Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College •
@EconStOlaf
• Grad of
@williamandmary
and
@uva
• Networks, Math, and Macro • once described as “dangerously organized”
What is the velocity of money?
In our new 🚨working paper🚨
@CarolinaMttssn
,
@franktakes
, and I use new large-scale network data to find out. We find that money changes hands at different speeds for different people.
🧵 Thread on how we did it below. (1/11)
It’s very difficult to answer the question “will the SVB collapse cause cascading failures” without adequate data on interbank lending. I know because I wrote a whole paper about it!
I teach a Principles of Economics class with 27 students. On Monday I told them “you guys should think about majoring in Economics and if you have any questions let me know!” Since then, four (!) women in that class have made appointments with me to plan out an Econ major.
This happened to me too. A grad school professor sat me down in a meeting and told me that I “didn’t have what it takes” to be an economist. Then he asked “so what are you going to do now?” I said “I’m going to go cry in the bathroom and then I’m going to get back to work.”
ARGH!!! In my first year of the PhD I was told twice by professors that not everyone is meant to be an economist, when I went to ask about how I could improve in classes I was struggling with. I ended up doing well, but almost left after 1st year. [1/2]
@denislimaealves
It’s actually an even longer and more awful story than it sounds so I’m waiting a bit to recover before I tell the whole story. But I’m going to.
On Friday night we welcomed our son, Baer Joseph Luedtke, into the world! No one wants to start this phase of their life with emergency surgery and major blood loss, but I’m very grateful our little family is home and happy.
I’m teaching a class of undergraduates about research careers in Economics. I am trying to convince them that
#EconTwitter
is amazing. Will you all say hi to them? What’s something you learned from being on here?
While I have enjoyed being slightly Twitter famous for failing to get a paper published, I would like to now return to my usual content: pictures of my very good dog.
We (the Economics Dept. at St. Olaf College) are hiring TWO tenure-track economists in broadly-defined applied micro. I’m biased but I genuinely believe this is the best place to work. Friendly, helpful colleagues. Brilliant students. Small college town OR the Twin Cities. (1/2)
Periodic reminder that if you understand something well enough to write a funny joke about it, you understand it better than most people (and help other people understand it better, too).
Anyway, happy
@KhoaVuUmn
Appreciation Day to us all.
A thread 🧵 of five things I plan to do in my Principles of Economics course this fall to foster a more anti-racist environment in Economics. Principles is the first class in Econ for many students and it is their first experience with the profession. (1/12)
Today is my first day as the Chair of the Econ Department at St. Olaf! Or as my friend in the Music Department calls it, the beginning of the Pax Luedtkiana.
Would love any advice (or horror stories).
I’m moving to Minnesota! I’m so excited to announce that I will be joining the Economics faculty at
@StOlaf
College in the fall!
I can’t wait to start this next adventure with such a great group of economists.
A few months ago I was very sick and in the throes of a terrible 1st trimester when we got a 2nd R&R on a paper that we were hoping would just be accepted. I was so overwhelmed when I got the email that I just burst into tears. Today it has been both R’d & now officially R’d ✅
As job market season churns into motion, I want to again offer my assistance to anyone on
#EconTwitter
interested in positions at Liberal Arts Colleges. I’ve successfully procured jobs at LACs twice, I’ve been on search committees, & I even did a podcast episode about this! (1/3)
On the job market, please feel free to use a completely canned cover letter. I have never read them, and as far as I can tell neither have my colleagues.
When I was on the job market in 2018, I bought a scarf in the school colors for each school to which I got a fly out. There was a good amount of overlap in school colors so this only required a few scarves in total. (1/3)
My department (
@EconStOlaf
) is hiring! We are looking for someone who does time series econometrics and money & banking. We’re a great place to work. The students are smart and curious. The faculty are publishing amazing research. And you get to work in this building! (1/4)
As many of you know, I had a son this summer. His name is Baer. What you may or may not know, is that all baby winter gear has (inexplicably) little bear ears on it. I tried to fight it; it was too on the nose. But I’ve given in. I’ve embraced it. I present: Baer in Bear Things.
As we turn the corner and smack face first into a new job market season, I want to tell any JMCs that are interested in Liberal Arts Colleges that I am happy to chat. I can tell you about my day to day, give feedback on materials, probably even make some connections for you.
This paper is officially back out. I completely rewrote it from scratch. My goal was to get it submitted before the end of August (since it was rejected last August and I had a baby in the mean time) and I just made it.
Are you trying to write (or rewrite) (or rerewrite) an abstract? JMCs? How is that JMP abstract coming? This is my method for getting some reasonable words on the page. (1/7)
Today is my birthday! Normally, I would post a picture of the year’s Birthday Manhattan (first created by
@MollyKellyGoss
, pictured below for posterity) but that is not practical this year. So instead I present the Birthday Baby Bump!
After...
•7 years
•6 states
•1 wedding
•2 degrees
•3 Army ranks
•thousands of miles flown, ridden and driven
...
@BenLuedtke
and I finally live under the same roof.
Me when my OB says she’s happy with my weight gain since my terrible 1st trimester:
This is great. I’m going to get a good grade in being pregnant, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.
Obviously the scarves aren’t causal. But it was part of me being enthusiastically me.
I know JMCs are told to “be yourself” about 4,000 times a day. But it really is a dominant strategy. (3/3)
Today I gave a presentation, worked out, submitted grades, and read through some mean reviewer comments. Now I’m just going to sit here and drink my drink and read my book about geometry.
Do you teach small (<40 students) classes in Economics? Check out this peer support opportunity! ⬇️ Because of the pandemic, we have limited time on campus to form supportive relationships, brainstorm solutions to pedagogical challenges, and share classroom experiences. (1/5)
Help a new department chair out!
One of our wonderful visiting faculty got a TT offer late in the game (now). This is great for him! But a real pickle for me. I need to find someone to cover his courses this fall 🚨
Do you know anyone who could do this? Details below. (1/3)
Finished my last class of my first semester back after having a baby.
(Photo featuring (1) an Aperol spritz and (2) the porch swing my husband surprised me with for my first Mother’s Day.)
This is genuinely the best job in the world*.
*For me, a person whose two favorite activities are (1) being a weird little nerd alone and (2) being a weird little nerd in front of people.
They should invent a profession where half the time you study texts in monastic solitude and half the time you talk animatedly to a room full of young people
When I was an undergrad, I didn’t really know what an Economist does, day to day. So I asked some of my favorite Economists to speak with my Principles class about their version of “being an Economist.” The panelists were so great and the students had such insightful questions!
Big news,
#EconTwitter
! We are hiring here at St. Olaf College (
@EconStOlaf
)! Come work with me in this great department.
Feel free to DM if you have questions.
(This ⬇️ is where you’d work!)
Today is
@MelissaK_Moore
’s first day of class as an AP! If you had told me when she walked into my Math Camp discussion section in 2015 that in 6 years she’d be teaching Univ. of Richmond students about health and gender econ, I would have said, “yeah that seems right and good.”
Do you guys think it would be too much if I wore a name tag all day tomorrow that says,
“Hello My Name is:
Allison and I just got my first R&R.”
?
#EconTwitter
#AcademicTwitter
A lot of my peers made fun of my scarves but I’m a pretty enthusiastic, school-spirit kinda gal and it was fun. And there were definitely a few schools that thought it was silly.
But you know what, I got an offer for each scarf. (2/3)
This traditional mid-conference coffee shop trip is brought to you by the fact that it’s a balmy 29 degrees in Northfield today rather than yesterday’s -10.
We recently learned that a student was planning a mass shooting at my school. It’s still hard to say those words. For a while I thought “no it’s something else.” But no. He had maps, notes about how to kill the most people. My friends. My students.
Gave a test, had some good ideas, sent some emails, I have a rest day this week, and one of my best friends defended her dissertation so she’s Dr. Best Friend now. It’s 80 degrees in Minnesota so I think it’s time for an Aperol spritz on the porch.
My wonderful department here at St. Olaf is letting me run a “Research Experience” class this January with 13 advanced students who get to learn about research and work on a project with me. So I basically get to run the Luedtke Economic Networks Research Lab for a month!
Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I learned that some of my professor friends were also expecting. Having these pregnancy buddies made a very hard year so much better. And now those buddy babies have all arrived! This is Baer and his friends, Gabe and Amelia!
The AEA Summer Program is an amazing opportunity and I’m very grateful we have it. However, my students that would benefit the most from it and would be the strongest applicants are international first-gen women who don’t have 25 grand lying around.
From a Math professor who was on an Econ search committee a few months ago, still looking a little shell-shocked: “I mean they REALLY use the parlance. Like they would say ‘what’s the opportunity cost of inviting this person instead of this one?’”
I was trying to think of the jargony word(s) I use most often (or have to stop myself from using), in "normal" conversation.
Exogenous/endogenous?
Ex-ante/ex-post?
Marginal?
What about you?