Michael Clemens
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mclem.org
Michael Clemens
@mclem.org

Economist and professor at School of Government & Policy, Johns Hopkins University. Fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, IZA, CReAM, CGD. Assoc. Editor JEP. Personal views only.

Web: http://mclem.org
ORCID: 0000-0003-1354-0965 .. more

Michael Andrew Clemens is an American economist who studies international migration and global economic development.

Source: Wikipedia
Economics 40%
Sociology 24%
Pinned
How we used a government-run visa lottery to measure the effect of foreign hiring on US firms and workers:

Thank you to @aeajournals.bsky.social for highlighting my paper with @ethan-lewis.bsky.social —>
Winning the visa lottery
Evidence from a US government lottery shows that restricting foreign low-skill workers shrinks businesses without creating jobs for Americans.
www.aeaweb.org
This miracle is the fruit of generations of enormous and bipartisan investments of public research support for our universities.

Future versions of this miracle are what we are currently losing, due to the US Administration’s decision to shatter the public’s partnership with our universities. 
A cancer vaccine succeeded in a clinical trial in preventing the recurrence of melanoma, a result experts say is a breakthrough for mRNA-based treatments.

Trials for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases' vaccines are also underway.
A melanoma vaccine was hailed as a breakthrough. Which cancers are next?
Trials investigating mRNA vaccines for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases are already underway.
www.washingtonpost.com

The US President has proclaimed a new $100,000 tax on H-1B visa workers —> www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

He is renewing a $100K tax he proclaimed last year, *which was ruled illegal* in federal court —> www.fragomen.com/insights/uni...
Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION On September 19, 2025, Proclamation 10973 (Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Every child deserves a safe and nurturing home w...
www.whitehouse.gov
A cancer vaccine succeeded in a clinical trial in preventing the recurrence of melanoma, a result experts say is a breakthrough for mRNA-based treatments.

Trials for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases' vaccines are also underway.
A melanoma vaccine was hailed as a breakthrough. Which cancers are next?
Trials investigating mRNA vaccines for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases are already underway.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Chad P. Bown

Great to see @soumayakeynes.ft.com and @chadpbown.com ‘s brilliant and timely book in the wild 📚
NEJM: The End of the War on Biomedical Science?

by David Blumenthal and James A. Morone
@davidblumenthal.bsky.social @nejm.org

depending on continued activism, perhaps room for optumism

bit.ly/4yNxiWZ 💥

This humiliation of our military service members is beyond words.
NEWS: The Pentagon has announced mandatory low-testosterone screenings for male troops 30 and older, including screening for symptoms such as “reduced libido, loss of spontaneous morning erections, erectile dysfunction,” and other symptoms.
NEWS: The Pentagon has announced mandatory low-testosterone screenings for male troops 30 and older, including screening for symptoms such as “reduced libido, loss of spontaneous morning erections, erectile dysfunction,” and other symptoms.

Reposted by Michael Kevane

It is illegal for the US President to tear down our beloved Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a national treasure created by our Congress, under law.

It is sick and poisonous for any Liberal or Conservative US President to openly conspire to spit on the laws he swore to uphold.
Trump Air Force One Photos Fuel Kennedy Center Demolition Speculation
Images captured through the windows of Air Force One showed President Trump reviewing a poster with the title “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
www.nytimes.com

This is illegal. The president is not the CEO of the country nor the owner of the White House, a great institution owned by the American public.

Punishing media for dissent excretes on American values and our Constitution. It sullies all of us, every Conservative and every Liberal.
BREAKING: President Trump says he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
Trump says he’s banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House
The president posted to his Truth Social account that he had banned the news organizations “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” and threatened to ban other outlets.
nbcnews.to

Reposted by Michael A. Clemens

We scraped through the data and found that 50% of all clinical trials are at risk of being cancelled.
1,026 cancer trials
273 pediatric trials
115 heart disease trials
184 diabetes trials
This is unacceptable and inhumane.
I don't like having to do this, but I have to.

This is not what happened. What happened was that a handful of scholars tried to legitimate an ahistorical argument and were criticized because of it. They then spent a year engaging in abject sophistry and caricaturing their critics. They still lost.

Reposted by Clark Gray

"Spain's self-inflicted migration crisis" by the brilliant and trenchant Hein de Haas

A concise and exposition of why border crises, a product of policy, happen and will continue to happen —>
Spain’s self-inflicted migration crisis
What really drives migration from Morocco
heindehaas.substack.com
Once upon a time, Congress had its own in-house think tank that would research and suggest remedies for technical problems politicians might not have a handle on. Might be a good resource now, ay? Here's @maxmoranhi.bsky.social on the long-lost Office of Technology Assessment:
What Congress Actually Needs to Do About AI: Staff Up - The American Prospect
In 1995, Newt Gingrich lobotomized Congress’s technical brain trust. It should be rebuilt.
prospect.org
The US Congress has the power of the purse under our Constitution.

Expenditures mandated by law are not up to the whims of the Executive branch, which has no such power.

That is our money. Mandated by our laws.

Shattering our Constitution harms all Conservative & Liberal Americans.
Trump administration has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants across every state, analysis shows
An analysis finds that the Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term.
apnews.com

Handing over our public health system to incompetent quacks will kill Americans.

It will kill Conservative Americans and Liberal Americans.
“On Thursday, Mr. Gorton said that “the success of the polio vaccine was a massive medical fraud” and that widespread vaccination was a “public health disaster.” He received a standing ovation…

Mr. Kennedy spoke next, linking arms with the group even as measles cases continue to rise”
RFK Jr. Assures Vaccine Skeptics They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’
The health secretary spoke at a conference featuring misinformation about vaccines, including a claim that the success of the polio vaccines was a “fraud.”
www.nytimes.com
“On Thursday, Mr. Gorton said that “the success of the polio vaccine was a massive medical fraud” and that widespread vaccination was a “public health disaster.” He received a standing ovation…

Mr. Kennedy spoke next, linking arms with the group even as measles cases continue to rise”
RFK Jr. Assures Vaccine Skeptics They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’
The health secretary spoke at a conference featuring misinformation about vaccines, including a claim that the success of the polio vaccines was a “fraud.”
www.nytimes.com

Every conversation I have with an AI expert these days feels like “what great shows do you expect to see on Broadway?”, over dinner on the Titanic