Travis Roach

We know that hot days lead to worsening health outcomes. Surprisingly, we have very little info on the fiscal impact these hot days have on government programs like Medicaid. In this new paper, we match over a million Medicaid records across nearly 16,000 U.S. ZIP codes to daily temperature data (🧵)

Excel says number is a date, person using excel disagrees

I’m on the job market for the first time since coming out of grad school and I just got my first rejection 🎉🫠

But China…

Muslims didn’t storm the Capitol on January 6, try to steal an election, or overthrow our government. White Christian nationalists, racist militia groups, and rabid Trump supporters did. We need to stop pretending the biggest terrorist threat to this country is coming from somewhere else.

So in a huge surprise to absolutely no one, it turns out that NIH director Jay Bhattacharya's new journal based on the premise of letting his friends and only his friends publish essentially whatever they want is full of crackpot nonsense from retired cranks.

JUST POSTED: Today at The NYT we are publishing a major investigation into how President Trump used his executive powers to expose millions of Americans to greater cancer risks. A six month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records. Read it www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

In fact, Texas' solar generation has grown so much that it's surpassed California to become America's largest solar-producing state Texas already had a heavy lead in utility-scale solar, but has now passed California even when you include rooftop

Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "The Economic and Regulatory Effects of Permitting Electric Utility Campaign Contributions" by Mark Van Orden.

OKC: with wholesale prices spiking, it’s probably a good time to buy gas before the next cycle 📈

I'm thrilled to be launching Econvitals today. It's been the main way in which I have been tracking and understanding the economy over the last several months. And I decided I might as well share it with all of you--for free. Has a combo of website, email lists & social media.

Applied micro economists be like

I love reading OKC Bluesky hate watch the spurs. Shoutout to us for cheering on the triple technical just because everyone has the same last name

Are we consuming too much groundwater from Earth's 3,400 aquifers? Three- to four-fifths of aquifers have water extraction above the welfare-maximizing rate, costing trillions of dollars, from Brian Greaney, @joseph-s-shapiro.bsky.social, and Katherine R.H. Wagner www.nber.org/papers/w35904

Went to read the Facebook comments on a local news story titled, “Fact Check: JD Vance Falsely Blames Biden Policy for High Gas Prices” because I hate myself, apparently. Did find this fun little one ✍️

"Federal regulators have blocked a plan that would have allowed the operator of the nation’s largest regional power grid to reduce electricity use by certain new data centers when supplies became dangerously tight." security for capital, what else is new www.newsweek.com/electric-com...

Are we consuming too much groundwater? 💧 Dynamic models for most of the world’s 3400 aquifers say 61–82% of aquifers are pumped faster than is optimal, costing trillions of $. New paper w BGreaney & KWagner joseph-s-shapiro.com/research/opt... 1/🧵

“You are a Christian candidate. Why haven’t I heard you disavow Timothy McVeigh and the Ku Klux Kan? Seems sorta suspicious.”

“Everybody’s getting shut off lately.” Record heat and a rising demand for electricity are closing in on Oklahoma families trying to keep the lights on and the AC running.

I dug into EIA data and found a growing divide between electricity prices at investor-owned utilities and public power providers. Then @michellema.bsky.social and I visited two towns that show what that divide means for customers on the ground. Read our story here! www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Immigration policy has not pressured wage growth, but it is contributing to the strongest college tuition increases in decades as not as many full paying foreign students are coming to study in the US

Average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell 0.5 percent in September and are now back to where they were in January, 2025. That means that Americans, on average, have experienced zero real wage growth since Trump returned to office.

So…. cancerous spread?

America needs lithium for electric vehicles. But the clean-energy transition isn’t just about batteries. It’s also about water, drought and who gets to decide what “clean” really means.

How about fewer interviews w energy pundits on what DJT announcement might do to oil/diesel prices, more report on what actually happens? Both crude/diesel prices are higher now than before G7 announcement 10/2 or capitulation to Russia 10/9. www.wsj.com/market-data/... www.wsj.com/market-data/...

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your CV? This year’s econ Nobel winners: maybe labor frictions should go in our macro model 🤓🤓 #econsky

Politically, I had been wondering when New Keynesian macro would get its Nobel. In my read, a theory poorly suited for the Great Recession well-fit navigating the shocks of 2021-2023's inflation; it's a framework for creating a soft landing. But everyone is pretty mad about that success. 🤷 1/2

Long-term air pollution exposure increases chronic disease, especially hypertension, even among young, healthy adults. New evidence from US Army personnel, from Joshua S. Graff Zivin, Johnny Huynh, Timothy Frank Justicz, Adriana Lleras-Muney, and Matthew J. Neidell www.nber.org/papers/w35871

Novel database of Russell 3000 corporate climate targets over 25 years enables new research of how voluntary commitments interact with carbon pricing, regulations, and subsidies, from Joseph E. Aldy, Michael W. Toffel, Alison J. Ong, and Lavender Yang www.nber.org/papers/w35869

Just remember, if you’re lucky enough to land a job out of grad school, and you work hard and publish well, then someday you’ll get to earn less in inflation-adjusted terms than when you started and the university will email out of the blue saying that insurance will be an extra $5,000 this year!