seema.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Buried lede: The UK is cutting development aid by 40%. "Mr. Starmer said the change would be funded by cutting overseas development aid from 0.5 percent of gross domestic product to 0.3 percent, adding that he regretted the reduction." Ugh.

submitted 7 hours ago • 2 comments

the view from london:

submitted 21 hours ago • 39 comments

Today's Ann Telnaes: "Trump responds to Musk email" anntelnaes.substack.com/p/trump-resp...

submitted 21 hours ago • 0 comments

A blatant assault on academic freedom

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

i just made the mistake of reading the comments on a NYT article on foreign aid. My god, some people are just way too dumb to understand how lucky they are to have been born in a rich country. Not better or more deserving, just lucky. It's so simple and obvious.

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

Our affiliate Pacaline Dupas' research in Ghana finds huge returns to secondary school for girls. You just need to look in the right place: The returns are in the form of better health outcomes (e.g., higher survival rate) for their children.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

seems like it is a big deal that the unifying ideology of the doge team is neo nazism

submitted 9 days ago • 496 comments

As of Feb 9, less than 10% of PEPFAR contractors surveyed had restarted any activities. It's not their fault: They need to get explicit program-level waivers and that's a bottleneck. Plus, even with a waiver, USG owes them heaps of $ and they have no cash.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

#academicvalentines

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Voters clearly wanted the US government to stop funding cancer research so we can buy $400 million worth of garbage trucks.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Federal elections are in two weeks, and I plan to wear this hoodie until election day. ☺️

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

When Stanford IT staff and a pro-diversity group shared a list of words they encouraged others not to use, it was national news, despite the fact it never represented campus policy. When the government erases any mention, data or research related to words, will it be treated as a free speech issue?

submitted 15 days ago • 71 comments

Last time Trump levied similar steel tariffs, it led to an increase of~ 1,000 jobs in steel production -- but 75,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in downstream firms where steel or aluminum are an input into production. econofact.org/steel-tariff...

submitted 15 days ago • 62 comments

A good use of large donors’ money right now would be to make zero-interest loans to orgs so they can continue programs. Once USG makes its back payments, loans can be repaid. cc: @albrgr.bsky.social

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

This is such an important point: Even the USAID projects that have waivers to continue because they were classified as life-saving are paralyzed. The block on Treasury payments means the orgs running those programs don't have the cash flow to continue them.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

It does feel like cruelty is a hallmark of the current agenda.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Chatted with a friend today who wanted to call her reps but had never done it before. I forget, lots of people are new to this. This app is a fantastic tool - it makes things so easy. 5calls.org

submitted 19 days ago • 8 comments

Oof, the pollution in Delhi hits you the moment you step off the plane onto the jet bridge.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

We @GiveWell want to fund pilots of water chlorination programs in low-income countries. Finding orgs that can scale cost-effective chlorination programs is the biggest priority for our water team, & we just released a RFI. Please share/apply by 3/7! blog.givewell.org/2025/01/14/g...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Submit to present at the Women in Empirical Microeconomics Conference at UChicago. Thanks to the organizers for inviting me to participate in this great event! Conference is Aug 21-22. Submission deadline is Feb 28.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Educators and journalists: Here is a link to 8 journal articles that document the harmful effects of immigration enforcement on kids' educational outcomes, school attendance, and well-being.

submitted 33 days ago • 4 comments

i’m just photoshopping muppets onto the cover of harper’s bazaar: thread

submitted 31 days ago • 198 comments

Trying to kill PEPFAR is just abject evil. Zero possible defense for it. Just evil.

submitted 31 days ago • 11 comments

I nominate India, another former British colony with a millenia-old caste system that has — for more than a century — reserved seats in govt jobs, schools, and now even elected offices for different demographic groups.

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

Partisanship is a helluva drug, inflation-expectations edition (from Torsten Slok)

submitted 32 days ago • 6 comments

Reposting b/c I'm not ready to accept that it just wasn't funny enough to get more likes

submitted 33 days ago • 8 comments

Everyone who works at nasa must have come there with hearts full of exploration and wonder and love of humanity and I don’t know how you can read that email and not feel like you work at a place that is small and cruel

submitted 33 days ago • 78 comments

Would have been perfect if the evidence was from Germans

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Paying landowners to conserve their forested land is a leading approach to prevent deforestation. Evidence from Mexico shows that smarter contract design can more than quadruple cost-effectiveness ⤵️

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Now posted on VoxDev: RPDE's @seema.bsky.social and coauthors summarize their research on Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico. Redesigning the PES contract increased cost-effectiveness 5-fold.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

“I am not a cook.”

submitted 38 days ago • 26 comments

Quote from a doctor: “Your [90-year-old] dad is really healthy. He has a higher likelihood of surviving until 95 than most 70-year-olds!” God, I wish doctors had better training in statistics.

submitted 38 days ago • 3 comments

Bringing you good content from the other platform

submitted 39 days ago • 2 comments

The impact factor of AER: Insights stacks up very well against the top 5 journals. (Screenshot is from editor Matt Gentzkow's annual report email.)

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment