Too often, we immigration experts soften or withhold inconvenient findings because we fear they can give ammunition to an anti-immigration side we see as completely devoid of reason. But as I argue in my new paper, our silence has cost the case for immigration more than candor.

The internet told them Europe was a social paradise. Turns out the trains are awful, the health care isn’t free, and people can be really mean. buff.ly/5cLtnha

I guess I'm now one of those people who thinks about Rome. Just visited the UK Roman Baths—some of the best-preserved in the world. But I kept wondering, why not restore them to their former glory as a working public bath? I assume we have the technology. We just lack the will.

📢 Call for Papers Now Open! AI for Social Science Research Methods 2027 at Yale University! Excited to announce that we are now accepting paper submissions for the 2027 AI for Social Science Research Methods Conference, taking place April 28–29, 2027, at Yale University! We have an incredible lineup of confirmed speakers, including @kinggary, @ben_golub, Sanjog Misra, and Felix Elwert, among many others! As AI transforms how we conduct social science research, we're bringing together leading scholars from sociology, economics, political science, statistics, computer science, and beyond to explore new methodological frontiers, tackle emerging challenges, and shape the future of AI-driven social science. We welcome innovative methodological and empirical work on AI applications in social science research, including new tools, methods, and approaches to evaluation. 📅 Submission deadline: November 30, 2026 📍 Yale University | April 28–29, 2027 🔗 Conference details and submissions: web.cvent.com/event/3942a257… Please spread the word to colleagues and students who might be interested. We hope to see many of you at Yale next spring!

In London at last! I'm here to pay my respects to Dr. John Snow, father of natural experiments and also, according to some tourist folks around me, protector of the North. Tomorrow I'm starting my tour of telling people what went wrong on immigration in the UK. Wish me luck.

This is one of the most important essays I have read. It offers direct guidance on how to rehabilitate social science and rebuild lost social trust. It was also incredible to watch how careful Tom and Jonathan were in preparing the manuscript. Read it now!

The thing that Democrats most want out of immigration policy — an impregnable external barrier that will let them go soft on interior enforcement without inviting new chaos — is not possible and this is more a governance problem than a messaging one. slowboring.com/p/dont-get-co…

Cool story. The unemployment rate for chemical engineering PhDs is 1.2%.

Open sourcing my regression lectures 🍻 AI is changing how we teach. Here’s one way I’m adapting: I’ve open-sourced my regression course, POLI 450A, built on Jens Hainmueller’s original class. The course is suitable for first-year political science PhDs, as well as advanced undergraduate students in economics, political science, and other social sciences. The materials include slides, R code, data, worksheets, and a short video for every lecture. github.com/xuyiqing/regressi…

Good post by @victorckumar. As much as I don't like pangram policing for professional writing, schools are absolutely one of the few places where it makes perfect sense, mostly as a deterrent. Universities should adopt it ASAP. openquestionsblog.substack.c…

The most damning thing about Bluesky is that somehow you have to apologize to share that conservative firebrand... Ezra Klein in that right wing rag... NYT. Meanwhile they delusionally think we're here engaging with Nazis all the time.

The official position of the UK's largest longitudinal study is that they don't want researchers showing Claude even the documentation of the survey iserredex.essex.ac.uk/suppor… 🤯

A question for you: what's the most useful (non-obvious) thing that you have AI agents do for you?

I think many people underestimate how smart, knowledgeable, and agentic you need to be to use AI well. (These kinds of errors are common; cf the curse of knowledge.) This may lead them to see AI as more equalising (in terms of productivity) than it is.

Looking for an overleaf alternative? Check out LibrePaper! It's a free writing platform for LaTeX, Typst, Markdown, and HTML. History, comments, track changes, AI, live preview, multi editors, chat, etc. Use the main server or self-host. Still very new, so I need feedback!

Last thing you hear before entering another decade of economic stagnation: "GDP is just a monetary valuation."

“Threads — and Bluesky — have effectively quarantined some of the worst people on the internet.”

I agree with this. Yes, there are many bad actors who exploit public distrust. But why wouldn't they? Cambridge and universities on both sides of the Atlantic brought much of this distrust on themselves. We had many chances to redeem ourselves and chose not to.