Jeffrey Lin
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jeffrlin.bsky.social
Jeffrey Lin
@jeffrlin.bsky.social
Economist studying cities, regions, and growth. West Philly dad. Views are my own. https://jlin.org/
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📈📉 🔔 New paper🔔 In the era of AI and rapid Natural Language Processing (NLP) advances, how should economists choose the right NLP model? Our work provides insights focusing on a patent analysis application. With @inaganguli.bsky.social, Vitaly Meursault & Nick Reynolds. 1/
Patent Text and Long-Run Innovation Dynamics: The Critical Role of Model Selection
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Hi all, please spread the word and we hope everyone can make good use of this new data drop: cmfdata.org

The full surviving establishment-level Census of Manufactures manuscripts and digitized data from 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880!
Historical Census of Manufactures Microdata - Historical Census of Manufactures Microdata
CMFdata.org
November 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
🚨New predoc positions!🚨

Join @alexbartik.bsky.social and me to work on developing LLM tools to analyze zoning regulations and their impacts on housing affordability.

One position starting at the "normal" cycle next year, and another ASAP.

Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/176538
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Okay #EconSky, if you do any kind of spatial analysis, it's a good time to be alive

☞ A new, open-access global spatial database combining 73 harmonized datasets on the world population, its distribution in space, and its characteristics, 2015–2023:

doi.org/10.12688/ver...
October 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Hello #econsky, the Nebraska Labor Summit will be held Friday, March 13, 2026. It's a really fun, junior-centric, research conference in labor and related applied micro fields. Martha Bailey and Alex Mas will give the keynotes. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 1! forms.gle/JC5tN5cT1R2i4ZUJA
October 27, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Check out the call for papers for a Real Estate Economics Special Issue on Commercial Real Estate with guest editor Xudong An! Special-Issue conference sessions will be held at the AREUEA National Meeting in Washington, D.C., in May 2026. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
<em>Real Estate Economics</em> | AREUEA Journal | Wiley Online Library
<em>Real Estate Economics</em> is a leading journal facilitating communication between researchers and industry professionals and improving the analysis of real estate decisions.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
in new @findingspress.org paper, PhD candidate shirin qiam
(now at Minneapolis Met Council). uses a deep learning model and post processing pipeline that outlines surface parking lots. Tulsa has a lot, Oakland surprisingly little.
findingspress.org/article/1452...
October 15, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Call for student poster submissions for the AREUEA-ASSA conference, deadline November 1. www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
2026 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
2022 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
www.areuea.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Call for submissions for AREUEA doctoral dissertation award. Submission deadline October 31. Recent PhDs who defended between July 2024 and June 2025 are eligible. www.areuea.org/hoyt-institu...
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition
www.areuea.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Call for submissions for AREUEA doctoral dissertation award. Submission deadline October 31. Recent PhDs who defended between July 2024 and June 2025 are eligible. www.areuea.org/hoyt-institu...
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award
Hoyt Institute Doctoral Dissertation Award Competition
www.areuea.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Call for student poster submissions for the AREUEA-ASSA conference, deadline November 1. www.areuea.org/areuea-assa
2026 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
2022 AREUEA-ASSA Conference
www.areuea.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Thanks to everyone who came to the @urbaneconomics.bsky.social North American Meetings in Montreal and to all those who worked behind the scenes to make it happen. Our next meeting will be in Barcelona, 8-9 May 2026. Call for papers coming soon.
October 6, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Very exciting! The seminal 1980 documentary "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" by William H. "Holly" Whyte has been RESTORED and screening in NYC this week!

I wanted to honor his work and used his words in the companion book and produced this 11 years ago.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU2v...
William “Holly” Whyte in His Own Words, “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” (1980)
YouTube video by Streetfilms®
www.youtube.com
September 30, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Excited to see the new Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics (Volume 6), edited jointly with Dave Donaldson come out: www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han.... Fantastic set of chapters on recent advances and pointing the way to exciting further research @treballen.bsky.social @siepr.bsky.social
Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics | Volume 6, Issue 1: Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest chapters of Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
www.sciencedirect.com
September 17, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Check out our conversation on Densely Speaking with Zach about this research from earlier this year. @gregshill.com

open.spotify.com/episode/6HcN...
September 16, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Check out our conversation on Densely Speaking with Zach about this research from earlier this year. @gregshill.com

open.spotify.com/episode/6HcN...
September 16, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
🚨NEW RESULTS (w/ Slattery & Nober)
- When gov't engineers retire, highway projects cost more: the engineers pay for themselves 6 times over
- Improving gov’t engineer quality from the 25th to 75th percentile reduces costs by 14%, equal to 3x avg. engineer pay

Paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
September 12, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Some interesting ideas in this paper!
September 15, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
"SEPTA cuts made Philly schools’ attendance tumble significantly

Early district data show 63% of city schools showed an increase in late arrivals, and 54% had more students absent." -- www.inquirer.com/education/ph...
SEPTA cuts hurt Philly schools’ attendance
Early district data show 63% of city schools showed an increase in late arrivals, and 54% had more students absent.
www.inquirer.com
September 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
I wrote an unusually strongly worded thing about the transit crisis in Pennsylvania, which is coming soon to Oregon and Illinois. humantransit.org/2025/08/the-...
The Fall of Philadelphia — Human Transit
The Pennsylvania State Senate has decided that the transit system of America’s fifth largest city should be substantially destroyed.  Similar dramas are playing out in Illinois, Oregon, and Rhode Isla...
humantransit.org
August 22, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
What's happening in Philly is heartbreaking and infuriating.
August 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
Daniel Immerwahr in the @newyorker.com on 1970s arsons and Bench Ansfield‘s new book (and brief mention of my paper with Ellen, Hartley and You).

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?
To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signalled rampant criminality; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.
www.newyorker.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Daniel Immerwahr in the @newyorker.com on 1970s arsons and Bench Ansfield‘s new book (and brief mention of my paper with Ellen, Hartley and You).

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?
To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signalled rampant criminality; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.
www.newyorker.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Jeffrey Lin
A key challenge for BLS is adequate funding for data collection and modernization. During my tenure I tried to identify the causes. One person told me, ‘your problem is that while BLS has no enemies you also have no friends’ meaning no powerful interest groups advocating for economic data.
Every business day, big capitalist institutions depend on having access to unbiased economic statistics. It's time for them to step up and help protect the B.L.S. and other statistical agencies from Trump's encroachments.

My latest column:

www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin...
Big Business and Wall Street Need to Stand Up for Honest Data
In nominating an inexperienced MAGA partisan for commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Donald Trump is chipping away at an essential foundation of the American economy.
www.newyorker.com
August 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM