Chris Bennett
LightNews LightNews
banner
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Chris Bennett
@chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
1.6K followers 500 following 290 posts
Redhead, NC native, and higher education researcher. He/him. https://chrisbennettedu.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
I remain fascinated at Google’s insistence on showing two significant digits for the daily percent change in the stock market.
Image showing the S&P 500 price on October 29, 2025. It closed at a value that was 0.0044% below the previous day’s close. Google shades the value in red on the line graph because of the slight decline.
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Research firms continue to shed talented staff—even after the far-reaching cuts earlier this year. Just this week, there have been announcements of significant layoffs at RAND and Mathematica.
LinkedIn post from Paul Decker (President and CEO, Mathematica) in late October 2025 A Difficult Update Regretfully, ongoing disruption in the federal policy environment has continued to affect our work, and we need to initiate another round of staff reductions at Mathematica this week. The colleagues affected are exceptionally talented and dedicated professionals who've made lasting contributions to our mission, and we are sorry to lose them. Any of these individuals would be an asset to an organization lucky enough to hire them. If your organization is hiring, we'd be glad to connect you with them or share recommendations. Please reach out to Mathematica if we can help make introductions or offer support. LinkedIn update from RAND in late October 2025 RAND We have some news to share with those who follow RAND and value our mission. Today we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 11 percent, returning RAND to its size of a few years ago. This shift aligns our resources with changes in the broader research environment. We want everyone to know that our departing colleagues are skilled, dedicated professionals who have made lasting contributions to RAND's mission. We're proud to have worked with them and will do all we can to support them as they move forward. They will always be part of the RAND story. Even through times of change, RAND remains as focused as ever on our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
October 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Oak leaf hydrangeas deserve more credit for their contributions to fall foliage
Picture of oak leaf hydrangea leaves that are turning from green to red. Picture was taken in October in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
October 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
New York City parks are in full bloom. What a sight to behold!
Picture of a variety of plants in New York City’s Madison Square Park, including blue/pink/purple hydrangeas, monkey grass, and hostas. Photo of a fountain in New York City’s Madison Square Park. There are orange flowers in a planter in the foreground. Closeup of pink/purple hydrangeas in New York City’s Pinwheel Park Photo of grass, hostas, and large trees in New York City’s Madison Square Park. Multistory buildings are visible in the distance.
June 30, 2025 at 7:32 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
This ad copy is almost impossible to distinguish from a parody, but I regret to report it is very much a real thing.

Always enjoy reading nonstop references to a brand and then a tiny footnote denying any affiliation.

Aside: “Your network earned you a place at Brown”—what does that even mean??!
LinkedIn advertisement with a picture of Sayles Hall (a granite-clad building from the late 1800s) at Brown University in the background. Text of the ad reads: Waterman Ventures (an Alumni Ventures Fund) 2,297 followers Promoted While others chase public markets, an elite group of Brown alumni are quietly building generational wealth through privileged access to tomorrow's unicorns. Our portfolio includes breakthrough companies in quantum computing, Al, and space tech that are reshaping entire industries. Your network earned you a place at Brown. Now it can earn you a place at the cap table of the next breakthrough venture. Elite Access Awaits Join Brown's exclusive circle of investors backing tomorrow's breakthrough companies alongside legendary VCs. GET ACCESS Neither Alumni Ventures nor any of its funds are sponsored by, affiliated with, or otherwise endorsed by any university. Venture investing made simple. WATERMAN VENTURES, AN ALUMNI VENTURES FUND
June 26, 2025 at 12:06 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
*does mental math*

Oh, so the slowest May since the Great Recession

*reads article*

Oh, and we also just had the slowest April since the Great Recession
NPR headline: Home sales just posted their slowest May in 16 years
June 23, 2025 at 6:43 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Endlessly amused that LinkedIn’s example of a publication is an article entitled “Giving and receiving feedback” published in the Harvard Business Review
Add publication *Indicates required Title* Ex: Giving and receiving feedback Publication/Publisher Ex: Harvard Business Review
June 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Some of my favorites in the “vile puns” category
As Jeffrey Hicks, the event safety coordinator for the Renaissance Festival finished posting the revised standards for weaponry, he thought of the day an unleashed dog wandered onto the jousting field, causing the rider from Indianapolis to stop short, impaling himself on the butt of his spear, and the following day's newspaper headline which read: "Stray Injures Indy Knight, Hicks Changing Lances." Brad Taylor, Iowa City, IA The two power-hungry, 20-something biographers met with me incognito and settled on penning my memoirs, one on a percentage of future sales and one on upfront remuneration; so there is one yuppie I pay, one yuppie I owe, ghostwriters in disguise. Peter Bjorkman, Rocklin, CA Herr Professor Doktor Weiss' reputation was made when he conclusively proved the fraudulency of the Mayan codex that claimed to show that that ancient people knew the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter to an exactitude unknown until modern times, in his article, "Bye, Bye, Mesoamerican Pi." John L. Drost Barboursville, WV. Vile Puns Winner It was a risky production unlike any mounted prior on the Met stage, the orchestra first imitating the perpetually beating heart of a man walled-in while in pursuit of wine, and then a soprano singing the plaintive aria of a barely alive woman stuffed up a chimney as her ancestral home was destroyed; however, it certainly was Opera Poe. Amy Torchinsky, Greensboro NC
June 5, 2025 at 11:46 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Apparently Pennsylvania runs on Mifflin.
WIKIPEDIA Mifflin, Pennsylvania (disambiguation) Mifflin, Pennsylvania could refer to: • Mifflin, Juniata County, Pennsylvania • Mifflin County, Pennsylvania • West Mifflin, Pennsylvania • Mifflintown, Pennsylvania • Mifflinville, Pennsylvania • Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania
May 31, 2025 at 1:23 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Fun fact: the statistics on the number of patents awarded are publicly available. Did you know that, as a random example, Corning Incorporated had 519 patents in 2024 (down 5% from the prior year)?
List of the number of U.S. patents awarded in 2024 to the companies ranked in the top 100. Corning Incorporated is ranked #86 with 519 patents, down 5% from 2023
May 18, 2025 at 1:36 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
You know things are going smoothly when Bill Belichick is putting on button-down shirts for interviews and casually throwing in legal disclaimers about his girlfriend’s (lack of) formal affiliation with the UNC football program
Screenshot of an ESPN interview where Bill Belichick discusses his upcoming first season of coaching the UNC football team. He is wearing a button-down shirt, not a hoodie or t-shirt. The chyron reads: “Belichick says GF Jordon Hudson has nothing to do with UNC football”
May 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
The closer on this abstract seems quite apt but somehow caught me off-guard: “We discuss the implications for future research and the practical use of a shared American identity when little remains that is shared.”
Abstract When diversification becomes salient, a sizable share of white Americans experiences status threat and reacts with backlash. In this paper, we argue that status threat arises because white Americans tend to perceive racial minorities as competing outgroups, not as fellow Americans. Building on recent research suggesting that shared American identity primes can reduce partisan conflict, we test whether reminders of a shared American identity may reduce status threat and thus mitigate subsequent backlash. Across four experiments (total N = 4,062), we replicate status threat as the key mechanism between diversification salience and backlash. Despite various American identity primes and accounting for confounding variables, however, we find little indication that a shared American identity could reduce racial (and, in exploratory analyses, partisan) conflict in America. We discuss the implications for future research and the practical use of a shared American identity when little remains that is shared.
May 13, 2025 at 11:21 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Hot off the presses--get your RHORI bingo card right here!
Bingo card to use while watching the show Real Housewives of Rhode Island. The card is a 5X5 grid. Entries from top left to bottom right are as follows, separated by semicolons: OK Go/Lisa Loeb/Duncan Sheik/Blu Cantrell; “City of Seven Hills” reference; Al Forno; Appearance of a construction magnate; Sailing; CVS or Hasbro shoutout; Meltdown during a historical tour at a colonial factory/mill; International Tennis Hall of Fame visit; Fried calimari; Del's Lemonade; “we run this state”; WaterFire; Dunkin' (free space); “Five Families” reference; “Getaway” trip to a city that is less than 3 hours away; Debate about crucial distinctions between RI/CT/MA; Coffee milk; Doing the math on what level of cousin someone is; Aerial footage of Newport mansions; Casually mentioning crossing paths with Taylor Swift once; Quahog sighting; Ill-advised crossover with Summer House: Martha's Vineyard; Big Blue Bug; Fight during a dinner overlooking Narragansett Bay at sunset; Patriarca family;
May 9, 2025 at 2:39 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Overall, most of the ~150 research teams found that the DACA policy was associated with a statistically significant increase in FT employment. The 25th/75th percentile estimates were about +2pp vs. +5pp, which would definitely have practical implications. This figure gives a good sense of the range.
Figure from a working paper titled The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics that shows point estimates and confidence intervals for research teams that used applied econ techniques to answer a research question three different times related to the effects of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy on full-time employment rates for people who were potentially eligible. In all three “tasks”, the majority of point estimates were positive and statistically significant.
May 6, 2025 at 8:10 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Very torn on whether to click on this Reddit post to see the spoiler
Screenshot from the r/Bogleheads subreddit on Reddit. Question is: “Are we legitimately seeing the end of the US and the stock market in real time?” There is a label with the word “spoiler”.
April 9, 2025 at 12:19 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Apparently asking someone to name the rarest cities they can think of gives a startlingly good picture of where they're from. Turns out, I'm definitely from North Carolina.
Screenshot showing the cities I named that are the rarest among people who played a silly online game for people who like geography. Of the 20 rarest cities I named, 15 are in North Carolina, where I grew up. The list includes Spivey's Corner, NC (identified only 0.03% of the time); Lake Waccamaw, NC (0.04%); Ellerbe, NC (0.05%); Hanging Rock, OH (0.05%); Haw River, NC (0.05%); Lake Junaluska, NC (0.06%); Saxapahaw, NC (0.08%); Newton Grove, NC (0.08%); Tabor City, NC (0.08%); Tar Heel, NC (0.09%); Efland, NC (0.1%); Hardwick, GA (0.1%); Loris, SC (0.1%); Biscay, MN (0.1%); Norlina, NC (0.1%); Wilmont, MN (0.2%); Calabash, NC (0.2%); Lake Lure, NC (0.2%); Cashiers, NC (0.2%); Rutherfordton, NC (0.2%)
April 9, 2025 at 2:25 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Was casually doing some recon to see who the best scorers are at the University of Mississippi, and apparently they have 6 players averaging 10+ points per game (!)
Screenshot showing 6 players on the men’s basketball team at the University of Mississippi average 10+ points per game
March 21, 2025 at 8:11 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
When you unintentionally highlight how efficient the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office is
Screenshot from EO at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/ : “The Department of Education currently manages a student loan debt portfolio of more than $1.6 trillion. This means the Federal student aid program is roughly the size of one of the Nation's largest banks, Wells Fargo. But although Wells Fargo has more than 200,000 employees, the Department of Education has fewer than 1,500 in its Office of Federal Student Aid.”
March 20, 2025 at 9:34 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
DC is a little too on the nose sometimes
Sign with “Recessions” in red neon lights. Underneath it says “Recessions is open”
March 13, 2025 at 1:26 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
And I’m free
Free fallin’
Yeah, I’m free
Free fallin’
Screenshot showing that the NASDAQ composite index had fallen 3.5% as of midday Monday, 10 March 2025, relative to its prior closing value.
March 10, 2025 at 4:32 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Heartbreaking to see announcements of major layoffs at most research organizations that have played a vital role in supporting federal statistics for education and developing high-quality evidence about what policies/practices actually work.

Below are just a few examples from my LinkedIn feed.
Mathematica 65,991 followers 1d • • • • To our clients, partners, and peers: We want to let you know that we are reducing our workforce to align with the needs of our clients and ensure the continued, exceptional support we've offered for decades to the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. The staff we are letting go are skilled, experienced, and passionate about their work. Any organization would be fortunate to have them. Please don't hesitate to reach out if we can be of assistance. Dan Gaylin • 2nd President and CEO, NORC 10h • 너 + Follow Like many of our peer organizations, this week NORC had to reduce our staff to ensure we are operating effectively and have the right mix of skills to align with client needs. The people departing NORC are highly talented and capable professionals, and they have made important contributions to our mission of delivering trustworthy and reliable data and analysis to inform society's most important decisions. They will be valuable employees and colleagues wherever their careers take them next. To each of you who are leaving, and on behalf of everyone at NORC, I offer our deepest thanks and appreciation for your dedicated service and the lasting impact you've made on our organization. marc MDRC 15,135 followers 9h • 0 To our collaborators: Like many of our peer organizations, MDRC has had to reduce our staff in recent days, letting go of many talented and highly skilled professionals. Each of these colleagues would be an asset to another organization, and we encourage you to consider them for any career opportunities you may have. MDRC remains committed to our mission of learning what works to improve policy, practice, and people's well-being. // Westat Westat 35,042 followers 22h • In light of recent industry changes, Westat is making strategic reductions to our workforce to better align with our clients' needs. The talented professionals who are leaving Westat have made significant contributions to our mission and embody our values of uncompromising excellence, client commitment, and innovation. They are current and future leaders in their fields and will undoubtedly be an asset to any organization they join. We remain committed to our mission to improve lives by delivering exceptional data-driven research and technical assistance, fostering insights and solutions to advance health, education, and social and economic opportunity.
March 8, 2025 at 4:08 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Sometimes, when I need a laugh, I look up descriptions of the time signatures in Tool songs.
Screenshot from Wikipedia about the song Schism by the rock band Tool: "Schism" is renowned for its use of uncommon time signatures and the frequency of its meter changes. In one analysis of the song, the song alters meter 47 times. 8 The song begins with two bars of 5/4, followed by one bar of 4/4 followed by bars of alternating 5/8 and 7/8, until the first interlude, which consists of alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8.
February 27, 2025 at 7:49 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
As one of ~150 co-authors, it's been fascinating to watch this many-analysts project (led by @nickchk.com and @clausportner.bsky.social) unfold over the last few years. Very excited to see the working paper out in the world!

Spoiler: data cleaning really matters.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Abstract for working paper titled "The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics": We use a rigorous three-stage many-analysts design to assess how different researcher decisions--specifically data cleaning, research design, and interpretation of a policy question--affect the variation in estimated treatment effects. A total of 146 research teams each completed the same causal inference task three times each: first with few constraints, then using a shared research design, and finally with pre-cleaned data in addition to a specified design. We find that even when analyzing the same data, teams reach different conclusions. In the first stage, the interquartile range (IQR) of the reported policy effect was 3.1 percentage points, with substantial outliers. Surprisingly, the second stage, which restricted design choices, exhibited slightly higher IQR (4.0 percentage points), largely attributable to imperfect adherence to the prescribed protocol. By contrast, the final stage, featuring standardized data cleaning, narrowed variation in estimated effects, achieving an IQR of 2.4 percentage points. Reported sample sizes also displayed significant convergence under more restrictive conditions, with the IQR dropping from 295,187 in the first stage to 29,144 in the second, and effectively zero by the third. Our findings underscore the critical importance of data cleaning in shaping applied microeconomic results and highlight avenues for future replication efforts.
February 25, 2025 at 9:48 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Quote post with a picture you took in a national park.

Yosemite National Park (view from the Yosemite Falls Trail)
Photo of Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the distance. The valley floor includes a large number of evergreen trees, and high walls of granite surround the valley. The picture was taken in late winter and snow is visible on the top of some peaks.
February 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
This feels like the best collective start in men’s basketball for SEC teams ever, right? Nine of the sixteen teams are ranked in the top 25, and only one has a record worse than 11-4.
Screenshot of standings for SEC men’s basketball teams. Out of 16 teams, only 1 has a record worse than 11-4.
January 12, 2025 at 3:34 AM