Max Nathan
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maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan
@maxnathan.bsky.social
3.3K followers 580 following 840 posts

Professor of Economic Geography, UCL. Also CEP, IZA. Cities, economics, innovation, diversity, and public policy. Views here are mine, not those of UCL, funders, data providers, etc.

https://max-nathan.github.io

Videos
Economics 42%
Political science 24%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Max Nathan

acjsissons.bsky.social
Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 3d
Absolutely tremendous work here, no notes.

(Apart from to say that this proposal is by the actual president of RIBA)
Proposal for The Loop, by Chris Williamson, President of RIBA. It is a red line connecting nine cities in northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Max Nathan, Jason Lyall , and 1 more

attackerman.bsky.social
Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 5d
This is tremendous. Take the time to watch it.
azrww.bsky.social Arizona Right Watch @azrww.bsky.social · 6d
Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 6d
Good idea!

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 6d
Ofc this is just one London borough. But it’s striking, to put it mildly! We need more planning policy experiments like this.

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 6d
Want to know what switching from development control to rules-based planning might look like in the UK?

@mauricelange.bsky.social has numbers 👇

HT @stephenkb.bsky.social
LB Croydon switched to rules-based planning in 2019. Croydon then delivered more houses on new-build sites of 6-10 units than any other London borough since 2004.

Reposted by Max Nathan, Paul Nightingale

duncanweldon.bsky.social
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 6d
V interesting. And well done Anthropic for being upfront on the trade-offs here.

www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...
How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
www.anthropic.com

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Calvin K. Lai, Cameron Brick , and 12 more

johnholbein1.bsky.social
John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 6d
Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?

These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.

So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...

Reposted by Lars Coenen

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 6d
🚨🎓📚 I am super-excited to be joining the Economic Geography editorial board. Many thanks to the editors for having me!

www.tandfonline.com/journals/rec...

Follow EG here: @econgeog-journal.bsky.social

Please send us your papers :)
Economic Geography
Economic Geography publishes research that deepens the understanding of geographical drivers and implications of economic processes on the economy and society.
www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Max Nathan

hkesvani.bsky.social
HK @hkesvani.bsky.social · 10d
Really cool that while we have a national panic about teenagers on phone too much, phone is also causing pensioners to build car bombs www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Ulez bomber: the retired electrician who turned bomb-making extremist
Shy 63-year-old’s decision to blow up London traffic camera linked to online conspiracy theories and Islamophobia
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Max Nathan

londonermag.bsky.social
The Londoner @londonermag.bsky.social · 10d
Mysterious emails, incessant demands and a fake lawyer — read our editor’s note about a serious threat we’re facing

www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-londoner...

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Jason M. Fletcher, Valerie Mueller , and 2 more

julianreif.bsky.social
Julian Reif @julianreif.bsky.social · 12d
Thoughts from a newbie using Claude Code for the first time.

I don’t always use GitHub for my projects, but with Claude Code it feels like a must. Having a tool read and write files without version control is just too scary.

Reposted by Dave O’Brien, Matthias Doepke, Benjamin Braun , and 10 more

annastansbury.bsky.social
Anna Stansbury @annastansbury.bsky.social · 13d
📢now forthcoming in ECMA!

The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia

Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations.

Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 17d
🎉 Delighted to have got one of these UCL Research Culture Seed Fund Grants.

I’ll be working with Jessica Ferm, Hannah Schling, Fabio Miccoli and the @rgsibg.bsky.social EGRG to run seminars bringing together economic geographers from across UCL and other London unis. More soon!
casaucl.bsky.social UCL Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) @casaucl.bsky.social · 19d
Professor Max Nathan/the UCL Economic Geography Group have been awarded the UCL Grassroots Research Culture Seed Fund 2025/26, which funds locally led projects to improve UCL's research culture.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/news/2025/dec/ucl-grassroots-research-culture-seed-fund-202526-recipients

Reposted by Max Nathan, Margot C. Finn

robertsaunders.bsky.social
Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 17d
Superb - and alarming - piece on the torrent of falsehood and disinformation pouring into people's phones, designed to stir up racial hatred.

If you don't subscribe to @londoncentric.media, its investigative journalism is outstanding. @jim.londoncentric.media www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...
Who's secretly filming fake TikToks inside Londoners' homes?
We tracked down the viral video account invading people's houses to spread false claims about immigrants.
www.londoncentric.media

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 18d
Aaargh

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 18d
“I decided to try this thing that might wipe all my work, and was amazed to discover that it did, in fact, wipe all my work. I didn’t bother to make a copy and am now furious.”

Regardless of where you are on ChatGPT, this is just an amazing lack of basic common sense.

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 18d
Always Back Up Your Work, LLM edition

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Neil Selwyn, Steve Peers , and 7 more

dreadships.bsky.social
Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 18d
Amazing sob story: "ChatGPT deleted all the work I hadn't done"

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
When two years of academic work vanished with a single click
After turning off ChatGPT’s ‘data consent’ option, Marcel Bucher lost the work behind grant applications, teaching materials and publication drafts. Here’s what happened next.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Max Nathan , and 1 more

akoustov.bsky.social
Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 18d
My pro-immigration misinformation piece that will probably annoy almost everyone is finally out. If you care about democratic trust or are just curious what liberal elites don't want to say out loud, this is for you.

Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong.

alexanderkustov.substack.com/p/the-uncomf...

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Max Nathan

nber.org
NBER @nber.org · 18d
Documenting the geography of science in terms of who produces it, what it studies, and where it diffuses, from Abhishek Nagaraj and Randol Yao www.nber.org/papers/w34694

Reposted by Max Nathan

uclpublicpolicy.bsky.social
UCL Public Policy @uclpublicpolicy.bsky.social · 18d
Did you miss our latest Up Close and Policy webinar on Spatial Inequalities and Place-Based Solutions? Don't worry, you can now watch the recording now.

Next event on 25 February at 1pm. Book your place and watch the recording here: https://bit.ly/49RF3At

Reposted by Max Nathan

casaucl.bsky.social
UCL Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) @casaucl.bsky.social · 19d
Professor Max Nathan/the UCL Economic Geography Group have been awarded the UCL Grassroots Research Culture Seed Fund 2025/26, which funds locally led projects to improve UCL's research culture.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/news/2025/dec/ucl-grassroots-research-culture-seed-fund-202526-recipients

Reposted by Max Nathan

econgeog-journal.bsky.social
Economic Geography Journal @econgeog-journal.bsky.social · 19d
🎭 Are creative industries quietly remodeling cities?

🌃 In England and Wales, the association between creative activity and neighborhood gentrification is modest yet highly context-dependent—though evidently strong in large cities like London.

🔗 Read more at
doi.org/10.1080/0013...
#EconGeography

Reposted by Max Nathan, Dennis Novy

rfberlin.bsky.social
ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin @rfberlin.bsky.social · 25d
🆕 RFBerlin Discussion Paper! Horng Chern Wong, @dennisnovy.bsky.social, Carlo Perroni & Natalie Chen show how rapid urban structural change affected the urban\city divide by boosting city amenities and containing wages for superstar urban service firms.
🔗 www.rfberlin.com/wp-content/u...

Reposted by Max Nathan

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 26d
👀 Super-interesting paper on remote work, productivity from Arpit and co-authors.

Also has some important lessons for big cities and smaller places👇
arpitrage.bsky.social Arpit Gupta @arpitrage.bsky.social · 26d
There’s a paradox around remote work. Jamie Dimon says it will kill productivity, while startups are hiring for remote roles. Who is right?

With Abhinav Gupta and Elena Simintzi we try to resolve this dispute

Paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Substack: arpitrage.substack.com/p/remote-wor...

Reposted by Max Nathan, Aaron Sojourner, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham

arpitrage.bsky.social
Arpit Gupta @arpitrage.bsky.social · 26d
There’s a paradox around remote work. Jamie Dimon says it will kill productivity, while startups are hiring for remote roles. Who is right?

With Abhinav Gupta and Elena Simintzi we try to resolve this dispute

Paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Substack: arpitrage.substack.com/p/remote-wor...

Reposted by Axel Bruns, Scott L. Greer, Max Nathan , and 5 more

jsinclair.bsky.social
Jason Sinclair @jsinclair.bsky.social · 27d
Politicians: don't use AI to make your maps.

maxnathan.bsky.social
Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · Jan 8
V useful on clusters and UK industrial strategy by @paulswinney.bsky.social @thedatacity.bsky.social

thedatacity.com/blog/where-d...
Where do the Government’s Industrial Strategy IS-8 sectors cluster across the country? - The Data City
Advanced Manufacturing Clean Energy Industries Life Sciences Creative Industries Digital and Technologies Financial Services Professional and Business Services Advanced Manufacturing 1.0 0.3 0.4 0.0 0...
thedatacity.com

Reposted by Max Nathan

jpspencer.bsky.social
JP Spencer @jpspencer.bsky.social · Jan 8
The renaissance in local news is an exciting trend driven by online platforms. And one of the largest of these, @millmedia.bsky.social, was founded by @joshih.bsky.social in Manchester in 2020. It has now expanded to over 200,000 people subscribed across its 6 cities; over 13,000 of these pay.

1/6
Map of the expansion of Mill Media