Travis Whitacre

RFK Jr’s fixation on environmental causes of a so called “epidemic” in regards to ASD is uninformed and dangerous.

There is some caution that a society that diagnoses at higher rates might be more prone to overdiagnosis.

But we also might just be doing a better job at meeting the needs of more neurodivergent people.

What’s important is RFK Jr is essentially trying to explain a phenomena that doesn’t exist.

There is no “epidemic”. Changes in modern society have altered our awareness and the standards we use in defining neurodivergence.

And I do not believe this necessarily a bad thing!

For ASD, I know less but from what I am aware (2) and (3) are also big factors.

Especially as ASD was when redefined as a spectrum, this lowered the threshold of how severe symptoms need to be in order to be diagnosable.

Some possible reasons ADHD diagnoses have increased:
- Higher performance schooling standards raise the benefits of receiving a diagnosis vs going untreated
- Raised awareness and lower stigma have lowered the costs of being diagnosed
- The “diagnosable” threshold has been lowered

Essentially thinking of neurodivergence as an “epidemic” is deeply flawed because:

higher diagnosis rates =\= higher true prevalence of the condition

While about ADHD and not ASD:

“‘the rise of ADHD is a consequence of what might otherwisebe considered a good thing: that the world we live in increasingly values intellectual consideration and rationality ... Modernity didn’t create ADHD It revealed it.’” - Malcolm Gladwell, 1999

I think it has to also be contextualized that voter turnout was lower in 2024.

Swing doesn’t necessarily just come from people changing parties, but higher retention of 2020 red voters vs 2020 blue voters.

If anyone has any leads in the area (or remote) or knows of anyone looking for an Applied Microeconomist, I’d be happy to have the connection!

I also have a strong public health background (JAMA Pub), and my JMP was labor / health focused.

Hi #EconSky! I was on the market this past cycle, specifically focused on the DC-Maryland-Virginia area because my fiancé is at the Fed Board (we get married this May).

I had a few government offers, all of which ended up being affected by the current civil service cuts.

Herbert P. Kitschelt is the winner of the 2025 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. 🏆

He is awarded the prize for " having increased knowledge of the functioning of democratic party systems with exquisite theoretical acuity and impressive empirical breadth and depth."

Congratulations to my soon to be father in law for winning the “Nobel” prize in Political Science!

👏 👏 👏

It’s a genre bend, and more comedy / thriller (and even musical) than it is horror imo. Probably could count on one hand the number of jump scares in the movie.

Senator Chris Van Hollen is on his way to El Salvador to discuss bringing Kilmar Abrgeo Garcia back home.

Also important in response to these takes: slower growth from a recession does not necessarily mean lower prices if the economy is stagflationary. (Ahem, tariffs)

I’ve seen lots of cope that crashing the markets is part of some demented strategy to show the administration means business.

But no. The simplest answer is just that they’re not rational, and whatever strategy there may be is irrational as well.

The actions of our country’s leaders makes a lot more sense when you accept that they are not rational actors.

First time I’ve watched an international sports game the US was playing in and rooted against the US.

Go Canada, they deserved this win! 🇨🇦

I’ve pretty much made it a daily routine to send one letter or call in the morning. Always about a new topic… 😮‍💨

A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls So...

EXCLUSIVE: The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more.

New and important: we built a federal expenditure tracker. All expenditure line items that are available on the Daily Treasury Statement.

USAID was zeroed out on 1/28 and has been at zero ever since.

www.hamiltonproject.org/data/trackin...

#EconSky

RIP all of us applied economists, econometricians, and IO folks working on anything to do with barriers to entry

Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday Federal agencies moved to satisfy Trump’s orders to remove topics like diversity initiatives and “gender ideology.”

(NYT) - More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found ..

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/u...

If you see this, quote with flowers from your gallery

Even if he thought she was “God’s enemy”, isn’t it Christ who also said “Love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you”?

Sounds a lot different than commanding people to “properly hate in response”

A wide higher-angle shot at night, showing a range of dark hills dotted with lights from houses. At the very bottom of frame the 405 freeway can be seen. Towering over the hills is a dark orange cloud of smoke with fringes of fire at the top of the hills.

A telephoto higher-angle shot at night, showing a range of dark hills dotted with lights from houses. Towering over the hills is a dark orange cloud of smoke with fringes of fire at the top of the hills.

Pics I just took from the garage of our local Target. The evac warnings haven’t reached us yet but they’re getting closer than I’d like.

Flavored E-Cigarette Sales Restrictions and Young Adult Tobacco Use This quasi-experimental survey study evaluates the association of restrictions on flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems with vaping and cigarette smoking among 18- to 29-year-old individuals i...

Starting off the new year proudly! My former student, @traviswhitacre.bsky.social ‘s first publication!

Congrats!

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Flavored E-Cigarette Sales Restrictions and Young Adult Tobacco Use This quasi-experimental survey study evaluates the association of restrictions on flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems with vaping and cigarette smoking among 18- to 29-year-old individuals i...

Our new article in JAMA Health Forum “Flavored E-Cigarette Sales Restrictions and Young Adult Tobacco Use” is now live on JAMA!

Give it a look! #EconSky

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Microeconomics is the study of two agents interacting, while macroeconomics is the study of one agent interacting.

I would think one reason you might get different estimates for b1 and b2, would be if the interaction of X_it*D_i for one or more of the controls is confounding variable itself, so (1) had OVB by not including the interaction.