1/Many/ This is a thread for those of you who to applying to Economics graduate degrees, MA or PhD. I just finished my first year on an MA applications committee and it’s clear there is a *lot* of hidden information harming people’s applications. 2// I want to make clear that this thread is my perspective. Different committee members, schools, and programs may give different advice. My intent is to give those of you who do not have a mentor at an USA-based R1 institution some insight into the other side of the process.

This is actually something we economists need to talk about: specifically, the rise of research labs.

In other fields, the lab RAs get do-authorship credit (hence papers with 5-10 authors). In economics, we don't give credit.

This is not some small deal.

https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1152205614174658560

My sense is that it used to be the case that the role now filled by these uncredited RAs used to be filled by tenure track assistant professors: the ones who did the actual grunt work.

Now? Poof, there is only one author and their army of hidden RAs.

Why does this matter?

As I sit here grading finals, I realized I could instead be on Twitter giving advice about*writing* exams for all the new AP's out there!

It's a lot harder than it seems to write a good exam. 1// You need to figure out what you are testing. As obvious as it's seems.... If you are a sequence course, you need to make sure you are testing students on their preparation for the next class in the sequence.
For a topics course, you decide. Be clear.

I summarize/explain various academic crypto/blockchain/DLT research papers and presentations. This tweet thread contains links to these individual threads. Taxonomy:Central Bank// “Central Bank cryptocurrencies” by Rodney Garratt & Morten Bech, published Sept. 2017 by Bank of International Settlements is also helpful to understand the distinction between a central bank crypto/digital currency(“money flower”)

https://twitter.com/ProfPieters/status/1020395484937162753