Stephan Heblich
heblich.bsky.social
Stephan Heblich
@heblich.bsky.social

Economics professor at the University of Toronto interested in Urban Economics, Economic History and Environmental Economics

Economics 61%
Business 17%

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

🆕 When specialisation backfires: Why Britain’s industrial past still shapes its cities today

Today on VoxDev w/ @heblich.bsky.social (@econuoft.bsky.social), Dávid Krisztián Nagy (CREI), Alex Trew (@uofgasbs.bsky.social) & Yanos Zylberberg (@bristoluni.bsky.social): voxdev.org/topic/migrat...
When specialisation backfires: Why Britain’s industrial past still shapes its cities today
Industrial clusters can fuel economic booms today, but can also trap cities into tomorrow's decline. Evidence from two centuries of British cities reveals the lasting costs of specialisation.
ow.ly

Reposted by Noel D. Johnson

Thank you for the excellent coverage of our article, @economist.com! You can find the full piece here: nber.org/papers/w33976

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Excited to see this paper coming out. We develop a tractable framework for modeling the rich patterns of spatial mobility observed in smartphone data, including travel itineraries and the resulting consumption externalities between locations
Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Economics of Spatial Mobility: Theory and Evidence Using Smartphone Data,” by Miyauchi, Nakajima, and Redding (@reddingecon.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org

Thanks for the fantastic coverage of our work, @alexanderwulfers.com!
Wie war die Stimmung während der ersten Globalisierung, nach der Erfindung des Radios oder während Europas letztem großen Klimawandel? Ökonomen (u.a. @heblich.bsky.social) haben sich dafür etwas Cleveres einfallen lassen: Emotionen in >600.000 Gemälden, ausgewertet mit KI.
Wirtschaftsgeschichte: Was die Kunst über Krisen verrät
Je schlechter die Wirtschaft, desto mehr Angst und Trauer sind auf Gemälden zu sehen. Wer genau hinschaut kann den Bildern noch mehr Geschichten entlocken.
www.faz.net
Wie war die Stimmung während der ersten Globalisierung, nach der Erfindung des Radios oder während Europas letztem großen Klimawandel? Ökonomen (u.a. @heblich.bsky.social) haben sich dafür etwas Cleveres einfallen lassen: Emotionen in >600.000 Gemälden, ausgewertet mit KI.
Wirtschaftsgeschichte: Was die Kunst über Krisen verrät
Je schlechter die Wirtschaft, desto mehr Angst und Trauer sind auf Gemälden zu sehen. Wer genau hinschaut kann den Bildern noch mehr Geschichten entlocken.
www.faz.net
NBER @nber.org · Jul 26
Frontline Union Army captains cut desertions and boosted cohesion through leading by example, earning postwar-wage gains and greater recognition, from @andyferrara.bsky.social, Christian Dippel, and Stephan Heblich https://www.nber.org/papers/w34057
Ten days until the submission deadline for our meeting in Montréal. #econsky
📣 Call for papers 📣

19th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association
October 3 - 4, 2025
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Keynotes by Cecile Gaubert and Keith Head.

Please submit your paper by May 30.

urbaneconomics.org/meetings/uea...
UEA 2025 Montréal
urbaneconomics.org

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

NBER @nber.org · Jul 21
Studying why some cities thrive while others decline finds that early industrial specialization lowers long-run productivity—a dynamic trade-off at the heart of place-based policy, from Stephan Heblich, Dávid Krisztián Nagy, Alex Trew, and Yanos Zylberberg https://www.nber.org/papers/w34029

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Call for submissions for the NBER International Trade and Investment Program Meeting on November 21-22, 2025, at Stanford: conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b.... Submission deadline 11.59pm ET on Monday September 15, 2025.
Submission: International Trade and Investment Program Meeting, Page 1 of 2 - MyNBER
conference.nber.org

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Call for Papers for NBER Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century Virtual Conference, October 24, 2024, organized with Ed Glaeser and Jim Poterba: stephenredding.github.io/Call_for_Pap.... Submission Deadline Weds Sept 3, 11.59 ET. @nber.org @siepr.bsky.social @treballen.bsky.social
stephenredding.github.io
NBER @nber.org · Jul 14
Open call for papers, Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century. Conference to be held virtually on October 24, 2025. Submit papers by 11:59pm EDT on September 3, 2025. More information: https://www.nber.org/calls-papers-and-proposals/economics-transportation-21st-century

Very excited to share that our journey into art history is taking shape. We are exploring how historical events echo through artistic expression.
nber.org NBER @nber.org · Jul 6
Analyzing 630k paintings since 1400 to show how art complements development indicators by revealing sentiments about living standards, uncertainty, and inequality, from Clément Gorin, Stephan Heblich, and Yanos Zylberberg https://www.nber.org/papers/w33976
NBER @nber.org · Jul 6
Analyzing 630k paintings since 1400 to show how art complements development indicators by revealing sentiments about living standards, uncertainty, and inequality, from Clément Gorin, Stephan Heblich, and Yanos Zylberberg https://www.nber.org/papers/w33976

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Call for papers for @cep-lse.bsky.social LSE / Warwick Junior Trade Seminar: cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/.... Deadline 27 July.
CEP-LSE-Warwick Junior trade workshop 2025 | Various speakers | Monday 22 September 2025 09:30 - 17:30 | CEP Event
An event from the CEP Public Events series organised by the CEP
cep.lse.ac.uk
🚨 New paper alert: Economists in 🇫🇷 France, 🇨🇦Canada, and 🇬🇧the U.K. just released what looks like a tour-de-force on the economics of artwork. It's big.

Here’s what they did.

🎨📉📈

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Pleased to share op-ed in Le Monde: "Impact Evaluation: For GAFAM or for Citizens?"

🔗 French version (Le Monde):
www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

🔗 English translation (Sciences Po):
www.sciencespo.fr/department-e...

Tech companies routinely use impact evaluation tools to optimize their services...
« Les outils d’évaluation sont sous-utilisés par ceux qui les financent, à savoir les Etats »
TRIBUNE. L’évaluation d’impact, qui permet par exemple de tester l’efficacité des politiques publiques, est massivement captée par les géants du numérique, alors que ces outils sont souvent créés par ...
www.lemonde.fr

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

NBER @nber.org · Jun 6
Analyzing the decline of America's new housing supply, focusing on large sunbelt markets that were once building superstars, from Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko https://www.nber.org/papers/w33876

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

NBER @nber.org · May 12
Using Danish data to show IQ and education drive high-impact entrepreneurship, while family ties matter more for average entrepreneurs, from Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Jeremy Pearce, and Marta Prato https://www.nber.org/papers/w33766

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

I created a shiny web tool to play around with OL/TWFE so you can teach how this stuff can get so screwy. You can mess with temporal and cohort heterogeneity, treatment timing, whether you have any controls, etc. Share your worst plots! #econsky cannoncloud.shinyapps.io/TWFE_OLS_Pla...
Excellent thread and podcast about the challenges to Britain's free trade policy in 1903....
The world's biggest trade power is in retreat.

A businessman-politician claims his country is under attack.

He demands tariffs to secure the border & make his country great again.

Yes, it's the UK in 1903!

Find out more in this episode of @ppfideas.bsky.social. 🧵 www.ppfideas.com/episodes/ide...

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Call for papers for NBER-Sloan conference on Transport Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity: www.princeton.edu/~reddings/Ca... Deadline: June 30, 2025. Organized with Myrto Kalouptsidi. @nber.org @treballen.bsky.social @jintlecon.bsky.social @indorgsociety.bsky.social
www.princeton.edu

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Can the historical practice of raising government revenue from import #tariffs work now? S Evenett & M Muendler say no. The displacement effect of import tariffs is so strong that revenues can't plausibly fund more than a few weeks of annual US government spending.
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

Call for papers for our Montreal meetings now live. Submission deadline 30th May.
📣 Call for papers 📣

19th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association
October 3 - 4, 2025
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Keynotes by Cecile Gaubert and Keith Head.

Please submit your paper by May 30.

urbaneconomics.org/meetings/uea...
UEA 2025 Montréal
urbaneconomics.org

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

In the years leading up to the French Revolution, the areas of #France burdened by a higher #tax rate experienced more revolts. These effects were amplified by droughts that increased food prices and activated latent discontent.
T Giommoni, G Loumeau, M Tabellini
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky

Reposted by Stephan Heblich

What gives life meaning?

In a new #VoxTalks #Economics, David Lagakos @bostonu.bsky.social & Hans-Joachim Voth UZH explore what thousands of life stories from 1930s America reveal, using AI to decode meaning in tough times
w/ @talknormal.co.uk
🎧https://cepr.org/multimedia/meaningful-life

#EconSky