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

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

My hot take is that toddler beds are a scam. Toddlers don't sleep in them, then you end up getting a big bed anyway hoping either
-they'll just go to sleep (1st best obvi)
-or at least you can be comfortable when you're constantly trying to put them back in bed

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Plus lots, lots more. . .check out her work!
ashaniamarasinghe.gi...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Cool recent work explores roles of road, geographic + ethnic networks in diffusing shocks outside of SSA
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

She explores how public discontent evolves in months after a successful terror attack + finds public discontent rises in months after an attack
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Another paper explores the role of diversionary foreign interactions in context of domestic turmoil, and finds that diversionary intreactions are mainly "verbal aggression" targeted at weak countries + geographically close countries
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

One paper joint w/@PaulRaschky @yveszenou1 in the European Economic Review finds that natural disasters lead to an overall increase in conflict incidence in SSA (in affected localities + neighboring localities)
www.sciencedirect.co...

Reposted by Caroline Krafft

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 1d

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @ashaniamar who works on topics related to institutions, political economy, and development

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 5d

Good news team, our referee reports now beat declining fertility as a matter of national importance in the onlien zeitgesit

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 5d

So true.
And also, I'm definitely missing my sleep and my screen time. Both were very nice

Reposted by Juan Moreno‐Cruz

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 7d

Love all the hype about AI these days, I have a *long* to-do list ready
-organize all 3 kids' valentines
-put away laundry
-sleep train youngest
-address separation anxiety of other two
-clean up some stuff, in general
anyone tested any of the new models

Reposted by Gernot Wagner

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Really capturing the depressing zeitgeist right here

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Plus lots, lots more - check out her work!

Research

Specializations: Development Economics; Applied Microeconomics; Applied Econometrics; Environmental Economics; Health Economics Publications: “The Quest for Greener Pastures: Evaluating the L…

helenepurcellco.wordpress.com

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Another interesting paper using Indonesian data finds that high-mortality natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes) shift preferences, particularly risk aversion
github.com/hpurcell6...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Another paper w/@manimetrix @JustineHerve analyzes returns to big 5 personality traits in Indonesia, + finds conscientiousness is significant predictor of employment + earnings, primarily via link to higher work intensity (r&r Oxford Bulletin of Economics + Statistics)
repository.upenn.edu...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

One published paper in Ecological Economics joint w/ Machado et al. analyzes effects of providing maps to pastoralist households to facilitate migration in East Africa; use of maps is lower than expected, little impact on migration patterns or herd size.
www.sciencedirect.co...

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @helenepurcell who works on topics related to human capital + demography in developing countries

Reposted by Valerie Mueller

Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d

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 · 9d

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 · 13d

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 · 14d

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 · 14d

*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 · 15d

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 · 16d

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 · 16d

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 · 16d

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 · 16d

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 · 16d

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 · 16d

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 · 19d

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 · 19d

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

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