Richard Akresh

🆕 Can home visits enhance the impact of cash transfers? Today on VoxDev, @RichardAkresh (@EconatIllinois), @damiendwa (@wb_research), Harounan Kazianga (@okstate) & @a_j_stocker (@williamandmary) discuss a social safety net programme in Burkina Faso: voxdev.org/topic/social-p…

Met a few of their extremely impressive JMCs: sites.google.com/illinois.edu/a… sites.google.com/view/wilfrieda… sites.google.com/view/viniciuso… -> All are doing very creative natural experiments in devo . The future is bright

Hi #EconTwitter! Job Market Update! I’m thrilled to announce that I will be joining @DartmouthEcon! Big thanks to my advisors and mentors @RichardAkresh @adammosman Rebecca Thornton and @lwantchekon. I am also very grateful to my family and friends for their support.

@cblatts Chris, that's a wonderful tribute for your dad. May his memory be a blessing.

We lost my dad Jim to heart and lung disease this week, at 73. Young, but he was a model of how to live life. I've spent my career city to city every few years. He and my mom did the same, until 1984 when they finally settled in Ottawa with their three boys. They built a community here, and touched so many people it's hard to count. We're not sure we'll find a large enough place to fit them all. Dad grew up in Montreal. He finished secondary school early—I think it was 16—and started college younger than everyone else. He always kept the details suspiciously hazy (it sounds like there was a lot of poker playing involved) but whatever transpired, he decided to drop out his first year. Dad always loved cars and mechanics and driving, and so he ran off to become the crew chief for a race car driver, traveling around North America on the Formula Atlantic circuit. But dad had a girlfriend at home, a nurse in training. They'd met working as bank tellers. One day her father got on the phone and told my dad to come home and marry her or get lost. So he quit racing, came back to the Royal Bank of Canada and to Montreal. He and my mom Rita spent the next 51 years together. They bounced around from little bank branch to branch in small towns ands cities across eastern Ontario until they finally landed in Ottawa. That became home. Over the next 20 years he built one of the most successful technology banking practices in Canada—to his surprise most of all. It all started when he met a handful of guys starting telecom companies. One tiny little startup was called Newbridge, another Mitel, and later another called Corel. They ended up becoming some of the largest telecom and tech companies in the world. But despite his success, dad was never really a career man. I cannot remember a time he wasn't home by 5pm to be with his family. And even if the business he built was important, the most legendary thing he and my mom built was a community. He and my mom touched so many people it is overwhelming. My brothers and I have spent half the week figuring out how to manage the sheer number of people that want to stop by, come to a service, and send a note. It's humbling and inspiring. Even though he died too soon, he had a great run. He retired at 55 and he and my mom traveled, golfed, and spent time with their grandkids. A lifetime musician, he started a rock band with his friends and played gigs around Ottawa. He even returned to car racing, in a way, by teaching high-performance driving at a race track nearby. And he drank a lot of red wine. He will be missed by friends and family, but also by the vintners of California. We love you pops.

@IngridWoolard @taitarasu Very sad news. May his memory be a blessing.

Heartbreaking news - Jorge Aguero @taitarasu passed away today at the age of 51. He did amazing work on discrimination, IPV and child outcomes. He was kind, inspirational and bloody funny. Condolences to his soulmate Michele and son Gabe. He was so very proud of you both.

@mpblimpo @PeejLoewen @munkschool @DaveEvansPhD @lwantchekon @bill_easterly @carneiro_econ @WilsonPrichard @AlbertZeufack @cleanaircatf @energyforgrowth Congratulations!!

Thanks @PeejLoewen for ur leadership. Great honor & looking forward to joining @munkschool amazing faculty and students. Grateful for the support from @DaveEvansPhD @lwantchekon @bill_easterly @carneiro_econ @WilsonPrichard @AlbertZeufack @cleanaircatf, @energyforgrowth & many.

@LauraUIRP @ksgariglia Congratulations! So glad we could be part of the wonderful event.

This week I married the perfect husband, @ksgariglia, is kind, smart, caring, & capable. I'm lucky to have a new larger family of 6 with our 4 spectacular kids. I decided to return to my maiden name professionally, Laura Appenzeller (Sgariglia legally) #married #alohafromhawaii

@mariekekleemans Congrats!

After 12 yrs of bureaucracy, 5 visa types (J,G,F,O,H), $25k on (attorney) fees, being married to an American for 5+ years and giving birth to two American kids, I finally received my green card. And I’m as privileged as a migrant can be. Now my daughter says it’s not even green!

@tmcgav @GrinnellEconom1 @Wellesley Thank you @tmcgav for a wonderful visit

Can't wait to host @RichardAkresh tomorrow for our last seminar of 2021 @GrinnellEconom1 on CCTs' conditions & kids' welfare. I've been citing his work on child fostering in Sub-Saharan Africa since my senior thesis on it @Wellesley, so this is a super exciting visit for me!

@Val_Mueller_ASU Congratulations!

@AlexBartik I accept curbside delivery. Just ring the doorbell when you drop it off🤣🤣

You love to see it

@TDeryugina Congratulations!!

@michelson_hope Congratulations!!

Super fascinating visualization of the impact of ignoring social distancing.

@germancaruso has 2 very nice papers in JDE in 2015 and 2017 about natural disasters and long run and intergenerational impacts. That would be a good place to start.

Some really good advice from @AlexBartik about things to consider when picking research projects. Goes beyond "select a credible identification strategy" and gets at the human side of the project, something economists often forget about

@Val_Mueller_ASU @AJAE_AAEA Congratulations!

@dmckenzie001 does a fantastic job contextualizing today's wonderful Economics Nobel Prize announcement. Congratulations to Abhijit, Esther, and Michael!

@ahamg @LeonardoBM_dev @NicoLBot Congratulations! Very cool to see this great project published.

7 years after an idea was born, our paper with @LeonardoBM_dev and @NicoLBot is out at the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics! Free access for 50 days here: authors.elsevier.com/c/1Zq7d7tbfGex….

Thanks to @bIGIdeas_UoB for organizing the lecture. And to @interfields and @chriskdarko for inviting me to Birmingham. Wonderful inter-disciplinary visit meeting lots of non-economists doing research in Africa. Learned a lot this week.