Peter Deffebach
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macrodev.bsky.social
Peter Deffebach
@macrodev.bsky.social
Development / Urban / Macro economist at BU. On the 24-25 Job Market

https://pdeffebach.github.io/
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
Today's JMP features @akhila-kovvuri.bsky.social's work which shows how the extension of the metro system in Delhi generated new jobs around transit stations. Using staggered DiD, she shows consumer-focused firms move in, with new jobs. Large gain for women. blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?
What if the train brought the job to you? How public transit moves opportunity closer—and changes who gets hired: Guest post by Akhila Kovvuri
blogs.worldbank.org
November 17, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
What have we learned about training entrepreneurs?

Issue 4 of our VoxDevLit on Training Entrepreneurs by @dmckenzie.bsky.social, Christopher Woodruff & Co-Editors is out now!➡️ voxdev.org/voxdevlit/tr...

Today's podcast covers the update➡️ voxdev.org/topic/firms/...
November 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
#QJE Nov 2025, #1, “The Economics of Spatial Mobility: Theory and Evidence Using Smartphone Data,” by Miyauchi, Nakajima, and Redding (@reddingecon.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
The Economics of Spatial Mobility: Theory and Evidence Using Smartphone Data*
ABSTRACT. We develop a tractable quantitative framework for modeling the rich patterns of spatial mobility observed in smartphone data. We show that travel
doi.org
October 12, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
This week was short on links that caught my attention, but here they are: blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
Weekly links June 27: low-income labor markets, ERPs for SMEs, take time to think.
blogs.worldbank.org
June 27, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
Forthcoming in AER: Insights: "Long-Term and Lasting Impacts of Personal Initiative Training on Entrepreneurial Success" by Francisco Campos, Michael Frese, Leonardo Iacovone, Hillary C. Johnson, David McKenzie, and Mona Mensmann. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
Long-Term and Lasting Impacts of Personal Initiative Training on Entrepreneurial Success
(Forthcoming Article) - A randomized experiment in Togo found that personal initiative training for small businesses resulted in large and significant impacts for both men and women after two years. W...
www.aeaweb.org
March 13, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
In today's blog, @berkozler12.bsky.social summarizes new work by @marcellaalsan.bsky.social & co-authors on how mean reversion may lower average impacts in RCTs - lots of people being treated may be in a temporary dip that will improve on its own blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
Mean Reversion in RCTs: It may matter for targeting…
Mean Reversion in RCTs: It may matter for targeting…
blogs.worldbank.org
January 27, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
This is a crushing blow to the future of Oregon's economy. This is the kind of thing where having the second most senior Democrat in the US Senate should really help, but it seems not to have. www.oregonlive.com/silicon-fore...
Arizona wins last of 3 planned federal chip research sites, a setback for Oregon and Intel
The decision leaves out Oregon, whose leaders hoped a federal research center would anchor a new generation of semiconductor activity in the state.
www.oregonlive.com
January 6, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
h) Miyauchi, @ecmaeditors.bsky.social. Using Japanese firm‐to‐firm transactions panel data, shows rematching following unexpected supplier bankruptcy improves with spatial density of alternative suppliers; this can account for big share of agglomeration benefits t.ly/0TTgV
Matching and Agglomeration: Theory and Evidence from Japanese Firm-to-Firm Trade - The Econometric Society
t.ly
December 27, 2024 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
Thanks to a good question by @macrodev.bsky.social and inspired by @paulgp.com, I wrote down my Christmas wish for #econsky / #dkøko economists: Learn SQL and teach it to your students 🙏

It will tremendously help your data work and destress your machines. @duckdb.org makes it easy to get started.
Teach SQL in (grad) school
Why SQL ought really to be a staple in the toolbox of anyone working with data - in or outside academia.
alemartinello.com
December 22, 2024 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
I set up this feed to tweet recent articles from JUE, RSUE, and JOEG. One per journal per day, from the publishers’ RSS feeds. Give it a follow if this seems useful to you! (Here’s an article that I edited at RSUE.)
December 19, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
The last in our #econjmp has @guanghongxu.bsky.social (UCSC) shows how a new (Bayesian inference based) digital traceability system for milk quality in Kenya helped improve milk quality and led to farmers getting more credit from cooperatives and changing inputs blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
Let the Cream Rise to the Top: Digital Traceability and Quality Upgrading in Kenyan Dairy Value Chain. Guest post by Guanghong Xu.
blogs.worldbank.org
December 16, 2024 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
In today's #econjmp, Pascuel Plotkin (UBC) uses matched DiD in Brazil to trace out impacts of restaurant delivery apps on workers in restaurants that use these apps, those in nearby restaurants, and on gig workers. Also how workers value flexibility of app jobs blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?
Winners and losers in the gig economy: What delivery platforms mean for workers. Guest post by Pascuel Plotkin
Winners and losers in the gig economy: What delivery platforms mean for workers. Guest post by Pascuel Plotkin
blogs.worldbank.org
December 4, 2024 at 2:06 PM
I'm happy to see my JMP written up in the Development Impact Blog! Let me give a small overview of my paper and why I think it's exciting / important / why you should hire me.
November 22, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Kevin Donovan, Will Lu, and Todd Schoellman should host a mini-conference that's just Job Market Candidates whose JMPs are inspired directly by Donovan, Lu, and Schoellman (2023, QJE)
November 21, 2024 at 9:21 PM
One of my research agendas if I get an academic or WB job is to just hang out at a construction site in a developing country and keep track of these kinds of things to understand what hidden costs affect the construction sector in these places

I could do that in NYC, too, but I'm a dev economist.
November 20, 2024 at 3:37 PM
There's *a lot* of room for empirical work on the role of the population boom in the east asian growth story. Most work is from the 1980s.

And every paper on labor on Africa starts with "African labor markets must accommodate an influx of new workers..." Do we really think this is the problem?
why has everyone suddenly started talking about fertility this year? I’m sure there wasn’t so much fertility talk last year. before this year only some people on the right talked about it. now it’s mainstreamed. I remain the only person not talking about fertility
October 30, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
Here is my extremely brief (potted) history of institutions in macro-development thinking -- just before the AJR intervention. I had most of these thoughts prior to the Nobel week, but now they are crystallising.
October 18, 2024 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
** Development econ job market candidates **

The devo group at Princeton is hiring 2 postdocs for 2025-26. Come spend the year with us before starting your faculty job.

Nina Buchmann, who deferred her postdoc w/ us until 2025-6, will also be here for the year.

www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing....
American Economic Association: JOE Listings - August 1, 2024 - January 31, 2025
www.aeaweb.org
October 3, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
One of the final papers I’m handling at RSUE. Excited to see it published!
I did not handle it, but I am thrilled that this cool paper by
@eviladecans & @MiquelAngelGL is out in
@RegScUrbEc. It is not just access to jobs that matters for urban gradients. Amenities matter, too. And they will still matter if/when we all telecommute... doi.org/10.1016/j.re...
September 19, 2024 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Peter Deffebach
🚨 New publicly available dataset on housing regulations across US municipalities

With Alex Bartik and Dan Milo, we highlight a novel AI-based method for accurate categorization of regulations in unstructured text, which we use to establish 5 facts about housing regulation:
September 16, 2024 at 2:38 PM