Damon Jones Profile picture
Faculty @HarrisPolicy | economist | from NJ | he/him | @nomadj1s.bsky.social
Jul 24 24 tweets 5 min read
This is an impressive study on an important policy topic: guaranteed income!

I’m seeing many people interpret the results as “negative” or “bad” from an *economic* policy standpoint

I don’t think those conclusions are warranted using economic arguments

🧵 First, there doesn’t seem to be a case to be made that the recipients aren’t better off

They got more income & then:

a. They consumed more things
b. This included more free time (time away from work)

Economists assume the income gave them more choices & they chose good things
Aug 25, 2022 9 tweets 2 min read
One thing I’ll say about economists’ views on debt forgiveness

Our field tends to judge policies w/ a limited framework that tries to maximize net benefits today & in the future, & MAYBE cares if you are presently in more need.

But debt also captures PAST injury …

🪡/🧵 And notions of justice can also involve making up for things in the past that you prefer would not have happened, or re-doing redistribution that you don’t think was fairly carried out.

That can matter in addition to where people currently stand …
Aug 1, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
A simple, *hypothetical* example of the Base Rate Fallacy:

Suppose w/o a vaccine, 9/10 get hospitalized

Suppose w/ a vaccine 1/10 get hospitalized

(Note: a very good vaccine!)

Suppose 90/100 get the vaccine

What share of the hospitalized are vaccinated? Instead, suppose 50/100 are vaccinated

Now what’s the share of the hospitalized vaccinated?
Aug 14, 2020 26 tweets 7 min read
A few days ago, the University of Chicago, i.e. the president and provost, emailed the campus with a subject mentioning “public safety”

The email starts out by calling for an “examination and reflection of law enforcement in our society”

🧵 👇🏾 One thing the email said was that the University is taking steps toward transparency.

What caught my eye: hyperlinks to publicly available data on all traffic stops and “field interviews” (e.g. questioning or searching people) done by University of Chicago Police (UCPD)
Jul 24, 2020 5 tweets 3 min read
Man, this got published in the year of our lord, 2020 ...

h/t: @ZParolin via @agoodmanbacon ImageImageImage For people will apparently still be coming across these arguments in 2020, here are references on classic rebuttals to the culture of poverty argument:

https://t.co/uhZmuVMeyF
Oct 13, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
Atatiana Jefferson killed in her own home by police. Neighbor called non-911 line for a wellness check

Not sharing body cam footage; even the still image is triggering

Was just discussing w/ friends under what circumstances we could in good conscience call police for any reason Like if someone is breaking into your car. Do you really want the cops to come and potentially harm the person?
Feb 10, 2019 30 tweets 3 min read
10 minutes into the Frye* Festival doc on Netflix ... they all deserved to get duped ... except for any workers that got exploited

a freaking train wreck

*I keep calling it Frye They could have easily crashed that plane ...
Feb 10, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
We’re watching tidying up ... I don’t know if the problem is clutter or the mom doing all the housework ... Kondo: when I first came I noticed a lot of the responsibilities fall on you

Preach!
Feb 7, 2019 4 tweets 2 min read
Press conference at City Hall, for the Chicago Resilient Families Taskforce, which released a report today recommending:

1. Expanding state EITC & creating a city EITC

2. A guaranteed income pilot

economicsecurityil.org Co-chairs of the Taskforce: @Ameya_Pawar_IL, Tom Balanoff, & @CelenaRoldan

Pictured above: Tischina Haywood

Author of the report: @AmyRynell
Oct 13, 2018 14 tweets 4 min read
💾Stata Tutorial💾

In case it’s useful, here’s a way to write LaTeX table code within Stata and export to .tex

I learned this from @sacksdaniel

\begin{🤓} First run your regressions and save the results in their own data set

Saving the results is not necessary, but if you ever need to get exact numbers, better to have them in a data set than in a pdf or .tex file
Aug 9, 2018 14 tweets 6 min read
Some quick thoughts about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

I was lucky enough to win one as a grad student, and even the process of applying was helpful for my research agenda

fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp

\begin{🎬} First, here’s a great thread by @__katrinarenee with helpful tips:

Aug 5, 2018 21 tweets 4 min read
RE Sarah Jeong: I am not a white person & I don’t know how it feels to you when people of color (POC) generalize about white people

But, I am a straight, cis man, so let met try to this analogy. If a woman says “men are trash,” I don’t get to be upset & here’s why

\begin{🍕} I know, on a daily basis, men are harassing, assaulting, raping women & murdering estranged lovers out of a sense of entitlement

and those men are not being held accountable
Apr 14, 2018 7 tweets 2 min read
A major function of police in the US is to let black people know where they can and cannot go: universities, neighborhoods, etc.

\begin{thread} Within the first two months of getting a license, I was pulled over twice while driving in white neighborhoods

My best friend and I celebrated our first time w/ the freedom of one of us having a license and car
Jul 21, 2017 12 tweets 5 min read
Hanging w/ @PeterBlairHenry, @femme_economics, @MatthewACherry, Ebonya Washington: #PhDExcel workshop @NYUStern

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peterblairhenry.com/phd-excellence… The PhD Excellence Initiative was founded by @PeterBlairHenry

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