The best of #econtwitter: paper summaries, interesting discussions, new data resources, and more
There are two types of people who should sign up for the Best of #Econtwitter newsletter:
You are already on econtwitter — and you want to make sure you didn’t miss what everyone was talking about this week, without digging through thousands of tweets
You are not on econtwitter and do not want to join — but you do want to keep up-to-date with new papers, announcements, and the conversation within the profession
What the newsletter covers: just the economics!
FAQ
Who are you?
An economist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
What's the purpose of the newsletter?
0. Econtwitter and adjacent communities are some of the most vibrant parts of modern economics, featuring real-time dialogue on both issues of economic science as well as on community/meta topics.
1. It is inefficient for these discussions to be lost to time.
2. Thus a main goal of the newsletter is to transform the oral culture of Twitter into a written culture — making it legible to more people.
3. Further, while Twitter features a lot of good discussion, it also features a lot of Bad Content. For those who want to stay in the loop while avoiding any bad twitter content, the newsletter makes it possible to still follow... the best of econtwitter.
Can I submit my own content?
Yes, please. On twitter @just_economics or over email!
How much time do you spend on the newsletter? Why did you start?
The marginal time cost is low. Prior to starting the newsletter, I was already saving paper threads to go through at the end of each week — instead of reading them while trying to let my brain melt. The newsletter collects these links.
Besides that, I’m interested in a lot of subfields, and the newsletter lets me pursue that, in a way.
Any tips for finding the good content?
Follow good accounts, and don't follow bad accounts. Turn off retweets for most accounts.
How do you decide which tweets to feature?
Every paper thread is featured in one way or another, to the extent possible. Remaining content is chosen by an advanced carbon-based neural network.
Where should I send complaints about the newsletter?
Any and all feedback is welcome by email or Twitter, especially suggestions for content or on format. For complaints: this is an industry with free entry, and the newsletter welcomes competition.
How can I support the newsletter?
The best thing you can do is to share it with your colleagues, your students, your coworkers, your classmates, or your friends :).
Substack gives you the option of committing to a paid subscription if in the future the newsletter were to turn on paid subscriptions. While such signs of support are very kind and are welcome, there are no plans for the foreseeable future to activate paid subscriptions.
Can I have data on all the links you've collected, how often people click them, etc.?
Email me. If you try to scrape my data without coauthoring, I will grim trigger you 😊.