Joshua Goodman
@joshua-goodman.com
10K followers 470 following 1.8K posts

Education economist @ BU Wheelock & Economics Dept | Wheelock Education Policy Center | Co-editor @ JHR | White House CEA 2022-23 | www.joshua-goodman.com

Education 57%
Economics 13%
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joshua-goodman.com
For those interested in education policy and the economics of education, I've put together 4 starter packs:

Faculty and researchers 1: go.bsky.app/GHJzy4L
Faculty and researchers 2: go.bsky.app/TeqwuKM
PhD students & postdocs: go.bsky.app/FUjWT5E
Journalists and writers: go.bsky.app/3XhYmo3

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

bostonglobe.com
Administrators at Harvard University said that the majority of the school’s research grants canceled by the Trump administration have been restored following a federal judge’s ruling last month that the cuts were illegal.
Harvard says majority of research funding canceled by Trump has been restored - The Boston Globe
A federal judge ruled last month that the Trump administration's cuts were illegal. But the administration has vowed to appeal the ruling and declared Harvard ineligible for future grants.
trib.al

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

bethschueler.bsky.social
It's that time of year to start thinking about who you'd like to nominate for an AEFP award (4 options: early career, dissertation, use of evidence in policy/practice & justice, equity diversity inclusion). Get your noms in by 12/5! And thanks!
aefpweb.org/awards @aefpweb.bsky.social
AEFP
aefpweb.org

joshua-goodman.com
I'll shortly write a longer post, but I just wanted to say that I'm ranking Burhan Azeem as my #1 City Council choice, largely because of his relentless and successful push to fix our city's housing policy (largely by eliminating zoning restrictions that drive up rents and sales prices).
burhanazeem.bsky.social
For the first time in a generation, triple-deckers and affordable apartments are legal again in Cambridge.

Impossible? It wasn’t.
Inevitable? It’s wasn’t that either.
It was a choice.

Vote Burhan #1 on Nov 4th and keep choosing housing.

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

burhanazeem.bsky.social
For the first time in a generation, triple-deckers and affordable apartments are legal again in Cambridge.

Impossible? It wasn’t.
Inevitable? It’s wasn’t that either.
It was a choice.

Vote Burhan #1 on Nov 4th and keep choosing housing.

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

jenniferdoleac.bsky.social
I’ve decided not to post my annual “women on the Econ job market” thread this year. Social media has splintered too much, and now that I’ve left academia I’m focused on other priorities.
trevondlogan.bsky.social
Through segregation, violence, redlining, and sundown towns, Black families traveled. How did they know where to go? What places were safe? What places were welcoming? Search the data on this important part of American history: greenbookproject.osu.edu #GreenBookProject #CommunityMap
#EconSky

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

aaronsojourner.org
The Friends of BLS steering committee is sponsoring a member webinar noon to 1pm ET Thurs, Oct 23.

We aim to build nonpartisan support for a strong BLS & need your perspectives & energy.

Former Commissioners @ericagroshen.bsky.social, William Beach, & @erikamcentarfer.bsky.social will...
#EconSky
mclem.org
Innovation is at the center of economic growth. Congratulations to three who’ve taught us so much.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/econo...
erikangner.com
I hope philosophers of science will chime in on the Prize Committee's discussion about kinds of knowledge, and its dissemination, as drivers of innovation and competition: www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025... #PhilSci #NobelPrize
Useful knowledge
So – what creates this sustained economic growth? This year’s laureates used different methods to
answer this question. Through his research in economic history, Joel Mokyr has demonstrated that
a continual flow of useful knowledge is necessary. This useful knowledge has two parts: the first is
what Mokyr refers to as propositional knowledge, a systematic description of regularities in the natural
world that demonstrate why something works; the second is prescriptive knowledge, such as practical
instructions, drawings or recipes that describe what is necessary for something to work.
Mokyr shows that prior to the Industrial Revolution, technological innovation was primarily based on
prescriptive knowledge. People knew that something worked, but not why. Propositional knowledge, such
as in mathematics and natural philosophy, was developed without reference to prescriptive knowledge,
which made it difficult, even impossible, to build upon existing knowledge. Attempted innovations were
often haphazard or had approaches that someone with adequate propositional knowledge would have
understood were futile – such as building a perpetual motion machine or using alchemy to make gold.
scienceacademyswe.bsky.social
🎖️ The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt!

Over the last two centuries the world has seen sustained economic growth. This year’s laureates explain how innovation provides the impetus for further progress.

#PrizeinEconomicSciences #NobelPrize
mvidal-fdez.bsky.social
If you're teaching causal inference here is a podcast on the topic 4 non-Econ.
Thanks 2 R. Taylor (staggered DID), @essobecker.bsky.social (IV), & S. Rahman (RDD), for thoughtful chats 📚 problem sets available 2.
m.youtube.com/@embracingda...
#CausalEffects #Econ #Teaching #Podcast #EmbracingData
cantb.bsky.social
I missed this yesterday: the AAU has come out against the compact. I am pleasantly surprised. I think it makes it pretty hard for any university to accept the deal now, with a possible exception of Texas. www.aau.edu/newsroom/pre...
We have significant concerns, however, about any compact or policy that could damage or depart from our nations competitive merit base system for research grant funding. That system has been the foundation for science and and innovation for decades. Since World War II that special partnership among the federal government, industry, and research universities has fueled tremendous growth in our economy and educated the next generation of highly skilled American workforce contributed to the health of our people and made our nation more safe and secure.
kevincarey1.bsky.social
It's clearer by the day that Columbia making a deal with Trump in July was a catastrophe for higher education as a whole. It gave terrible people a bottomless appetite for extortion. The other eight universities must follow MIT's lead.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment
www.nytimes.com
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Every targeted institution (my own very much included) should cut and paste this letter onto their letterhead.
kathleenclark.bsky.social
A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.
Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source: 
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact • We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

florianscheuer.bsky.social
We will continue to work hard on attracting outstanding economists from around the world to Zurich, including from the U.S., and on raising the resources needed to support them—especially during the current, special times in the international higher education landscape.

7/7
florianscheuer.bsky.social
I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics.

🧵 1/7
woessmann.bsky.social
🚨 Now out in Journal of Human Resources:

⛪️ Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes?
Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education

w/ @benjaminarold.bsky.social & Larissa Zierow

👉 Religious education in school affects adult lives

🔗 jhr.uwpress.org/content/earl...

A 🧵 1/6

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

alexusherhesa.bsky.social
Real change in public expenditures on higher education, 2008 to 2023, selected countries that actually publish the damn data. UK is worst here, but note this does not include RAB (projected future loan forgiveness, basically). If RAB is included...UK would still be last.

joshua-goodman.com
I got to give someone good professional news today, so that was nice.
nfapresearch.bsky.social
A remarkable story: Omar Yaghi, born a refugee in Jordan, came to America as a teen to attend community college and later earned a Ph.D. and the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Immigrants have won 40% of the U.S. Nobel Prizes in science since 2000. @mclem.org
www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...
Half Of The 2025 U.S. Nobel Prize Winners In Science Are Immigrants
Three of the six U.S. winners in the 2025 Nobel Prize science categories immigrated to the United States, one of them as a teenager.
www.forbes.com

Reposted by Joshua Goodman

johncawley.bsky.social
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. These will be updated weekly.
www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/co...

#EconSky
1/many
JOE Openings by Week - Pre-ASSA
www.aeaweb.org
kslungaardmumma.bsky.social
Prospective PhD Students:

I am planning to accept a PhD student for AY 2026-27 in the economics and education program at Teachers College. Apply if you want to use the economics of education to study immigration or politics/political engagement and public schools. :-)

paulgp.com
Posted a short blog post with updated data (and public repo with data) of current state of Econ job market:

paulgp.com/2025/10/08/j...

joshua-goodman.com
Can't believe I missed the obvious "hivemind" joke just sitting there.
joshua-goodman.com
Meanwhile, BU's economics department has been overrun by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.