Ray Fisman

Economics professor at BU. I mostly study hidden influence in U.S. politics. Some people call it corruption. I don't disagree.

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@Ingar30 The lesson I take away from this is you need a different race equivalency calculator!

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

I am sure others have done this breakdown, but if you want to experience how fast Sebastian Sawe ran the London Marathon, go to a track and try to run 400m in 68 seconds. If you are in truly amazing shape, maybe you can do a second one. Now imagine doing 103 more.

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

and after those 103, you'd still have ~200m to go...

[Erzo F.P. Luttmer @ErzoLuttmer]

Now is the time to let the AEA know who you'd like to see in editorial positions at AEA journals. Link for nominations (including self-nominations): https://t.co/IePtDw7nea
Thanks! @AEAjournals

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

Needless to say this is a timely topic, and so much great work being done in this area. Please submit your papers!

[Stigler Center @StiglerCenter]

📢 CALL FOR PAPERS! Submit your research for the 2026 Stigler Center-CEPR Political Economy of Finance Conference.

📍 Chicago | 🗓️ Nov 6-7, 2026 🔎 Theme: Crony Capitalism in the 21st Century. How does concentrated wealth reshape political power and democracy today?

⏰ Deadline: June 1, 2026 Submit here:

https://t.co/odv5s8x2Ev

#EconTwitter #PolSci #Finance

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@ErzoLuttmer @paulnovosad @michael_wiebe 100%. And exactly to Erzo's point, if you have it check for grammar and it spits out your ideas in AI-speak, it could come off badly if you haven't noted how it was used.

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

During a recent seminar visit, a number of people asked about use of AI in the refereeing process. Every AEA journal includes the following in the email you get after agreeing to do a review. If you have any doubts about what constitutes appropriate use, please ask!

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@TradeDiversion It's all so very out in the open these days! So my services are not needed! There is a nice New Yorker article that gets at some of this.

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@policytensor But I think we agree far more than we disagree on all this...there is more to society than GDP per capita...

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@policytensor You are right about the regime's brutality, which should have been more directly referenced (though this is true for others also). And the corruption was extreme. But GDP growth was remarkable- comparing it to the EA growth miracle is not the right benchmark.

[The Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat) @restatjournal]

REStat will sponsor 5 early-career researchers with the aim of broadening the set of scholars who are able to participate in the applied microeconomics research meetings at the 2025 NBER Summer Inst.

Applications due May 1st: https://t.co/vqT4y4LKch #econtwitter @RFisman

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@Prof_Nishith_P @ghosh2397 Nishith - very kind of you to say. I recommend you migrate this discussion to a different site. I'm just here to retrieve some syllabi that were posted on X last here!

[New York Times Opinion @nytopinion]

“If policy favors those who are in cahoots with the government, as opposed to focusing on the most productive use of resources, the country risks economic stagnation,” write Filipe Campante and @RFisman.

Read: https://t.co/7Way9T4TNJ

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@andreamatranga @stevehouf working on it...

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

.@raffasadun had the genius idea that they should actually hire Larry Culp for making government work better, if they're going to bring in anyone from business: (4/4)

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

My small part in trying to get people to understand why it seems like running government like a business is a good idea, when in fact it's a terrible one (1/4): https://t.co/Hmjd3Fmwd7

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

They wouldn't let me quote "some random person" from twitter @sabrinacartan had to have her brilliant tweet tweaked (3/4): https://t.co/Bi8g0G5Pvm

(I've used the house-renovator-taking-down-load-bearing-wall metaphor also...https://t.co/jeONxmvmad though she put it better...)

[Sabrina Cartan @sabrinacartan]

this is like watching an amateur house flipper tear down a load-bearing wall

[Silvia Vannutelli @silviavannutell]

Come work with us at
@NUEconomics!
Elisa Jácome and I are hiring a full-time Pre-Doc starting in the summer 2025 to work on projects on labor economics, public economics, economic history and political economy. More info attached! Apply here: https://t.co/N5SzxWrhKg.
@econ_ra

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@florianederer shows that the L premium isn't true for a global sample. Overall, my take is that we can be sure D vs R matters for which firms win and lose, but probably not for the overall market.

[Ray Fisman @RFisman]

@florianederer 1. Blinder & Watson suggest a lot is due to luck (though that's about growth rather than equity); 2. Pastor & Veronesi (2020) suggest that the cause of both D election and high returns is underlying voter preferences, not policy. 3. A nice paper by a PhD student at Columbia...