Brett Hollenbeck
@bretthollenbeck.bsky.social
Associate professor at UCLA Anderson, works on IO, marketing etc. Temporary Parisian.
bretthollenbeck.com
bretthollenbeck.com
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Some news: I will be spending this entire 2025-26 academic year located in Paris, visiting the local universities and participating in the research community here.
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Tour de force on just exactly what has gone on at Texas A&M for so many years from Chris Hooks in @texasmonthly.bsky.social:
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
What’s the Matter With Texas A&M?
Five presidents in five years. Firings of “woke” professors. Crackdowns on Plato. Inside state leaders’ efforts to remake a great university.
www.texasmonthly.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:19 PM
Tour de force on just exactly what has gone on at Texas A&M for so many years from Chris Hooks in @texasmonthly.bsky.social:
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Honestly, tons of academics who I greatly respect don't realy understand AI including - what it does, how it's evolving, how it's affecting research.
That's bad.
That's bad.
Prof: AI is "very, very bad" at writing.
Same prof: Also I've never used it.
Come ON. I'm as worried as anyone about how to teach writing but you should at least, you know, understand what it is you are condemning. And undergrad cheating =/= the best AI can do.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/n...
Same prof: Also I've never used it.
Come ON. I'm as worried as anyone about how to teach writing but you should at least, you know, understand what it is you are condemning. And undergrad cheating =/= the best AI can do.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/n...
January 19, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Honestly, tons of academics who I greatly respect don't realy understand AI including - what it does, how it's evolving, how it's affecting research.
That's bad.
That's bad.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
This year's Empirical Management Conference is at Stanford, May 27-29!
Send us your best papers! Details and submission form here:
worldmanagementsurvey.org/emc2026/
JOIN US!! It's fun, I promise!
@raffasadun.bsky.social @johnvanreenen.bsky.social @renatalemos.bsky.social @nickbloom.bsky.social
Send us your best papers! Details and submission form here:
worldmanagementsurvey.org/emc2026/
JOIN US!! It's fun, I promise!
@raffasadun.bsky.social @johnvanreenen.bsky.social @renatalemos.bsky.social @nickbloom.bsky.social
Empirical Management Conference 2026 – World Management Survey
worldmanagementsurvey.org
January 14, 2026 at 5:25 PM
This year's Empirical Management Conference is at Stanford, May 27-29!
Send us your best papers! Details and submission form here:
worldmanagementsurvey.org/emc2026/
JOIN US!! It's fun, I promise!
@raffasadun.bsky.social @johnvanreenen.bsky.social @renatalemos.bsky.social @nickbloom.bsky.social
Send us your best papers! Details and submission form here:
worldmanagementsurvey.org/emc2026/
JOIN US!! It's fun, I promise!
@raffasadun.bsky.social @johnvanreenen.bsky.social @renatalemos.bsky.social @nickbloom.bsky.social
Despite the negative framing in this article, this sounds like a very promising set of moves by the EU Commission on reforming some harmful and failed digital regulations.
🎁 Just before the holidays, the EU Commission granted Big Tech its Christmas wish-list: an unprecedented attack on our digital rights.
Together with @lobbycontrol.bsky.social we have mapped how the Digital Omnibus closely matches Big Tech lobby demands.
👉 corporateeurope.org/en/2026/01/a...
Together with @lobbycontrol.bsky.social we have mapped how the Digital Omnibus closely matches Big Tech lobby demands.
👉 corporateeurope.org/en/2026/01/a...
Article by article, how Big Tech shaped the EU’s roll-back of digital rights | Corporate Europe Observatory
In a new analysis we trace Big Tech's fingerprints on the Digital Omnibus proposals - a major deregulation of EU digital laws including the GDPR and the AI Act. They are helped in this attempt by the ...
corporateeurope.org
January 15, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Despite the negative framing in this article, this sounds like a very promising set of moves by the EU Commission on reforming some harmful and failed digital regulations.
Our train conductor just broke in over the PA system to announce this news live, in four languages. www.latimes.com/california/s...
An amateur codebreaker may have just solved the Black Dahlia and Zodiac killings
Two retired LAPD homicide detectives say that both notorious cases are solved -- with a single culprit -- thanks to the work of a novice sleuth.
www.latimes.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Our train conductor just broke in over the PA system to announce this news live, in four languages. www.latimes.com/california/s...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Star ratings are hard to ignore. Even when we’re looking for quality, our brains steer us toward cheaper stuff online. Christopher Mims explains why.
Buyer Beware: Star Ratings Actually Steer Us Away From the Best Shopping Deals
When reviewers consider prices while rating products, there’s a tendency to downgrade the highest-quality yet pricier items.
on.wsj.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Star ratings are hard to ignore. Even when we’re looking for quality, our brains steer us toward cheaper stuff online. Christopher Mims explains why.
Interesting reporting from @bencasselman.bsky.social, suggests Instacart is performing (or allowing) quite extensive personalized price discrimination.
Same product. Same store. Same time. But on Instacart, different customers may see different prices.
My story on a fascinating new experiment from @groundwork.bsky.social & @consumerreports.org and how the idea of a single price is breaking down in the digital age:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...
My story on a fascinating new experiment from @groundwork.bsky.social & @consumerreports.org and how the idea of a single price is breaking down in the digital age:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...
Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ
www.nytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Interesting reporting from @bencasselman.bsky.social, suggests Instacart is performing (or allowing) quite extensive personalized price discrimination.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Acts done out of love, Nietzsche once said, stand beyond good and evil. If this is what art amounts to, we should be grateful to Alice Munro for reminding us to be properly frightened of it.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - The Mysteries of Love: On Alice Munro
muse.jhu.edu
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Acts done out of love, Nietzsche once said, stand beyond good and evil. If this is what art amounts to, we should be grateful to Alice Munro for reminding us to be properly frightened of it.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
In honor of #GivingTuesday, my wife & I are matching donations (up to $20K) to the ASFOP Teega Wende Orphanage in 🇧🇫Burkina Faso🇧🇫, which supports over 200 orphans and we have supported for over a decade. 1/2
December 2, 2025 at 6:41 PM
In honor of #GivingTuesday, my wife & I are matching donations (up to $20K) to the ASFOP Teega Wende Orphanage in 🇧🇫Burkina Faso🇧🇫, which supports over 200 orphans and we have supported for over a decade. 1/2
I don't know if Texas deserves to be in the playoffs, but I do know what all the other playoff teams are hoping for.
November 29, 2025 at 7:17 AM
I don't know if Texas deserves to be in the playoffs, but I do know what all the other playoff teams are hoping for.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Some news: I will be spending this entire 2025-26 academic year located in Paris, visiting the local universities and participating in the research community here.
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
September 1, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Some news: I will be spending this entire 2025-26 academic year located in Paris, visiting the local universities and participating in the research community here.
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
If you work in Paris or are just passing though in the next year, please reach out, I'd be happy to meet up! PhD students especially!
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
This is an interesting set of academic research papers about the increasingly key debate of when AI should be used to label data (an expensive task we use humans for)
Yang et al show that AI answers are quite different than human, but Briggs finds it may be because AI is better than human RAs!
Yang et al show that AI answers are quite different than human, but Briggs finds it may be because AI is better than human RAs!
October 21, 2025 at 3:30 AM
This is an interesting set of academic research papers about the increasingly key debate of when AI should be used to label data (an expensive task we use humans for)
Yang et al show that AI answers are quite different than human, but Briggs finds it may be because AI is better than human RAs!
Yang et al show that AI answers are quite different than human, but Briggs finds it may be because AI is better than human RAs!
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
I think Southwest Airlines should revert its website to what they had in 1995
October 17, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I think Southwest Airlines should revert its website to what they had in 1995
Yes it is.
is hitting 3 home runs and striking out 10 batters in the NLCS the best game in baseball history
October 18, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Yes it is.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
An absolutely unreal performance from Shohei Ohtani to complete the Dodgers' NLCS sweep 🧹
October 18, 2025 at 3:33 AM
An absolutely unreal performance from Shohei Ohtani to complete the Dodgers' NLCS sweep 🧹
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Attention IO job market candidates:
Sometimes speakers in the CMA's external economics seminar series have to cancel at relatively short notice. We would love for these slots to go to JMCs to present their job market paper.
Drop me a message if you are interested or share with those who might be.
Sometimes speakers in the CMA's external economics seminar series have to cancel at relatively short notice. We would love for these slots to go to JMCs to present their job market paper.
Drop me a message if you are interested or share with those who might be.
October 16, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Attention IO job market candidates:
Sometimes speakers in the CMA's external economics seminar series have to cancel at relatively short notice. We would love for these slots to go to JMCs to present their job market paper.
Drop me a message if you are interested or share with those who might be.
Sometimes speakers in the CMA's external economics seminar series have to cancel at relatively short notice. We would love for these slots to go to JMCs to present their job market paper.
Drop me a message if you are interested or share with those who might be.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
❗❗❗🚨🚨🚨 Next @cepr.org IO Virtual Gathering is taking place on NOVEMBER 7 at 2pm CET. 1st hr is dedicated to JM presentations by IO candidates graduating from Eur / UK schools. If interested, please submit a draft of your JMP & CV at: t.co/aUTPTWSten by OCTOBER 26! 🚨🚨🚨 ❗❗❗ #econjobmarket
October 14, 2025 at 9:10 PM
❗❗❗🚨🚨🚨 Next @cepr.org IO Virtual Gathering is taking place on NOVEMBER 7 at 2pm CET. 1st hr is dedicated to JM presentations by IO candidates graduating from Eur / UK schools. If interested, please submit a draft of your JMP & CV at: t.co/aUTPTWSten by OCTOBER 26! 🚨🚨🚨 ❗❗❗ #econjobmarket
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
This paper shows that you can predict actual purchase intent (90% accuracy) by asking an off-the-shelf LLM to impersonate a customer with a demographic profile, giving it a product image & having it give its impressions, which another AI rates.
No fine-tuning or training & beats classic ML methods.
No fine-tuning or training & beats classic ML methods.
October 10, 2025 at 2:32 PM
This paper shows that you can predict actual purchase intent (90% accuracy) by asking an off-the-shelf LLM to impersonate a customer with a demographic profile, giving it a product image & having it give its impressions, which another AI rates.
No fine-tuning or training & beats classic ML methods.
No fine-tuning or training & beats classic ML methods.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
On one hand: don't anthropomorphize AI. On the other: LLMs exhibit signs of gambling addiction.
The more autonomy they were given, the more risks the LLMs took. They exhibit gambler's fallacy, loss-chasing, illusion of control...
A cautionary note for using LLMs for investing without guardrails.
The more autonomy they were given, the more risks the LLMs took. They exhibit gambler's fallacy, loss-chasing, illusion of control...
A cautionary note for using LLMs for investing without guardrails.
October 10, 2025 at 5:09 AM
On one hand: don't anthropomorphize AI. On the other: LLMs exhibit signs of gambling addiction.
The more autonomy they were given, the more risks the LLMs took. They exhibit gambler's fallacy, loss-chasing, illusion of control...
A cautionary note for using LLMs for investing without guardrails.
The more autonomy they were given, the more risks the LLMs took. They exhibit gambler's fallacy, loss-chasing, illusion of control...
A cautionary note for using LLMs for investing without guardrails.
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
ENO UNIVERSE playlist! A retrospective of Brian Eno’s body of work from 1972-1995 including his solo rock and ambient records and his collaborations with Bowie,Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Fripp, etc! All links and annotated tracklisting in the newsletter issue fluxblog.substack.com/p/fluxblog-5...
Fluxblog 566: ENO UNIVERSE
A retrospective of Brian Eno's music 1972-1995
fluxblog.substack.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
ENO UNIVERSE playlist! A retrospective of Brian Eno’s body of work from 1972-1995 including his solo rock and ambient records and his collaborations with Bowie,Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Fripp, etc! All links and annotated tracklisting in the newsletter issue fluxblog.substack.com/p/fluxblog-5...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Here are your 10 -essential- AI prompts for academics ... make your life easy with help from @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/10-ai-prom...
10 AI Prompts for Academics
making those hard jobs a little easier ...
profserious.substack.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Here are your 10 -essential- AI prompts for academics ... make your life easy with help from @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/10-ai-prom...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
Wild chart: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/u...
October 5, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Wild chart: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/u...
Reposted by Brett Hollenbeck
The videos from the NBER Economics of Transformative AI conference are well worth your time. www.nber.org/conferences/...
Economics of Transformative AI Workshop, Fall 2025
www.nber.org
September 30, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The videos from the NBER Economics of Transformative AI conference are well worth your time. www.nber.org/conferences/...
It looks like he didn't share it on Bluesky, so I will. @afinetheorem.bsky.social has written an excellent review article covering 7 recent books on the economics of AI that serves as an excellent overview of this topic. Highly recommended!
kevinbryanecon.com/BryanAIBookR...
kevinbryanecon.com/BryanAIBookR...
September 24, 2025 at 12:27 PM
It looks like he didn't share it on Bluesky, so I will. @afinetheorem.bsky.social has written an excellent review article covering 7 recent books on the economics of AI that serves as an excellent overview of this topic. Highly recommended!
kevinbryanecon.com/BryanAIBookR...
kevinbryanecon.com/BryanAIBookR...
