Petra Moser
Petra Moser
@pmoser.bsky.social
Economic historian, studying creativity, science, and innovation, mom of 2 boys. Love running in the mountains, climbing, and singing.
3K followers387 following98 posts
When I got tenure, I decided to use it start a new research agenda, studying US science in the 20th century, how it became dominant, what held it back, and what we can do better. Here's the first pub (with Scott Kim).
Analyzing scientists' biographies during the baby boom, we find that mothers have a unique life cycle pattern of productivity. Children reduce the productivity of mothers but not fathers, with important implications for promotions and participation. buff.ly/39WbYRH
Jacob French and I are hiring a pre-doc in Applied Micro apply.interfolio.com/166572
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This, from my colleague Brent Neiman says it all. Trump admin used the results from his paper to justify tariff rates. Except they used the completely wrong number. Staggering 🤯 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...
Some Germans want Syrians to return home - unless they are doctors. That won't work: "If my family and friends aren't allowed to stay, then I don't want to either." 1/n wapo.st/3DDxUYd
Effects on US innovation were disastrous. After the quotas US scientists patented 30% less in the pre-quota fields of ESE-based scientists relative to other fields. Research with @mulysan.bsky.social & Sahar Parsa: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h80j9...
Some Germans want Syrians to return home - unless they are doctors. That won't work: "If my family and friends aren't allowed to stay, then I don't want to either." 1/n wapo.st/3DDxUYd
Dunno what this says about me, but I saw "Moby Dick" at the Met last night and absolutely loved it, down to the "squarely undulating minor-key references to Philip Glass, John Adams and Britten..." Go see it if you can! www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/a...
Phew. All that takeout I'm buying is increasing productivity. Thank you @goolsbee.bsky.social, Chad Syverson, NYUStern PhD student Rebecca Goldgof & Joe Tatarka www.nber.org/papers/w33555
When German Alexander rammed his car into a group of people in Mannheim on Monday, killing two, wounding 25, he was stopped by Afzal from Pakistan. It's funny how we only hear names and place of birth when they match our fear and prejudice.
Gestern hat ein deutscher Alexander ein schreckliches Attentat in Mannheim verübt. Gestoppt wurde er von Afzal aus Pakistan. Dass ihr so wenig davon hört liegt daran, dass Vorname und Herkunft für viele offensichtlich nur interessant sind, wenn man das für rechte Hetze missbrauchen kann.
There is still some sanity in this world, at least when it comes to footwear. Birkenstocks argued that their sandals are "art" to get copyright protection. German courts said "nope" www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/s...
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the grownups are back in charge USDA accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...
A plagiarism check did not find evidence of plagiarism, so is publishing accusations of poor citation practices in footnotes (25 years ago, please check mine). And when that's not working they go after the dissertation of @robert-habeck.de wife. Ok....
Ich rechne damit, dass heute, Vorwürfe gegen meine Doktorarbeit, die ich vor 25 Jahren geschrieben habe, veröffentlicht werden. Ich habe mich entschieden, das Ganze transparent zu machen. Denn ich kenne die Vorwürfe – und konnte sie vorab prüfen lassen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyA...
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ESA now puts the probability of Earth impact at 1.8%, NASA (miraculously not dismantled yet by Musk and Trump) at 1.9%. NASA data suggest a yield of roughly 8MT TNT equiv. Big, but Tsar Bomba was bigger 🤓 tl;dr: it's very unlikely to hit. And there's zero chance we'll be wiped out as a species.
The chance of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting out planet in 2032 is now 1.5%, or 1 in 67. The OVERWHELMING likelihood is that the asteroid will miss Earth. But for the first time ever, we might have to seriously consider a deflection mission soon. Let me explain. 🧵 (1/x)
Felt this, as we were trying to estimate how seeing Marie Curie affected girls' choice to pursue science. Part of our data was gone. I never thought that in this country censorship would prevent me from doing my research. wapo.st/4hPMU3A
Germany needs about 400,000 immigrants per year to keep its economy going. IAB's Enzo Weber & @yuliyakosyakova.bsky.social explain why (in German) www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
Es ist eine Wahrheit, die in diesem Wahlkampf vollkommen ausgeblendet wird. Die deutsche Wirtschaft braucht nicht weniger Migration, um zu bestehen – sondern viel mehr.
Kim is great, really smart and thoughtful. And like @tkehoe.bsky.social I admire Kim for his service and very much hope he succeeds in influencing US economic policy.
Prof. Kim Ruhl (UMN PhD 2004) of University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named as one of 3 members of President Trump's Council of Economic Advisors. I admire Kim for his service to our country, and I hope he is able to have a favorable influence on US economic policy. news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-e...
"The feeling of not being wanted in that country" is an issue not only in Germany but also in the US, historically and today. In "Immigration and Innovation. Lessons from the Quota Act" we find that students, who were exempted, did not come to the US after the quotas if their countries were targeted
Und jetzt mal zu guter und wichtiger journalistischer Arbeit: Das Feature: "Migrationsdebatte – Das Gefühl, in Deutschland nicht gewollt zu sein" zeigt eine Perspektive auf, die aktuell zu kurz kommt. Finde auch gut, das explizit konstruktive Ansätze genannt werden.
Access to pre-k increases parental earnings by over $5,400 per year, show bsky.app/profile/john..., Chris Neilson, Xiaoyang Ye, Seth Zimmerman). Could you do this for publications? For women vs men? nber.org/papers/w33038
If you want to pretend the world is in harmony for a couple of hours, we are singing, and I think it'll be beautiful bkcm.org/event/joyofs...
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Strongly recommend this episode of #TheEconomicsShow with @alanbeattie.bsky.social and @douglasirwin.bsky.social - a true trade feast! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
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A great point. Hammering Colombia’s legal exports will pour acid on the work of so many Colombians to overcome the narcoeconomy
So here is an interesting factoid associated with this. Colombia is the second largest exporter of flowers in the world in part because the flowers were meant to be a legal substitute for farmers growing coca (which is made into cocaine). This started in the 1990s and had US support...
Great paper by Marta Prato on effects of inventor migration on innovation in the US and EU @qjeharvard.bsky.social academic.oup.com/qje/article-...
Daughters living at home were the safety net when Dads making booze lost jobs during Prohibition www.nber.org/papers/w3334...
If this is true, I might as well stop working out and start eating pop tarts www.nber.org/papers/w3334...
If you are happen to be in Paris, go see Sahar Parsa present at CEPS!
CEPS Seminar | 📅 Jan. 09 | ⏰ 12.15pm On Thursday at the Paris-Saclay Seminar: Sahar Parsa (New York University) will present 'The Reducators: Political Persecution in Academia' w/. Petra Moser (@pmoser.bsky.social). ➡️ www.ceps-paris-saclay.fr/events/event...
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Re-posting this call for applications targeting PhD students and early career researchers (PhDs 2014 or later) doing research on the fiscal and economic effects of three productivity policies: R&D, permitting, and immigration. Applications due at midnight on Thurs January 16.
Attention: PhD students and early-career researchers interested in the fiscal and economic effects of productivity policies -- particularly R&D, immigration, and infrastructure permitting. Consider applying to this Sloan Foundation NBER fellowship: www.nber.org/graduate-fel...
Looking forward to our session on "Women, War, and Structural Change" at the AEA, I'll talk about the "Ms.Allocation of Talent" - on zoom because I'm home with my step-Dad, but super grateful to be there with you all www.aeaweb.org/conference/2...,
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Here are the first five sets of slides: 01 Introduction: psantanna.com/DiD/01_Intro... 02 Classical 2x2 setup: psantanna.com/DiD/02_two_b... 03 Clustering issues: psantanna.com/DiD/03_Clust... 04 Functional form: psantanna.com/DiD/04_Funct... 05 Covariates: psantanna.com/DiD/05_Covar...
I am thinking of making my DiD materials that I used for teaching in the last 5 years available. I am hoping these would find begineers in need of a step-by-step opinionated walkthrough of several developments Let’s see if I find the energy to do this!
Tupi got a mantra, and I'm going to steal it. "Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/s...
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The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 led to a 72 percent relative increase in bilateral exports for affected country pairs and a likely permanent increase in world trade, from David S. Jacks, Christopher M. Meissner, and Nikolaus Wolf https://www.nber.org/papers/w33250
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📢 #CallForPapers @cepr.org and RFBerlin invite submissions for the RFBerlin-CEPR Annual #Symposium in #Labour Economics. Keynotes by: John Friedman (Brown U. & Opportunity Insights) and Heather Sarsons (UBC Economics & CEPR). 📆 Deadline: 31 Jan 2025 More details & submit here: ow.ly/wZGK50U923u
Palma ahead of European Winter Meetings of @econometric.bsky.social. What a beautiful city!
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