New paper on ***Survey R-star***, which we need to all start using. Model-based r-star (eg Laubach-Williams) have massive standard errors. Instead we should increasingly use median survey estimates from recently developed central bank surveys🧵
Paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Model-based estimates of r-star have been divergent since the pandemic. Laubach-Williams has been falling while Lubik-Matthes moving upward. How do we know what we can trust when both have massive standard errors? Turning to surveys and median-survey estimates can meaningfully help.
In roughly the past decade, the Fed, Bank of England, ECB, Bank of Canada have started central bank surveys of market participants asking about their estimates of r-star or their estimates of the policy rate "in the long run". Piecing this survey data together, we can create a *survey r-star* series
New Gen AI paper🚨: "The Labor Market Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence" with Filip Jolevski (@FilipJole), Vitor Melo (@MeloVitor_), and Brendan Moore (@BrendanDMoore). papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Our headline takeaway: 30.1% of survey respondents above 18 have used Generative AI at work since Generative AI tools became public, consistent with other survey estimates such as those of Pew and Bick, Blandin, and Deming (2024) (which instead uses Qualtrics; we use IncQuery).
With respect to education, we find in our survey more educated workers are more likely to use Generative AI (consistent with the surveys of Pew and Bick, Blandin, and Deming (2024)). Nearly 50% of those in the sample with a graduate degree use Generative AI.
A thread🧵on my new paper: "Does Government Debt Management Matter? High Frequency Identification From U.S. Treasury Quarterly Refunding Announcements" with Lorenzo Rigon (1/N) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Government debt management is a classic question in macroeconomics and finance: if the government has to issue X in debt, how much should it issue at different tenors/maturities? (2/N)
Theoretical answers have ranged from 100% perpetuities (Barro (1997)/Angeletos (2002)), to more short-term debt (Greenwood Hanson and Stein (2015), arguing T-bills are like money) to 100% Treasury bills (Alan Blinder once argued if the yield curve is normally upward sloping) (3/N)
Thread🧵of those who attended Notre Dame's reopening: heads of state, clergy, firefighters who saved it, workers who rebuilt it, laity, the disabled. Rebuilding⛪️in 5 years shows we can still build great things, honor our sacred traditions & continue to live them. A historic day
French Presidents past and present: Macron, Sarkozy and Hollande
William, Prince of Wales, representing the United Kingdom along with Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
The Brightline, a newly *privately* constructed, owned, and operated Florida railway from Miami to Orlando, is the most successful infrastructure story today in America. A thread on how it got done, how nice it is, and how it plans to replicate its success across America 🇺🇸 🧵
In 2007, Wes Edens and Fortress Investment Group, LLC used private equity funds to purchase Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), Florida's oldest & largest rail/infrastructure company for $3.5 billion. It was originally founded by South Florida pioneer Henry M. Flagler.
In late 2014, the company finished securing financing. Laying of new track began mid-2014. Service between Miami and West Palm Beach began in 2018. In April 2019, the company secured financing for the Orlando extension, construction began June 2019, service began September 2023.
1: Thread on nuclear policy, regulations and some of the potential scarring effects (& non-effects) of nuclear disasters. Summary: scarring effects of nuclear disasters which lasted decades are starting to wane as the world looks to nuclear energy as a source of clean energy
2: Some history: Ralph Nader's Critical Mass Energy Project formed in 1974 became the largest U.S. anti-nuclear group created false claims, convincing many Americans that nuclear energy from nuclear power plants had extreme far reaching negative health and environmental effects.
3: Of of the three major nuclear disasters (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima), only Chernobyl had some direct casualties. Yet, the aggregate number of nuclear plants was halted after Chernobyl according to IAEA PRIS data.