user avatar
Alexander Berger
@albrgr
Enjoys a good applied micro paper. CEO of @coeff_giving. Views my own, tweets self-destruct every once in a while.
San Francisco, CA
Joined March 2011
2,143
Following
16.3K
Followers
Posts
  • Pinned
    user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Mar 12
    .@coeff_giving directed over $1b in 2025, the most in our history. I wrote a more personal annual letter this year, focusing on what a decade of grantmaking has taught me, how I'm thinking about AI, and how we're grappling with giving at this scale. 🧵
    28K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Oct 15, 2025
    True story: OpenAI once came up on the checkout screen of my Safeway as the local nonprofit to donate to
    user avatar
    Dean W. Ball
    @deanwball
    Oct 15, 2025
    could I, like, make a tax-deductible donation to the OpenAI non-profit? just curious.
    96K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Jul 7, 2022
    Wow the South Korean population pyramid is insane (>3x as many 50 year olds as 1 year olds): h/t @brightertmrrw
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Apr 17, 2025
    New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause: - 15.2m deaths from AIDS - 2.2m deaths from TB - 7.9 additional child deaths
    524K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Jul 13, 2019
    Yet another insane paper on air pollution: chicagofed.org/publications/w… 1 Volkswagen cheating diesel per 1,000 cars (which is about the average) increases total car exhaust by 10%(!), causes 1.9% increase in low birth weight babies. Effects much bigger than previous studies.
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Oct 22, 2021
    Oof conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f1…
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Nov 29, 2020
    This paper is totally crazy: nber.org/papers/w27799 Originally they intended to test the impact of parateachers in Guinea Bissau a la this paper (alexeble.com/s/Eble-et-al-P…) in The Gambia, but the people they trained held out for way higher wages and sued them(!). After winning...
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    May 15, 2025
    Some very depressing forecasts on the impact of USAID cuts in the recent @asteriskmgzn special edition
    212K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Oct 4, 2025
    It would be bad if superintelligent AI destroyed humanity
    user avatar
    The Wall Street Journal
    @WSJ
    Oct 3, 2025
    Governments and experts are worried that a superintelligent AI could destroy humanity. For some in Silicon Valley, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, writes David A. Price. on.wsj.com/4o6kplB
    47K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Sep 4, 2024
    It’s kind of wild to me that, as of two weeks ago, there are now 3 large cluster randomized trials across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa showing that giving every kid antibiotics reduces child mortality by ~14% and I don’t see anyone talking about it!
    73K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    May 1, 2019
    Really cool paper finding that $500 grants from George Soros in 1992 led a bunch of Russian scientists to stay in science after the collapse of the USSR, netting an average of ~5 publications per scientist over next couple decades: aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Mar 11, 2025
    Exciting update: @open_phil is doubling down on our YIMBY, innovation, and metascience success by launching a >$120m Abundance & Growth Fund to accelerate economic growth and boost scientific & technological progress. Funding from @GoodVentures, @patrickc, + others. Why now? 🧵
    183K
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Sep 14, 2017
    This paper is nuts: fsb.muohio.edu/fsb/ecopapers/… Just changing the payment schedule for food stamps cut grocery store theft by 32%
  • user avatar
    Alexander Berger
    @albrgr
    Oct 13, 2021
    I've been waiting for someone to write this paper: (new econ Nobel!) David Card, @rothstein_jesse and Moises Yi use admin data to better estimate big productivity gains from moving to higher-wage metros. But housing costs more than offset average gains :( www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2021/CE…