Stephan Heblich
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heblich.bsky.social
Stephan Heblich
@heblich.bsky.social
62 followers 40 following 3 posts
Economics professor at the University of Toronto interested in Urban Economics, Economic History and Environmental Economics
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Reposted by Stephan Heblich
voxdev.bsky.social
🆕 When specialisation backfires: Why Britain’s industrial past still shapes its cities today

Today on VoxDev w/ @heblich.bsky.social (@econuoft.bsky.social), Dávid Krisztián Nagy (CREI), Alex Trew (@uofgasbs.bsky.social) & Yanos Zylberberg (@bristoluni.bsky.social): voxdev.org/topic/migrat...
When specialisation backfires: Why Britain’s industrial past still shapes its cities today
Industrial clusters can fuel economic booms today, but can also trap cities into tomorrow's decline. Evidence from two centuries of British cities reveals the lasting costs of specialisation.
ow.ly
October 28, 2025 at 10:21 AM
heblich.bsky.social
Thank you for the excellent coverage of our article, @economist.com! You can find the full piece here: nber.org/papers/w33976
August 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
reddingecon.bsky.social
Excited to see this paper coming out. We develop a tractable framework for modeling the rich patterns of spatial mobility observed in smartphone data, including travel itineraries and the resulting consumption externalities between locations
qjeharvard.bsky.social The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · Aug 10
Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Economics of Spatial Mobility: Theory and Evidence Using Smartphone Data,” by Miyauchi, Nakajima, and Redding (@reddingecon.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org
August 11, 2025 at 12:35 AM
heblich.bsky.social
Thanks for the fantastic coverage of our work, @alexanderwulfers.com!
alexanderwulfers.com Alexander Wulfers @alexanderwulfers.com · Jul 27
Wie war die Stimmung während der ersten Globalisierung, nach der Erfindung des Radios oder während Europas letztem großen Klimawandel? Ökonomen (u.a. @heblich.bsky.social) haben sich dafür etwas Cleveres einfallen lassen: Emotionen in >600.000 Gemälden, ausgewertet mit KI.
Wirtschaftsgeschichte: Was die Kunst über Krisen verrät
Je schlechter die Wirtschaft, desto mehr Angst und Trauer sind auf Gemälden zu sehen. Wer genau hinschaut kann den Bildern noch mehr Geschichten entlocken.
www.faz.net
July 27, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
alexanderwulfers.com
Wie war die Stimmung während der ersten Globalisierung, nach der Erfindung des Radios oder während Europas letztem großen Klimawandel? Ökonomen (u.a. @heblich.bsky.social) haben sich dafür etwas Cleveres einfallen lassen: Emotionen in >600.000 Gemälden, ausgewertet mit KI.
Wirtschaftsgeschichte: Was die Kunst über Krisen verrät
Je schlechter die Wirtschaft, desto mehr Angst und Trauer sind auf Gemälden zu sehen. Wer genau hinschaut kann den Bildern noch mehr Geschichten entlocken.
www.faz.net
July 27, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
nber.org
Frontline Union Army captains cut desertions and boosted cohesion through leading by example, earning postwar-wage gains and greater recognition, from @andyferrara.bsky.social, Christian Dippel, and Stephan Heblich https://www.nber.org/papers/w34057
July 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
nber.org
Studying why some cities thrive while others decline finds that early industrial specialization lowers long-run productivity—a dynamic trade-off at the heart of place-based policy, from Stephan Heblich, Dávid Krisztián Nagy, Alex Trew, and Yanos Zylberberg https://www.nber.org/papers/w34029
July 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
reddingecon.bsky.social
Call for Papers for NBER Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century Virtual Conference, October 24, 2024, organized with Ed Glaeser and Jim Poterba: stephenredding.github.io/Call_for_Pap.... Submission Deadline Weds Sept 3, 11.59 ET. @nber.org @siepr.bsky.social @treballen.bsky.social
stephenredding.github.io
July 16, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
reddingecon.bsky.social
Call for submissions for the NBER International Trade and Investment Program Meeting on November 21-22, 2025, at Stanford: conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b.... Submission deadline 11.59pm ET on Monday September 15, 2025.
Submission: International Trade and Investment Program Meeting, Page 1 of 2 - MyNBER
conference.nber.org
July 16, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
nber.org
Open call for papers, Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century. Conference to be held virtually on October 24, 2025. Submit papers by 11:59pm EDT on September 3, 2025. More information: https://www.nber.org/calls-papers-and-proposals/economics-transportation-21st-century
July 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM
heblich.bsky.social
Very excited to share that our journey into art history is taking shape. We are exploring how historical events echo through artistic expression.
nber.org NBER @nber.org · Jul 6
Analyzing 630k paintings since 1400 to show how art complements development indicators by revealing sentiments about living standards, uncertainty, and inequality, from Clément Gorin, Stephan Heblich, and Yanos Zylberberg https://www.nber.org/papers/w33976
July 6, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
henryoverman.bsky.social
Call for papers for @cep-lse.bsky.social LSE / Warwick Junior Trade Seminar: cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/.... Deadline 27 July.
CEP-LSE-Warwick Junior trade workshop 2025 | Various speakers | Monday 22 September 2025 09:30 - 17:30 | CEP Event
An event from the CEP Public Events series organised by the CEP
cep.lse.ac.uk
July 4, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
johnholbein1.bsky.social
🚨 New paper alert: Economists in 🇫🇷 France, 🇨🇦Canada, and 🇬🇧the U.K. just released what looks like a tour-de-force on the economics of artwork. It's big.

Here’s what they did.

🎨📉📈
June 30, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
cdechaisemartin.bsky.social
Pleased to share op-ed in Le Monde: "Impact Evaluation: For GAFAM or for Citizens?"

🔗 French version (Le Monde):
www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

🔗 English translation (Sciences Po):
www.sciencespo.fr/department-e...

Tech companies routinely use impact evaluation tools to optimize their services...
« Les outils d’évaluation sont sous-utilisés par ceux qui les financent, à savoir les Etats »
TRIBUNE. L’évaluation d’impact, qui permet par exemple de tester l’efficacité des politiques publiques, est massivement captée par les géants du numérique, alors que ces outils sont souvent créés par ...
www.lemonde.fr
June 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
nber.org
Analyzing the decline of America's new housing supply, focusing on large sunbelt markets that were once building superstars, from Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko https://www.nber.org/papers/w33876
June 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
urbaneconomics.bsky.social
Ten days until the submission deadline for our meeting in Montréal. #econsky
urbaneconomics.bsky.social Urban Economics Association @urbaneconomics.bsky.social · Apr 17
📣 Call for papers 📣

19th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association
October 3 - 4, 2025
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Keynotes by Cecile Gaubert and Keith Head.

Please submit your paper by May 30.

urbaneconomics.org/meetings/uea...
UEA 2025 Montréal
urbaneconomics.org
May 21, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
nber.org
Using Danish data to show IQ and education drive high-impact entrepreneurship, while family ties matter more for average entrepreneurs, from Ufuk Akcigit, Harun Alp, Jeremy Pearce, and Marta Prato https://www.nber.org/papers/w33766
May 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
cannoncloud.bsky.social
I created a shiny web tool to play around with OL/TWFE so you can teach how this stuff can get so screwy. You can mess with temporal and cohort heterogeneity, treatment timing, whether you have any controls, etc. Share your worst plots! #econsky cannoncloud.shinyapps.io/TWFE_OLS_Pla...
TWFE Event_study plot showing sign reversal
May 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
douglasirwin.bsky.social
Excellent thread and podcast about the challenges to Britain's free trade policy in 1903....
robertsaunders.bsky.social Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · May 3
The world's biggest trade power is in retreat.

A businessman-politician claims his country is under attack.

He demands tariffs to secure the border & make his country great again.

Yes, it's the UK in 1903!

Find out more in this episode of @ppfideas.bsky.social. 🧵 www.ppfideas.com/episodes/ide...
Two posters from the Tariff Reform campaign, 1903-14. One shows a ship in a turbulent, "free trade sea", heading for the "rocks of socialism", with the slogan "The only hope is Tariff Reform". The other shows a skeleton stalking the land with a scythe marked "Free Trade": the slogan reads "Unemployment. Whose Turn Next?"
May 6, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
reddingecon.bsky.social
Call for papers for NBER-Sloan conference on Transport Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity: www.princeton.edu/~reddings/Ca... Deadline: June 30, 2025. Organized with Myrto Kalouptsidi. @nber.org @treballen.bsky.social @jintlecon.bsky.social @indorgsociety.bsky.social
www.princeton.edu
May 3, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
voxeu.org
Can the historical practice of raising government revenue from import #tariffs work now? S Evenett & M Muendler say no. The displacement effect of import tariffs is so strong that revenues can't plausibly fund more than a few weeks of annual US government spending.
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky
Until the late 19th century, states raised most of their government revenues from import tariffs. This column asks whether the practice could work today. A side effect of taxes is that they discourage the economic activity that they are assessed on. Tariffs are taxes on imports and no different: they shrink trade. The authors allow tariff revenues to change an economy’s savings and therefore the trade balance, as the US administration intends. Then the displacement effect of import tariffs is so strong that tariff revenues cannot plausibly fund more than a few weeks of annual US government spending.
April 28, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
voxeu.org
In the years leading up to the French Revolution, the areas of #France burdened by a higher #tax rate experienced more revolts. These effects were amplified by droughts that increased food prices and activated latent discontent.
T Giommoni, G Loumeau, M Tabellini
cepr.org/voxeu/column...
#EconSky
Map of the rates of salt tax in France on the eve of the French Revolution. Extractive taxation is considered one of the main causes of the French Revolution. This column exploits regional variations in the French salt tax, which accounted for 22% of royal revenues in 1780, to document that areas of France burdened by a higher tax rate experienced more revolts in the years leading up to the Revolution. These effects were amplified by droughts that increased food prices and activated latent discontent. It suggests that when taxation is imposed without representation, it can become a catalyst for popular unrest, especially after negative economic shocks.
April 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
henryoverman.bsky.social
Call for papers for our Montreal meetings now live. Submission deadline 30th May.
urbaneconomics.bsky.social Urban Economics Association @urbaneconomics.bsky.social · Apr 17
📣 Call for papers 📣

19th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association
October 3 - 4, 2025
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Keynotes by Cecile Gaubert and Keith Head.

Please submit your paper by May 30.

urbaneconomics.org/meetings/uea...
UEA 2025 Montréal
urbaneconomics.org
April 25, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Stephan Heblich
voxeu.org
What gives life meaning?

In a new #VoxTalks #Economics, David Lagakos @bostonu.bsky.social & Hans-Joachim Voth UZH explore what thousands of life stories from 1930s America reveal, using AI to decode meaning in tough times
w/ @talknormal.co.uk
🎧https://cepr.org/multimedia/meaningful-life

#EconSky
April 18, 2025 at 2:53 PM