Chris Blattman
@cblatts
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Economist & political scientist @UChicago @HarrisPolicy studying conflict & organized crime. My book is Why We Fight: https://t.co/pwWjDnYzvo
Chicago, IL
Joined September 2009
My latest Substack article: a critique of the nuclear crisis portrayed in @netflix's movie A House of Dynamite. Subscribe for free and see it here: https://t.co/o9UfLsQ0ny
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My latest How the left & center- through their silence & lack of proposals- ceded the issue of fighting organized crime to the right across the Americas. The result: security policy as political theater from the Caribbean to Rio & a boost for right-wing politicians regionally
Brazil’s brutal drug raid exposes Lula’s political weakness https://t.co/kjQSpfyjEW | opinion
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If you were a devoted opponent of the United States you would be watching this with confusion, trying to work out what the catch is. Like watching your rival dismantle their own roads.
🚨 BREAKING: In a bombshell moment, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ABOLISHES H-1B VISAS from being used at state universities "We can do it with Florida RESIDENTS or AMERICANS! If we can't? Then man, we need to REALLY look deeply at what's going on with this situation!" DeSantis
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Scream it from the rooftops
Tip for starting empirical researchers: you should spend just as much time looking at the N in your regression findings as the coefficient and standard error (ignore the stars). You should know what the N is supposed to be + investigate when you see any surprises
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The problem with broad statements about conservatism and academia is that it’s (1) very Amerocentric in its definition of conservatism, and (2) very centered on the Republican Party of the last ~10 years. Yes, there is a weird, maybe persistent, anti-intellectualism and
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IQ by 9 points? Call me when you can predict agreeing to help with the dishes and completing your homework without a massive fight.
Today we reveal CogPGT, the world’s most powerful genetic predictor of IQ. We achieve a correlation with IQ of 0.51 (0.45 within-family). Herasight customers can boost the expected IQ of their children by up to 9 points by selecting the embryo with the highest CogPGT score. 🧵
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It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our esteemed colleague, ARE Professor Betty Sadoulet. A cherished member of our Berkeley community, she touched countless lives through her teaching, research, and mentorship. She will be deeply missed. https://t.co/OeTsuELqT9
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𝗚𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮 𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝘇 Estos dos libros recientes, de Michael Mann y @cblatts, exploran la naturaleza y las causas de las guerras, y cómo se puede alcanzar la paz. Para una interesante reseña de @delong que explica por qué vale la pena leer ambos libros: https://t.co/EpgDSePGgs
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𝗪𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 These two recent books – by Michael Mann and @cblatts - explore the nature and drivers of wars - and how peace might be attained. For an interesting review by @delong that says why both books are worth reading: https://t.co/EpgDSeQe60
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Non-zero chance that, following this error, Trump will simply decide to change the US English name of the country to Columbia
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I began very skeptical of this more ideological take on Putin’s motivations but I must admit the evidence has mounted.
More reporting coming out on the Alaska summit. Recall initial impressions that Putin skipping the lunch and leaving early suggested things did not go so well, even if the pageantry was humiliating for the U.S. The event was premised on Witkoff not knowing what the Russians were
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An unpopular take, but grad school attracts a ton of hard-of-themselves, type-A, neurotic people with very accomplished parents. Half of them, all As their whole life, will be in bottom half of their class. Solution: realize you're paid to LEARN WHATEVER YOU WANT. It's great! 1/3
These results suggest that getting a PhD causally worsens mental health, or at least receiving psychiatric medicines. The reversal post PhD degree is particularly convincing. But the up trend among the control group is intriguing. The highly educated are in distress.
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my latest investigation for @ConsumerReports is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day — some by more than 10 times !
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@R_Thaler and I wrote a book about behavioral economics You should get it if you: - Want to learn where BE started, how far it’s come, and where (we think) it’s going - Teach BE (comes w/ slides+materials) - Curious about replicability (we replicated main studies) 🧵w/ links
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Launching Round X of IPA’s Peace & Recovery Initiative! We support rigorous research on peace, conflict, violence & recovery. EOI due: Nov 14 Full proposals (by invitation) due: Jan 16 Take our eligibility quiz: https://t.co/k1LbA9TQtC Please share! https://t.co/di6yu9i7Wg
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Very good piece by @boz on ouster of Peruvian President. Far from from being ousted simply because of a crime wave, this is a long-running political fight, with many motivations, and mostly serves to show that the real power in Peru lies in Congress rather than the Presidency.
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The Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics invites applications for tenure-track positions at the Professor level to begin in the 2026-27 academic year. Learn more and apply: https://t.co/m33NlwNRmz EOE/Vet/Disability #AcademicJobs #Economics
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Three big announcements concerning new data from the AEA on the #EconJobMarket First, there are now live dashboards on AEA JOE that show the # of jobs listed on JOE each week, with comparisons to recent years. https://t.co/0yNlewc2zI...
#EconTwitter 1/many
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If it does result in a collapse of Hamas and their loss of power, history will probably call this an Israeli victory and to the advantage of global politics (though not Gazans). I do not count Hamas out yet, much as I wish they never took and held power in the first place.
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