Jessica Leight

@leightjessica.bsky.social

6.6K followers 1.2K following 1.3K posts

Development economist, @Yale / @UniofOxford / @MIT. Asso editor, REHO + CER. Editorial board member, BMC Public Health + PloS One. Structural transformation, agriculture, gender, IPV. Views my own

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Economics 25%

Public Health 17%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Valerie Mueller

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Fairly damning evidence for fraternities in @J_HumanResource from Hopper: university moratoriums on fraternity activity + alcohol leads to substantial (30%) ⬇️ in *both* alcohol offenses + sexual assault on weekend. (But, no persistent effects after moratorium ends)

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

This morning I reflected that one day I will not constantly have to sweep up cereal from my kitchen floor and this thought made me happy

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 5d

I now have a new part of my getting-ready routine, which is the part where my 2.5 year old runs over says "no clothes! Don't like clothes!" while hitting my legs and has a tantrum until I change my clothes. (He'll run into my close + tug on whatever he likes best)

He's really picky about clothes

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 6d

Link here:

Research Finds Interaction With Father, Not Mother, Affects Child Health

A long-term study of 292 families linked fathers’ parenting style to their children’s heart health years later. To researchers’ surprise, no such link was found with mothers.

www.nytimes.com

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 6d

*Very* clickbait-y title summarizing research that
-has N of less than 300
-reports only longitudinal associations
-uses markers of inflammation measured *at age 7* as a proxy for long-term health risks

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 6d

Call the empirical police: downloaded replication data for a very well-published paper and found that part of the analysis was actually done in *Excel*

as my mother would say, quelle horreur

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Plus lots, lots more - check out his work!

Karan Singhal

🚨Latest work (2025): Country of Origin, Gender, and Field Specialization Among Economics PhDs (with Eva Sierminska), IZA Discussion Paper Place-Based Initiatives and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from India’s Aspirational Districts Programme, (with Upasak Das and Parul Gupta) Breaking the Night

sites.google.com

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

And a WP joint w/@upasak_das Gupta shows that India's aspirational districts program ⬆️ foundational literacy + numeracy, with larger gains for girls
www.dropbox.com/scl/...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Recent WP w/ @esiermin explores determinations of field of specialization among econ PhDs and finds both region of origin and gender shape choices
www.iza.org/publicat...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Another paper published in Feminist Economics (w/Dongre + Das) analyzes missing women in academic economics in India; finds that despite women constituting a majority at the masters' level, overall they are less than 1/3 at most levels of academia
www.tandfonline.com/...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

One published paper joint w/ Sarin + @r_advaita analyzes the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns in India + finds hhs with migrants (while advantaged ex ante) faced more adverse effects of COVID-related shocks, + were less likely to access any social protection
www.tandfonline.com/...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @karansinghal93 @uni_lu @liserinlux who works on topics related to gender, labor + social protection

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 11d

Paper here
www.sciencedirect.co...
And your regular reminder that Somalia is one of the most notable "research deserts" in SSA - cf Porteous
onlinelibrary.wiley....

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 11d

Rare sighting in the latest JDE #econtwitter #econsky: a paper about Somalia!
Brar et al. show that an intervention targeting gender norms shifts support for gender-equitable norms + aspirations; novel lab-in-the-field evidence of enhanced ability to withstand peer pressure

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 11d

ChatGPT gave me an unprompted smiley face today

pretty sure the robots are just trying to butter us up at this point

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 14d

Me re-reading my draft paper + noting a sentence where I'm not sure of the correct attribution: let me put this into chatgpt + see if it can double-check the citation. ChatGPT kindly notes that the fact comes from my paper

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

Plus lots, lots more - check out her work!
www.wider.unu.edu/ex...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

And evidence from that cash grants to enterprises [also] in Mozambique are effective in the aftermath of a cyclone
www.econstor.eu/hand...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

Another paper joint w/Estmann + Rand explores the relationship between local governance quality + law compliance in Mozambique + finds that transparency at the provincial level does matter for compliance
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

Another mixed-methods study on a similar topic finds that the smallest, most informal firms do not stand to benefit much from formalization, though slightly larger firms may
www.econstor.eu/hand...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

One paper joint w/ @FinnsAngle @JDevStudies
explores the relationship btw formalization + productivity for firms in Myanmar + finds little evidence of any relationship, hypothesizing that high costs of formalization (taxes + fees) outweigh benefits
www.tandfonline.com/...

Reposted by Juan Moreno‐Cruz

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @BerkelHanna @UNUWIDER who works on topics related to firms + climate change in developing countries

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

First paper acceptance of 2026, + I realized I forgot that paper was even still under review

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

Plus lots, lots more - check out his work!
www.linkedin.com/in/...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

And evidence from urban consumers in Dhaka about their main shopping concerns (absence of freshness, undesirable substances, and need for more information about production)
link.springer.com/ar...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

Another paper joint w/@OosterveerPeter documents that food safety frameworks in Bangladesh are generally not cognizant of the challenges faced by the urban poor
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

One published paper joint w/ @agnesquis + many other @ifpri colleagues tests a modified WEAI index within producer value chains in Bangladesh
www.google.com/books...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 21d

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is Md. Latiful Haque, a brand-new PhD from Wageningen working on topics related to food policy, food safety + gender, particularly in Bangladesh

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 26d

Thanks!

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 26d

I dipped into both this week + in my view they were both pitched for those slightly beyond the beginner phase (in case anyone else is curious!) But agreed they are very high-quality resources; I might go back to them in a month or so

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