Aging goal unlocked: 5-pitch 5.10d for my 50th birthday, in the amazing El Peña de Abejorral in Colombia. Excuse my terrible videography. (One more reason why I’m not a tiktoker.)

A cool thing about academia is you're basically in founder mode forever: you may have direct reports, but for the vast vast majority you never get anywhere close to "big org" size. You basically run your startup forever

In the canton of Zurich, cantonal offices cannot have AC. So only shopping centers, cars, banks and the Swiss National Bank get to escape the heat... clients and civil servants suffering in the summer heat; a rare blotch on otherwise top notch public services.

Reviewing two important recent books on economic growth: “How the World Became Rich” by Koyama and Rubin and “Slouching Towards Utopia” by DeLong, from Steven N. Durlauf nber.org/papers/w32873

It’s kind of wild to me that, as of two weeks ago, there are now 3 large cluster randomized trials across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa showing that giving every kid antibiotics reduces child mortality by ~14% and I don’t see anyone talking about it!

Venezuela proves that once a narco-state is consolidated, it’s almost impossible to dislodge (the lesson of Panama’s Noriega, too). From Honduras this week, we learn that JOH’s narco-state only fell to be replaced by a narco-opposition. We should be very worried about Honduras.

I'm really excited to get back to teaching undergrads this year! My fall course is on the political economy of criminal justice issues, drawing on tools from both econ and poli sci. (Course poster thanks to ChatGPT.) Basic outline of the course is here: tinyurl.com/3tmk7fm2

I'm not at APSA. But for those of you in Philadelphia: 1. South Philly Barbacoa makes spectacular tacos. 2. Dizengoff makes perhaps the best pita and hummus in the US. 3. The Machine Shop (machineshopphilly.com) is a stunning bakery. Everything there is perfect.

Larger health benefits than I would’ve suspected (though I wonder if they are sustained). Most of all I wonder about the effect on organized crime and violence. It took the US roughly 6 decades to get mobile under control after prohibition.

For all the news on how migration to the U.S.-Mexico border has gone global, it’s still an overwhelmingly Latin American phenomenon, mostly from the region’s authoritarian outliers & org. crime hotspots. This is why defending democracy & rule of law should be #1 U.S. priorities.

SUCH A COOL PAPER. Eyal making it tough to choose btwn vultures and bats as most under-loved species.

Apply to work with many fantastic economists (as well as me and pascal) via this job posting

Sincere crisis wondering whether my comparative advantage is emails

Should you ask a question during seminar?

I did an interview with Probably Good about my career (so far) as an development economist. It was huge fun: Anna Beth Lane asked so many good questions, and got me thinking a lot about the choices I made and the luck I had... and what got me into development in the first place:

Who says algorithms aren't important in the real world.

What happened when the U.S. stopped excluding women from early-stage drug trials in 1993? A large and sustained increase in female-focused drug patenting arose as a direct result. Fascinating! dropbox.com/scl/fi/p6s4b8s…

My #book "The #Peace Formula: Voice, Work and Warranties, not Violence" is now available across #bookshops. See the scenic Cambridge University Press book shop window in #Cambridge! You can order the book on cup.org/Rohner. #EconTwitter #NewBook

Rainfall shock, obviously

She killed a baby 78 years after birth