Jessica Leight
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leightjessica.bsky.social
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%
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leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15h
I love to see the frontier for AI expanding but I'm disappointed to report it still does not include the task of cleaning up vomit from the 3 different beds my son landed on last night [with associated laundry + re-making]. some real room for growth there

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20h
We made a mistake of buying the toddler bed conversion for the first and then doubled down by still setting it up for the two youngest because we already had it, but not one of them ever used it for probably more than 4 hours continuously. A great example of failing to use sunk cost logic!

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20h
Yes that's also true.
Dismantling the crib this week made me feel very sad! It's still in our basement so I guess we haven't quite had the goodbye moment, but it's basically gone.

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20h
We have one! The problem is, it only works well around tables and chairs if you pick up the chairs. We do that every 2-3 days and run it fully. In between, I'm sweeping

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 20h
I know. We had one that was a giant Mickey mouse. Adorable and yet totally useless.

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
Plus lots, lots more. . .check out her work!
ashaniamarasinghe.gi...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
Cool recent work explores roles of road, geographic + ethnic networks in diffusing shocks outside of SSA
www.sciencedirect.co...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
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...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
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...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 2d
Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @ashaniamar who works on topics related to institutions, political economy, and development

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 6d
Good news team, our referee reports now beat declining fertility as a matter of national importance in the onlien zeitgesit

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 6d
So true.
And also, I'm definitely missing my sleep and my screen time. Both were very nice

Reposted by Juan Moreno‐Cruz

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 8d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
Really capturing the depressing zeitgeist right here

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
Another interesting paper using Indonesian data finds that high-mortality natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes) shift preferences, particularly risk aversion
github.com/hpurcell6...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
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...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
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...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 9d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 10d
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)

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 10d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 14d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15d
*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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 16d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17d
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

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17d
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/...

leightjessica.bsky.social
Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 17d
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...