Todd Pugatch
toddpugatch.bsky.social
Todd Pugatch
@toddpugatch.bsky.social

education and development economist at University at Buffalo @ubuffalo.bsky.social, dad, Red Sox fan

Education 55%
Economics 13%

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

America, It's Not You, It's...

Maybe if Spartans wore their medals in the proper order it would have worked out better for them.

That’s horrible. What is SR?
A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs

1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Thieves have stolen €90,000 worth of fine French snails destined for some of the country’s most prestigious restaurants
Thieves take €90,000 of snails meant for Michelin-starred restaurants
French police are on the trail of ‘experienced’ criminals who stole a whole year’s worth of produce from Jean-Mathieu Dauvergne’s L’Escargot des Grands Crus
www.thetimes.com

Feeding America uses a market-based system to allocate food to its member banks. Such a great example of markets can promote social good. I teach it in my classes every year.

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Feeding America is a key resource for food banks across the country, but distributing the right goods to each food bank can be tricky. The organization’s new “choice system” hopes to address the problem.
How Feeding America's "Choice System" facilitates equitable food distribution
Feeding America, the largest organization tackling hunger in the U.S., saves billions of pounds of food each year. But with more than 200 food banks in its network, deciding where food goes is a huge ...
www.marketplace.org

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

preparing some slightly deranged slides for last class
Exciting news on @malengo.org, the NGO that helps East African students move to Europe for education: Our research team has given us a glimpse of their early findings!

Here is the full writeup, joint with @richardnerland.bsky.social:

forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CpZYHk...

Thread follows!

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Nothing feels as intimate as getting a reviewer who understood exactly what you were trying to hide

Not from @theonion.com
Sean Duffy, the U.S. transportation secretary, has been urging people for the past week to dress and comport themselves better as a way of restoring “civility” to air travel. On Tuesday, he added another item to his list of concerns: the quality of the snacks handed out on commercial flights.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Wants Healthier In-Flight Snack Options
Sean Duffy, who has been promoting greater decorum among air travelers, said he would like to see choices besides salty pretzels and buttery cookies.
nyti.ms

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Sean Duffy, the U.S. transportation secretary, has been urging people for the past week to dress and comport themselves better as a way of restoring “civility” to air travel. On Tuesday, he added another item to his list of concerns: the quality of the snacks handed out on commercial flights.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Wants Healthier In-Flight Snack Options
Sean Duffy, who has been promoting greater decorum among air travelers, said he would like to see choices besides salty pretzels and buttery cookies.
nyti.ms

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

Publication lags in economics be like
Mere decades after the passing of Maria Montessori, we have the first large-scale RCT results of Montessori preschool. Seems pretty good.

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Most of their waking hours??? Schools aren’t open for most of a kid’s waking hours even on school days.
America’s children seem to be struggling. But the broad national conversation around children’s mental health seems to ignore the environment where children spend most of their waking hours: school, writes Jia Lynn Yang. nyti.ms/49IQpbz

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

America’s children seem to be struggling. But the broad national conversation around children’s mental health seems to ignore the environment where children spend most of their waking hours: school, writes Jia Lynn Yang. nyti.ms/49IQpbz
Mere decades after the passing of Maria Montessori, we have the first large-scale RCT results of Montessori preschool. Seems pretty good.

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

privatize the gains and socialize the costs ftw.
A story in 3 acts:

NGO/Development organization!? Dave is CGD just your side hustle?
Update on the state of the job market courtesy of a nudge by @gottliebecon.bsky.social

It's bad!

paulgp.com/2025/11/24/j...
Economics Job Market Update: November 2025 - A Historic Low
paulgp.com

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

ADEA is seeking a Founding Executive Director to shape and lead FLIGHT, a new catalytic funding initiative to support African governments to implement proven foundational learning interventions at scale.

Learn more: adeanet.org/en/call-appl...

Wow, that's me!
UB Economics is proud to spotlight one of our fantastic faculty members - Dr. Todd Pugatch!

Check out the link to learn more about Dr. Pugatch and his advice for #UBuffalo students!

arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/economics/ne...

@ubartsandsciences.bsky.social @toddpugatch.bsky.social #UBEconSpotlight

Reposted by Todd Pugatch

UB Economics is proud to spotlight one of our fantastic faculty members - Dr. Todd Pugatch!

Check out the link to learn more about Dr. Pugatch and his advice for #UBuffalo students!

arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/economics/ne...

@ubartsandsciences.bsky.social @toddpugatch.bsky.social #UBEconSpotlight
Recently did around 30 requests to ppl who'd published very similar papers to the one I needed reviews for. 3 declines, 25 no response. Please at least decline guys it slows stuff down so much otherwise.
I'm still relatively new to this journal associate editor business, but it already sucks… I've had a paper on my desk for more than a month now:

Reviewers invited: 12
Of those…
Declined: 5
No response: 7
Looking forward to the next iteration of this work, “F- it, we’re doing four robustnesses.”

Reviewing another cross-country regression paper
a man laying on the floor holding a bottle of alcohol
ALT: a man laying on the floor holding a bottle of alcohol
media.tenor.com

Yikes. Not that it makes you feel any better, but that's far down my list of troubling developments at Texas universities in the past year.

OK, that's different...here I haven't seen the same encroachments into faculty teaching.

I dunno...our admin is also Team AI but I distinguish their interest in AI research $ from an endorsement of uninhibited AI use for student academic work.
Training a single teacher (the "gender focal point") in each school in Mozambique reduced sexual abuse of girls by school staff by 67%