david_reinstein

Karma: 3,998

I’m the Founder and Co-director of The Unjournal; We organize and fund public journal-independent feedback, rating, and evaluation of hosted papers and dynamically-presented research projects. We will focus on work that is highly relevant to global priorities (especially in economics, social science, and impact evaluation). We will encourage better research by making it easier for researchers to get feedback and credible ratings on their work.

Previously I was a Senior Economist at Rethink Priorities, and before that n Economics lecturer/professor for 15 years.

I’m working to impact EA fundraising and marketing; see https://bit.ly/eamtt

And projects bridging EA, academia, and open science.. see bit.ly/eaprojects

My previous and ongoing research focuses on determinants and motivators of charitable giving (propensity, amounts, and ‘to which cause?’), and drivers of/barriers to effective giving, as well as the impact of pro-social behavior and social preferences on market contexts.

Podcasts: “Found in the Struce” https://anchor.fm/david-reinstein

and the EA Forum podcast: https://anchor.fm/ea-forum-podcast (co-founder, regular reader)

Twitter: @givingtools

david_reinstein May 11, 2025, 11:03 PM
3 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: huw’s comment on: defun’s Quick takes
Why not what seems to be the obvious mechanism: the cuts to USAID making this more urgent and imperative. Or am I missing something?

david_reinstein Apr 30, 2025, 7:21 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: david_reinstein’s comment on: [link] Schubert, Caviola & Faber, ‘The Psychology of Existential Risk’
We (Unjournal.org) ultimately decided to de-prioritize this after a second opinion and our internal vote. We might reconsider it if others point out flaws in the reasoning above.
I’ve shared the reasoning/discussion in the relevant row of our Public Database of research with potential for impact. (Column: “Discussion: Why is this impactful/relevant”). I hope to share more of these discussions in that public database, especially if people indicate interest.

david_reinstein Apr 17, 2025, 9:02 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Resources for EAs Interested in Law
Unjournal.org is piloting an expansion into evaluating legal research. Please contact me if you are interested.

david_reinstein Mar 22, 2025, 4:01 PM
6 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Arden Koehler’s comment on: 80,000 Hours is shifting its strategic approach to focus more on AGI
I would lean the other way, at least in some comms. You wouldn’t want people to think that (e.g.) “the career guidance space in high impact global health and wellbeing is being handled by 80k”. Changing branding could more clearly open opportunities for other orga to enter spaces like that.

david_reinstein Mar 21, 2025, 4:48 PM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Projects I’d like to see in the GHW meta space
Policy-focused grad student groups
I think there could be value in running EA groups for niche populations of students who might go on to have high-leverage roles. Policy students strike me as one of the clearer targets for this.
...
Career panels or similar: Career-focused events targeting specific groups, such as late-stage PhD students in economics or public health, could be impactful during critical decision-making periods.

The Unjournal would be interested in helping facilitate and sponsor reading/discussion/evaluation groups for PhD students, especially in economics and policy. This could be compatible with and linked to such grad student groups and career events.

If you are an academic or PhD student interested in piloting and organizing this, please contact me/us. You can also peruse our notes on this potential initiative here and add comments.

david_reinstein Mar 15, 2025, 6:21 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: AI for Epistemics Hackathon
Possibly naive question: are the projects open source, shared code, and forkable?

david_reinstein Mar 14, 2025, 10:34 PM
5 points
1 ∶ 0
on: Where Are the Older People in Our Movement?
I expect there are some cohort effects (people in more recent generations have a higher probability of being involved). In particular, many people get into EA via university groups (although it may not be the place they ‘first heard’ about it; see David Moss’ reply), and these groups have only been around a decade or so.

But I also imagine some pure age effects (as people age they leave/are less likely to enter), perhaps driven by things like

1. Homophily/identity/herding: If you only see people unlike you (agewise) you’re less likely to think you belong. This leads to inertia.

2. Cost and family priorities: EA ~expects/encourages people to donate a substantial share of their income, or do directly impactful work (which may be less remunerative or secure). For older people the donation share/lost income could seem more substantial, esp. if they are used to their lifecycle. Or probably more significantly, for parents it may be harder to do what seems like ‘taking money away from their children.

3. Status and prestige issues: EA leaders tend to be young, EA doesn’t value seniority or credentials as much (which is probably a good thing). But older people might feel ~disrespected by this. Or second order: they might think that their age-peers and colleagues will think less of them if they are following or ‘taking direction’ from ~‘a bunch of kids’. E.g., as a jr. professor at an academic conference if you are seated at the grad students’ table you might feel insecure.

4. Issues and expertise that are relevant tends to be ‘new stuff’ that older people won’t have learned or won’t be familiar with. AI Safety is the biggest one, but there are other examples like Bayesian approaches.

(Identity politics bit: I’m 48 years old, and some of this is based on my own impressions, but not all of it.)

david_reinstein Mar 13, 2025, 10:13 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Sharing My Profit for Good Blog Series
I expect a lot of people might be attracted to something like PfG now on the following (not entirely utilitarian/EA grounds). This could be a potential catalyst.

1. ~Liberals and moderates in the US and abroad (people who support democratic institutions the rule of law, oppose DOGE shutting down USAID, the corruption, etc.) don’t want to buy from any of the companies supporting Trump or ~bribing him. Amazon.com springs most to mind.

2. I think PfG is not about moral purity, it’s more about utilitarian ‘do the most good’. But companies that donate (most of) their profits to GH&D, environmental, or animal welfare charities are very unlikely to be Trump-backed oligarchs/cronies. In fact, it might be impossible for them to do so because their donations would code them as liberals/globalists/whatever.

3. So it’s a good proxy. Liberals+ could use PfG to find alternatives to Amazon etc.

david_reinstein Mar 12, 2025, 1:33 AM
30 points
4 ∶ 2
on: New Focus Area: Abundance and Growth
currently, our main focus is in the United States
What is the justification for this focus on the United States? (Which is, obviously, among the wealthiest countries in the world already).

david_reinstein Mar 10, 2025, 10:46 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: david_reinstein’s comment on: A review of GiveWell’s discount rate
Or maybe https://rethinkpriorities.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Discountrate.pdf

david_reinstein Mar 10, 2025, 10:45 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: A review of GiveWell’s discount rate
Main link needs updating: https://rethinkpriorities.org/research-area/a-review-of-givewells-discount-rate/

david_reinstein Feb 6, 2025, 2:12 AM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
on: david_reinstein’s Shortform
EA Forum Question posts with 50+ karma that seemed promising for finding ‘Pivotal Questions’

RE: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dPsgWav4Tryb4BrYv/pivotal-questions-an-unjournal-trial-initiative

David R: In general I don’t think all of these questions/question posts themselves contain pivotal questions. But some of them seem promising, and in others the responses seem to generate potential pivotal questions.

Should we push for a rapid malaria vaccine rollout? — EA Forum Bots

What EA projects could grow to become megaprojects, eventually spending $100m per year? — EA Forum Bots

Why isn’t there a charity evaluator for longtermist projects? — EA Forum Bots

How much funging is there with donations to different EA animal charities? — EA Forum Bots

How do you deal with the “meat eater” problem — EA Forum Bots

Implications of USAID freeze on donations — EA Forum

I’m interviewing the co-Founder of the Lead Exposure Elimination Project, Lucia Coulter. What should I ask her? — EA Forum Bots

Odds of recovering values after collapse? — EA Forum Bots

Is preventing child abuse a plausible Cause X? — EA Forum Bots

I’m interviewing Marcus Davis, co-founder of Rethink Priorities — what should I ask him? — EA Forum Bots

Is there evidence that recommender systems are changing users’ preferences? — EA Forum Bots

I’m interviewing Carl Shulman — what should I ask him? — EA Forum Bots

What’s the Theory of Change/Theory of Victory for Farmed Animal Welfare? — EA Forum Bots

Has anything in the EA global health sphere changed since the critiques of “randomista development” 1-2 years ago? — EA Forum Bots

What EA projects could grow to become megaprojects, eventually spending $100m per year? — EA Forum Bots

Marginal:

How high impact are UK policy career paths? — EA Forum Bots

Has anyone actually talked to conservatives* about EA? — EA Forum Bots

david_reinstein Feb 5, 2025, 12:34 AM
6 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: NickLaing’s comment on: Implications of USAID freeze on donations
But even if it had a very small change of swaying the outcome it could have been worth it in EV terms of course.

david_reinstein Jan 29, 2025, 10:51 PM
0 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: david_reinstein’s comment on: Unjournal: “Research with potential for impact” database

david_reinstein Jan 29, 2025, 10:13 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Unjournal: “Research with potential for impact” database
I just updated it (same link) to include a much larger set of papers. The ‘other’ category now includes papers we may not yet have prioritized, may have deprioritized somewhat (but still found interesting), or may have set aside for other reasons (e.g., slightly outside our scope, not timely for evaluation as part of our model, etc.)

Now grouped by main outcome/cause/field cluster.

david_reinstein Jan 27, 2025, 9:57 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: david_reinstein’s comment on: The elephant (and donkey) in the room
Sadly, my instincts on foreign aid seem to have been correct, at least if the 90-day suspension is a sign of things.

Also sadly, Perplexity seems to have been accurate in predicting the attempt to undermine state legislation on welfare standards.

david_reinstein Jan 27, 2025, 4:14 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Legal scholarship: Is it high-impact? Should Unjournal evaluate it? Call for participation/scoping
Update: currently exploring this within a small team. We’re trying to gauge interest & the capacity for this, as well as propose an approach.

Would still love to get more feedback from ~established legal scholars, lawyers who engage with research, and law students involved with legal journals.

One question in particular: would legal scholars would you be interested in doing this public peer-review/rating of work in your area, with modest compensation (~$450), and what would motivate them?
If you fall into this category you can register your interest and leave thoughts at bit.ly/UJlegalEOI (a quick survey) or DM me if you prefer.

david_reinstein Jan 15, 2025, 10:48 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Voluntary Salary Reduction
I proposed something related to this, trying to get around some of the issues you mention above. Essentially, a way to have your employer re-purpose some of your salary towards an external charity.

david_reinstein Jan 15, 2025, 12:16 PM
2 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: barkbellowroar’s comment on: Finding ‘pivotal questions’ from 80k podcast transcripts, suggestions, LLM approaches/ Is there already an “80k chatbot”?
Thanks @barkbellowroar! Responding in this Gdoc for organization; will probably excerpt back into this EA Forum thread too.

david_reinstein Jan 13, 2025, 12:25 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: JuanGarcia’s comment on: Unjournal evaluating 1+ research output per relevant ~EA-funded organization: next steps
Thanks, updating now!

david_reinstein

EA Forum Question posts with 50+ karma that seemed promising for finding ‘Pivotal Questions’