Nico Ajzenman
@nicolasajz.bsky.social
1.1K followers 590 following 28 posts
Econ Assistant Professor @McGillU. Affiliated to @IZA_bonn and @JPAL 🇦🇷 in 🇨🇦. Newsletter - Esto no es Economía: http://www.noeseconomia.com www.ajzenman.com
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nicolasajz.bsky.social
Our last publication in the AER: insights, now as a Research Highlight :)
aeajournals.bsky.social
Academic economists forming connections on social media show a bias toward certain races, genders, and elite institutions, say researchers at @mcgill.ca, Sao Paulo School of Economics, and MIT. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/research/cha...
Bias in academic networking
A social media field experiment suggests that gender, race, and university affiliation influence the formation of professional relationships among economists.
www.aeaweb.org
nicolasajz.bsky.social
🥳🥳

Our paper Discrimination in the Formation of Academic Networks: A field Experiment on #EconTwitter has just been published in the American Economic Review: Insights.

with @brunoferman.bsky.social and Pedro Sant'Anna
Reposted by Nico Ajzenman
daveevansphd.bsky.social
In Chile, a program to encourage high school students to become teachers via WhatsApp counseling is trying out an AI chatbot to facilitate scaling.

blogs.iadb.org/educacion/en...

Early analysis shows interesting differences in how students interact with human vs AI counselors.
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Paper just accepted to be published in the Journal of Politics :)

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
nicolasajz.bsky.social
About content:

- Most Kai’s interactions were factual queries (course info, scholarships), while human counselors handled more subjective questions (e.g. "Am I patient enough to teach?").

Students did not interact the same way with humans or bots
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Some early learnings analyzing conversations:
- Kai led with 35% initial engagement > than human counselors (28%)
- Kai responded faster & more factually focused. Kai and humans covered = number of topics per conversation.
- Kai seems more efficient: simillar info, similar engagement, shorter time
nicolasajz.bsky.social
FF: now there are AI-powered bots. We created Kai—a 2024 generative AI chatbot on WhatsApp designed for more tailored, adaptive interaction. We trained them for many months. In a new RCT with 43,000+ students, we compared: Human counselor versus Kai (AI agent) vs control.
nicolasajz.bsky.social
It's very human intensive. In the same experiment (2020) we used the technology available back then to try to scale it up: scripted bots. They achieved only ⅓ to ½ of those results and they were insignificant.

They lack the engagement and personalization essential in counseling.
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Elige Educar’s “Quiero Ser Profe” program in Chile tackles teacher shortages by offering personalized WhatsApp counseling to highschoolers, encouraging them to pursue teaching.

It works (JPE Micro forthcoming). It increased actual enrollement in teaching majors.

BUT...
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Scaling successful human-centered programs often encounters the “voltage effect”—they lose impact when expanded to more people. Generative AI may help bridge that gap. Here's a story:
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Only 2 days left. Send your papers and come to London!
nicolasajz.bsky.social
🚨 Call for papers! The second edition of the Transatlantic Political Economy Conference (T-PEC) will be in November in London. Organized by @clpennec.bsky.social Cevat Aksoy and me.

The submission deadline is July 4, 2025. Apply here (and RT!):

sites.google.com/view/tpec-mo...
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Deadline coming soon!
nicolasajz.bsky.social
🚨 Call for papers! The second edition of the Transatlantic Political Economy Conference (T-PEC) will be in November in London. Organized by @clpennec.bsky.social Cevat Aksoy and me.

The submission deadline is July 4, 2025. Apply here (and RT!):

sites.google.com/view/tpec-mo...
Reposted by Nico Ajzenman
kingsqpe.bsky.social
🚨Call for papers!

We will be hosting this great workshop next autumn, organized by @clpennec.bsky.social, @nicolasajz.bsky.social and our own Cevat Aksoy.

Submit your best political economy work!
nicolasajz.bsky.social
🚨 Call for papers! The second edition of the Transatlantic Political Economy Conference (T-PEC) will be in November in London. Organized by @clpennec.bsky.social Cevat Aksoy and me.

The submission deadline is July 4, 2025. Apply here (and RT!):

sites.google.com/view/tpec-mo...
Reposted by Nico Ajzenman
clpennec.bsky.social
Call for papers! The second edition of the Transatlantic Political Economy Conference (T-PEC) will be held in London on Nov 6-7, 2025. Organized by @nicolasajz.bsky.social, Cevat Aksoy and myself.

The submission deadline is July 4. Apply here (and share widely):

sites.google.com/view/tpec-mo...
nicolasajz.bsky.social
🚨 Call for papers! The second edition of the Transatlantic Political Economy Conference (T-PEC) will be in November in London. Organized by @clpennec.bsky.social Cevat Aksoy and me.

The submission deadline is July 4, 2025. Apply here (and RT!):

sites.google.com/view/tpec-mo...
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Our "(Successful) democracies breed their own support" is out on the last edition of Restud :)

academic.oup.com/restud/artic...
nicolasajz.bsky.social
With R Perez Truglia, G Cruces, D Tortarolo and G Vazquez Bare
nicolasajz.bsky.social
Very nice piece on immigration in Latin America.

And they happen to mention a nice paper on immigration and crime perceptions in Chile by some cool Southamerican researchers :)

www.economist.com/the-americas...
Most Latin American migrants no longer go to the United States
Can the region cope with a new wave?
www.economist.com