep 4

If you live in the Bay Area, but stand in allegiance with DC’s protest against the national guard policing their city, and all the other violations of law and decency, join us, Saturday, 9/6
Where: Oakland city hall, 12th street BART
When: Saturday at 11. #freeDC #indivisible #nokings #50501protest

We Are All DC: A National March — Free DC

DC communities are joyful, powerful — and we're under attack. Armed National Guard soldiers are carrying guns through our neighborhoods. ICE and FBI agents are profiling, harassing, and violently arr...

freedcproject.org

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 28

Note that the first coauthor quoted is, in fact, an economist.

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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · Aug 26

This action by Lisa Cook is courageous, principled, and deserves broad support.

Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · Aug 26

Just received this statement from Lisa Cook:
"President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022."

Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · Aug 26

President Trump said he is firing Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, "effective immediately." It's his most direct assault yet on Fed independence -- and a step that it is far from clear he can legally take.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u... #EconSky

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Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education @berkeleycshe.bsky.social · Aug 25

We are hiring an Executive Director for our Executive Leadership Academy (ELA)! Lead the next chapter of a program that's shaped 623 leaders.

Find out more and apply by Sept 22.

🔗 aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05083

#HigherEdJobs

Academic Coordinator I – Executive Director – Executive Leadership Academy - Center for Studies in Higher Education

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Sandy Black @econsandy.bsky.social · Aug 19

Society of Labor Economists (SoLE) Annual Conference will be May 1-2, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. Submission portal is now open! Deadline for submissions is October 31--don't forget to submit! It will be a great conference! (organized by me and @jrothst.bsky.social)

mailchi.mp/sole-jole/so...

SOLE 2026 Submissions Open

mailchi.mp

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 15

Pesto?

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 15

I would like to associate myself with this letter.

Key sentence: "It is unconscionable for Israel to treat civilians as liabilities to be contained rather than as human beings entitled to livable conditions."

The economics is secondary - but if it gives an excuse to make that point, good.

Joseph E. Stiglitz @josephestiglitz.bsky.social · Aug 14

To Prime Minister Netanyahu, an open letter from 23 economists at universities in the US and Europe. We urge you to read it.

drive.google.com/file/d/1D_Sv...

Letter to PM Netanyahu from 23 economists.pdf

drive.google.com

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Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · Aug 14

Just to say this plainly: what you're looking at here is a federal police force accountable only to the president rolling up to intimidate the governor of California as he announces his plan to counter a federal legislative coup out of Texas which will ensure their permanent presence in our streets

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · Aug 14

Armed Trump administration agents wearing masks just showed up outside of Gavin Newsom’s press conference.

This is what rising fascism looks like.

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 14

My campus email should be working now. I don't plan to check the myyahoo account, which I assume will be inundated by spam now.

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 14

I've been hearing that emails to my berkeley.edu address from off campus are bouncing today. It seems to be some configuration issue.

For the time being, if you write to me please copy [email protected].

University of California, Berkeley: Home

UC Berkeley pushes the boundaries of knowledge, challenges convention and expands opportunity to create the leaders of tomorrow.

berkeley.edu

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Aug 13

I tried to explain university finances, indirect costs, and the extortionary demands that the Trump admistration is making of many universities.

Opportunity Lab @berkeleyolab.bsky.social · Aug 13

The landscape of US #highered is changing. @jrothst.bsky.social breaks down the conditions attached to donations, how endowments can be managed, and how research funding negotiations between universities and the federal government are unfolding in @laist.com:

What goes into a university budget? And how do endowments work? Let an expert be your guide

Million dollar settlements to regain federal funding? Rising tuition, but layoffs and course cuts? We're here to help.

laist.com

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Elizabeth Weber Handwerker @elizwebhand.bsky.social · Aug 4

Looking for a 2 page explanation of CES Benchmark revisions? I wrote one at www.congress.gov/crs-product/...

www.congress.gov

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Michael R Strain @michaelrstrain.bsky.social · Aug 1

Dr. Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased.

#econsky

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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · Aug 1

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system.
The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information.
This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science.

We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Jul 29

This piece is very moving, and reflects how I am feeling about the Israel/Gaza calamity.

Silence in the Face of Gaza's Starvation is Absolute Betrayal of Holocaust Victims
By Orit Kamir
Originally published in Haaretz

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thanks to @deanbaker13.bsky.social for posting it.

Column on the Responsibility of Israelis to Speak Up Against Mass Starvation in Gaza

I generally restrict my comments here to economic issues, but some things are hard to ignore.

substack.com

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Jul 26

I just donated to Sameer Project and World Central Kitchen. Please join me. Links in the below post.

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Jul 26

This has changed a lot in the last couple decades - start and end dates are both much earlier. My untested hypothesis is that it is an effort to get more of the school year before the spring standardized testing dates.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · Jul 24

I just sent this out.

The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.

It is a choice not to heed them.

Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.

to Jews, on the Gaza famine

an open letter: we have been commanded

www.lifeisasacredtext.com

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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · Jul 24

A timely and trenchant piece by Suresh Naidu. When future generations sift through the wreckage of our era, they’ll find it strewn with the institutional and personal failures of leaders both great and small.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

Opinion | Columbia’s Administrators Are Fooling Themselves

www.nytimes.com

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Upjohn Institute @upjohninstitute.bsky.social · Jul 16

Friday is the application deadline for our 2025 Dissertation Award, given to the best policy-focused Ph.D. dissertation on employment-related issues. First prize is $2,500 and up to two honorable mention awards of $1,000 may also be given.
Details at www.upjohn.org/dissertation...

Aerial view of college campus, with river in background

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