Ely Strömberg
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elystromberg.bsky.social
Ely Strömberg
@elystromberg.bsky.social
2.3K followers 690 following 280 posts
PhD candidate at University of Amsterdam.
Interested in intersectionality, discrimination, and pretty books. Like to measure categories continuously, eg. gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality. They/them

https://elystromberg.github.io/About/
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elystromberg.bsky.social
Ely Strömberg @elystromberg.bsky.social · 25d
Mine and @pengzell.bsky.social paper
"How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?" was published in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social yesterday edu.nl/y7ct3
More details in the future, but for now short explanation of what we did, and the origin story of the paper.
[Thread below]
How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?
Article: How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility? | Sociological Science | Posted December 11, 2025
doi.org
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
sbvanoosten.bsky.social
I've had the honour to convene this seminar series about the politics of immigration and exclusion.

Looking forward to learning more about the research by @turnbulldugarte.com @profsob.bsky.social @katharinalawall.bsky.social @distasioval.bsky.social and @stefaniesprong.bsky.social + drinks after!
compasoxford.bsky.social COMPAS @compasoxford.bsky.social · 1d
Register to our upcoming seminar series, where speakers will explore the causes and consequences of the changing debate on immigration across Europe.

📌 Online & in person (Oxford)
⏰ Thursdays, 3:45–5:00 PM (GMT)
🌍 Free & open to all
🔗 zoom.us/meeting/regi...
January 6, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
anatra.bsky.social
There's nothing like a revision deadline to motivate me to bake huge amounts of saffron buns, and no, it's not the "christmas spirit"🙃
December 19, 2025 at 12:28 PM
elystromberg.bsky.social
And the far right is dropping the Jewish part of Judeo-Christian values, who could have seen this coming?
joelhs.bsky.social Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 19d
The new Polish president, endorsed by Trump, has ended the tradition of lighting a Menorah at Poland's presidential palace, a gesture of coming to terms with Jewish history. He said he ended the lighting because "I take my attachment to Christian values ​​seriously." forward.com/opinion/7919...
Why Poland’s president canceled his menorah lighting — and how the West helped make that happen
Karol Nawrocki canceled menorah lighting at the presidential palace, part of a broader failure to combat antisemitism, Holocaust revisionism.
forward.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
yamilrvelez.bsky.social
As @seanjwestwood.bsky.social's terrifying new PNAS article demonstrates, LLMs can now pass almost every attention check, mirror personas, stay consistent across pages, and systematically bias responses in the aggregate.

So here’s a different angle: verify physical presence, not text.
November 24, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
mclem.org
The International Monetary Fund asked me to review the literature on migration economics to draw lessons for low-income countries.

In a new @iza.org paper, I argue that policy for the 21st century must discard four outdated ideas.

www.iza.org/publications...

🧵 thread—>
1. Less skilled labor is abundant. 2. Skilled emigration is a brain drain. 3. Development substitutes for migration. 4. Migration substitutes for failing development, but doesn't cause development.
December 18, 2025 at 5:33 PM
elystromberg.bsky.social
Our household has an annual tradition of watching bad Christmas movies. First out: My Secret Santa
Small town unemployed single mom meets the scandalous heir to the big resort family that’s trying to shape up his act.

3/10
Poster for My Secret Santa with a woman in Santa clothes in a chair and a man in a suit behind it.
December 18, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
jeremykuhnle.bsky.social
Awesome project with wonderful people and amazing research! What more could you ask for ?!?!
Now check out our first @equalstrength.bsky.social publication!
December 17, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
andreas.ljungstrm.se
Just published my first article! 🎉
We study inequalities in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Sweden by immigrant background. Immigrant-background children enroll less often - but the pattern is different from the usual story about disadvantage and access.

1/3
Inequalities in early childhood education and care by immigrant background
Children with foreign-born parents attend early childhood education and care (ECEC) to a lower extent than native-background children in most European…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:15 AM
elystromberg.bsky.social
Every year it becomes clearer that names carry a multitude of signals, but often they are used as a clear signal of for example race or ethnicity. Untangling this interplay of gender, class, race, and ethnicity will be easier with this extensive dataset!
sbvanoosten.bsky.social Dr. Sanne van Oosten @sbvanoosten.bsky.social · 20d
⁉️What do people read into names? ⁉️

✨New publication in Nature’s Scientific Data ✨

When people see an ethnic minority-sounding name, do they infer race, religion, gender, or social background?

🤓First @equalstrength.bsky.social publication 😅

Check it out here: 🧵
The Perception of Names in Experimental Studies on Ethnic Origin: A Cross-National Validation in Europe - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The Perception of Names in Experimental Studies on Ethnic Origin: A Cross-National Validation in Europe
www.nature.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
billiemartiniello.bsky.social
After consacrating a significant part of my PhD to the use of names as signals in experimental designs, i am happy to be part of this inter-country evaluation of signals in names - fresh from the press in Nature Scientific Data. A work that was possible thanks to the hard work of a great group!
equalstrength.bsky.social EqualStrength @equalstrength.bsky.social · 20d
Check out the very first EqualStrength publication, led by Abel Ghekiere and @billiemartiniello.bsky.social
sbvanoosten.bsky.social Dr. Sanne van Oosten @sbvanoosten.bsky.social · 20d
⁉️What do people read into names? ⁉️

✨New publication in Nature’s Scientific Data ✨

When people see an ethnic minority-sounding name, do they infer race, religion, gender, or social background?

🤓First @equalstrength.bsky.social publication 😅

Check it out here: 🧵
December 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
sbvanoosten.bsky.social
⁉️What do people read into names? ⁉️

✨New publication in Nature’s Scientific Data ✨

When people see an ethnic minority-sounding name, do they infer race, religion, gender, or social background?

🤓First @equalstrength.bsky.social publication 😅

Check it out here: 🧵
The Perception of Names in Experimental Studies on Ethnic Origin: A Cross-National Validation in Europe - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The Perception of Names in Experimental Studies on Ethnic Origin: A Cross-National Validation in Europe
www.nature.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
janhove.bsky.social
A recent study purports to have found that multilingualism protects against accelerated ageing. I've taken a closer look at it, and it doesn't look good.

New blog post: "Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Some critical comments"
janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...
Positive trend between monolingualism and accelerated ageing. Negative trend between per capita GDP and accelerated ageing.
December 15, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
pengzell.bsky.social
Immensely proud to see two newish publications out that begun their life as masters theses a wee while ago... links below
The geography of intergenerational mobility in Europe How do opportunities for intergenerational mobility depend on where you live? We address this question using European Social Survey data, studying the association between parents’ and children’s occupation, and how it varies by region of residence. Absolute mobility, largely driven by shifts in occupational structure, differs from relative mobility, which reflects the extent to which opportunities are equal across social origins. Capital regions emerge as hubs of absolute, but not necessarily relative, mobility. Absolute mobility correlates with human capital, labor market, demographic, and spatial factors. In contrast, relative mobility is primarily shaped by economic disparities between social classes. Greater inequality entails less mobility, even comparing different places within a country. How robust are country rankings in educational mobility? We investigate the impact of analytical choices on country comparisons in intergenerational educational mobility using a multiverse approach. A literature survey gives rise to 2,880 plausible ways of measuring educational mobility, which we apply to European Social Survey data from 16 countries. Although some countries consistently appear at the top or bottom of the mobility rankings, most show substantial variation. Beyond our methodological contribution, we report two substantive findings. First, some countries often characterized as low-mobility emerge as matching or surpassing the egalitarian Nordic countries, reinforcing the view that wider mobility differences cannot be attributed solely to the education system but must be sought elsewhere, such as the labor market. Second, the choice of parameter—such as regression coefficients, correlations, or categorical measures—is the single most influential factor that shifts country rankings. As different parameters carry distinct theoretical meanings, researchers should treat parameter choice not merely as a robustness check but as an opportunity to test and refine competing theories.
December 12, 2025 at 7:58 AM
elystromberg.bsky.social
Mine and @pengzell.bsky.social paper
"How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?" was published in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social yesterday edu.nl/y7ct3
More details in the future, but for now short explanation of what we did, and the origin story of the paper.
[Thread below]
How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?
Article: How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility? | Sociological Science | Posted December 11, 2025
doi.org
December 12, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
kbkarlson.bsky.social
Check out this super cool and all new paper by
@elystromberg.bsky.social and @pengzell.bsky.social in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social on

how sensitive cross-country comparisons in intergenerational mobility can be to seemingly inconsequential data and measurement decisions.

#sociology
sociologicalsci.bsky.social Sociological Science @sociologicalsci.bsky.social · 26d
NEW: Ely Strömberg, Per Engzell, "How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?" sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...
sociologicalscience.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
sociologicalsci.bsky.social
NEW: Ely Strömberg, Per Engzell, "How Robust Are Country Rankings in Educational Mobility?" sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...
sociologicalscience.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:04 PM
elystromberg.bsky.social
When you’re reminded that US and Europe have different concepts of the political left 🤔
johnholbein1.bsky.social John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · Dec 5
When firms unionize it makes their workers become even more liberal.
December 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
notalegalrecord.net
people are sharing an ode to Bluesky, “a little love letter to the people who would not compromise with Nazis,” posted on Substack. which i find interesting because it was because of a campaign on Bluesky that i closed my Substack for being a platform that very much *does* compromise with Nazis.
December 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
payoub.bsky.social
Big news from the CJEU that brings two early cases in my 2016 book (Poland and Germany, with the marriage in Berlin) back into the spotlight: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
EU court rules entire bloc must respect same-sex marriages in rebuke to Poland
Couple who married in Germany had their right to a ‘normal family life’ impeded, court of justice finds
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM
elystromberg.bsky.social
Small workshops like this makes for great discussions and a type of feedback that you just can’t get in bigger formats. Alberto collected such a nice set of scholars working on different topics with LGBTQIA+ as a red thread.
bertous.bsky.social Alberto López Ortega @bertous.bsky.social · Nov 24
Friday’s workshop was a joy to host. ☺️

We brought together researchers and activists to talk about LGBTQ+ criminalization, discrimination at work and in parenting, dating bias, and how the far right weaponizes LGBTQ issues.

Grateful to everyone involved and to VU's VICES for the support. 🏳️‍🌈
November 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
pengzell.bsky.social
New evidence that twin estimates of heritability should be adjusted downward by about half
sashagusevposts.bsky.social Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · Nov 21
So there you have it, twin study estimates were greatly inflated, and molecular data sets the record straight. I walk through possible counter-arguments, but ultimately the uncomfortable truth is that genes contribute to traits much less than we always thought.
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
sbvanoosten.bsky.social
It was so good to meet with @equalstrength.bsky.social -researchers to discuss structural discrimination against Black, Muslim, and Roma people, funded by Horizon Europe.

Thank you @stephsteinmetz.bsky.social, @jeremykuhnle.bsky.social and Vasilena Lachkovska for hosting us at UNIL in Lausanne.
Researchers from the Horizon funded EqualStrength consortium discussing research
November 8, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
equalstrength.bsky.social
This project has been an incredible experience for all of us. The data collection is almost finished, so hopefully you’ll start seeing results from this amazing team effort in 2026.
Big thanks to the organising team @jeremykuhnle.bsky.social, Stephanie Steinmetz and Vasilena Lachkovska!
distasioval.bsky.social Valentina Di Stasio @distasioval.bsky.social · Nov 8
After so many months of fieldwork, it was great to present findings from our @equalstrength.bsky.social's project at the LIVES centre in beautiful Lausanne! Stay tuned for more in the coming months!
sbvanoosten.bsky.social Dr. Sanne van Oosten @sbvanoosten.bsky.social · Nov 8
After seemingly endless meetings online, meeting in-person is so unbelievably valuable 🤩

Get ready for lots of research from Team Science coming your way 🤝

@distasioval.bsky.social already gave a keynote summarising the state of the art... and there is still so much more to come 👏
November 10, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Ely Strömberg
distasioval.bsky.social
After so many months of fieldwork, it was great to present findings from our @equalstrength.bsky.social's project at the LIVES centre in beautiful Lausanne! Stay tuned for more in the coming months!
sbvanoosten.bsky.social Dr. Sanne van Oosten @sbvanoosten.bsky.social · Nov 8
After seemingly endless meetings online, meeting in-person is so unbelievably valuable 🤩

Get ready for lots of research from Team Science coming your way 🤝

@distasioval.bsky.social already gave a keynote summarising the state of the art... and there is still so much more to come 👏
November 8, 2025 at 7:55 AM