This paper is an absolutely monumental piece of work. Given incredibly detailed data on how people travel in Chicago, can one calculate the optimal prices of vehicles, roads, and public transport? It turns out -- free buses are correct! And we need massive taxes on vehicles. 1/

Wait... Speed cameras work? "Cumulatively, over the seven months following [speed camera's] introduction, collisions declined by 30% and injuries by 16%."

In many California cities, condominiums automatically pay much higher "impact" fees. In Palo Alto, a 1,200 square foot will pay $79,656 for affordable housing (this is not a joke) while a rental will pay $31,860 per unit.

Today was my last day working at Penn. I've been lucky to teach amazing students and work with great colleagues at @PennPORES and the polisci dept. This fall, I'll join @HooverInst as a Hoover Fellow—I'm excited to join a vibrant, interdisciplinary community of scholars there!

Very cool paper about how important social networks are in driving movement https://t.co/uOJa5vKSBC

🚨NEW PAPER: Why are Members of Congress so extreme? We conducted a 4-wave panel of thousands of voters in 27 districts during last year’s primary AND general elections to trace polarization’s roots The results challenge conventional wisdom… and suggest lessons for parties🧵👇

The current administration's attacks on universities risk undermining engines of civic life, just as they harm innovation and prosperity. Places with colleges are more liberal, yes, but colleges also promote the types of social capital that we need more of.

These results contribute to a literature that understands universities as place-based institutions. We know that they profoundly affect the local economy, as economists (incl. my co-authors) have shown. We show how universities also contribute to the civic life of communities.

Would any large public investment generate the same results in the long run? Using a subsample where the runner-up location got a "consolation prize" (eg state capital, penitentiary), we find that universities are indeed distinctive on most of our outcomes.

There are also differences in contemporary public opinion: people living near colleges are more liberal on a range of issues. These attitudinal differences are not solely driven by the presence of students nor by differences in the average educational attainment in the community.

From Reconstruction through the end of the 20th century, there were minimal differences in voting patterns between places w/ a university and "runner-up" locations. Since 2000, though, a gap has emerged, with college counties voting ~10pp more Democratic in 2024.

The establishment of a college also leads to a county casting significantly more votes in presidential elections—an effect that's explained by a population growth channel rather than a turnout rate channel.

We find that places with colleges have significantly higher levels of social capital and trust today, relative to "runner-up" locations that were considered but not chosen.

How do universities shape the surrounding community? Building on meticulous archival work by @MikeJAndrews44, we answer this question by focusing on cases where multiple locations were considered for a major university and the winning location was chosen for idiosyncratic reasons

Decades of research documents differences in turnout, volunteering rates, office-seeking, political preferences, etc., between those with and without college degrees. But universities are place-based institutions, the effects of which may extend beyond students.

Universities often serve as "anchor institutions" that deeply affect the character of their communities. In a new paper, we (@MikeJAndrews44 / Lauren Russell) ask how (and when) the establishment of a college influences local political and civic life. 🧵 https://t.co/Vt3sxlyQCM

We (@PriyankaSethy_, @MalikMashail and I) have a related finding based on CES data: starting in around 2016, immigration support among immigrants plummeted more than among any other citizenship group. Here, we plot shifts relative to people with no immigration background.

Using French matched employer-employee data, I find: 📌 High-paying jobs are concentrated in big cities 📌 Low-paying jobs are everywhere 📌 Workers access high wages in large cities as they switch from low- to high-paying jobs over time

Since 2016, 1 notable pro-GOP shift has come from Latinos. How did Latinos shift towards a party taking strong positions against unauthorized immigration? @wpmarble & I use population-based panel surveys to help answer that in a new paper: https://t.co/TsAAhEzzxl Quick 🧵

paper here: