Propaganda works. We study the causal effect of school curricula on students’ stated beliefs and attitudes. We exploit a major textbook reform in China that
The 24-year-old student, Victor Van Rossem, received a friend suggestion on his Facebook for 49-year-old Neal D. Retke, a person Rossem had no connection with besides
I thought this Ross Douthat piece on Charlie Hebdo was terrific What we learn about infrastructure investment from the history of African railroads Morten Jerven
Columbia professor Tal Gross in the Washington Post: Since most students can type very quickly, laptops encourage them to copy down nearly everything said in
That’s the title of my new post on Vox, elaborating my old “advice to undergraduates” page. Number 10 is “Blow your mind”: At the end of each
Yet here I go again, in The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog. I actually spend one of the 13 weeks of my development class talking about the
Raj Chetty’s ASSA lecture: “Behavioral Economics and Public Policy” “Unorthodox philanthropy” (the grant application) Jails outnumber colleges in the US Be afraid: The next Fed governor
The Dallas New Black Panthers have been carrying guns for years. In an effort to ratchet up their organizing efforts, they formed the Huey P.
In the event you read the blog and for some reason still think “Gosh I just don’t get to hear enough about Chris Blattman”, then
I updated my “When are you too old for a PhD post?“. Thanks to so many readers for their comments. Brad Delong’s blog recommendations The
Using the full population of historical Censuses for 1880-1940, we document that over 19% of black males “passed” for white at some point during their lifetime, around
Every year about this time, I escape from either work or family obligations to thank everyone for reading, and of course navel gaze a little, reporting back
In June 2013 I wrote a short post on the question. I didn’t think much of it, and I didn’t have very many useful things to
Why Invisible Children dissolved Each state in one word, courtesy of Google autocomplete “Why does phone quality still suck, while Skype and FaceTime sounds like
There’s been a lot of news coverage today of a Lancet op-ed that blames IMF austerity for making the Ebola crisis worse. My reaction in The
The Axis of Evil didn’t want me seeing this movie. So my principled self streamed it last night on YouTube ($5.99). It’s schlock, but more
The Nashville Chief of Police’s holiday message to his force. I would quote it, but it is not very bloggy in the best of ways,
Nancy Reagan sitting on the lap of Mr T in the White House, December 1983. Source.
Over the Rhine’s Snow Angels and Blood Oranges in the Snow albums Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack Soul Christmas, Various Artists Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for
“We have all allowed ourselves to be co-opted into the idea that our social media activity reflects our abilities and, in fact, our value.” How
Began reading A Bear Called Paddington to my daughter last night. Mrs Brown bent down. “You’re a very small bear,” she said. The bear puffed out
