Alexandre Afonso, Discover and Read the Best of Twitter Threads by @alexandreafonso

Alexandre Afonso

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A thread on the damages of excel: 1. Rogoff and Reinhart had found that high public debt hampers growth, a finding used to justify austerity cuts. They hadn't selected the

Here's a small thread about why the map of the 2015 legislative elections in Portugal looks remarkably similar to the map of Portugal in 1160. Northern Portugal has traditionally been

A theory of Dutch arrogance (thread). The Dutch are very self-confident and many people seem to be convinced of the superiority of their country over others in Europe. This cover

Striking difference in mobility patterns in Portugal and the Netherlands during the pandemic. Perhaps Northern Europe is not that disciplined and Southern Europe is not that unruly? Context: people in

A thread on fiscal responsibility in Italy and the Netherlands. Since 1995, Italy has never had a balanced budget. The Netherlands has also run a deficit most years, but in

Here's another interesting piece of data regarding debt: Dutch households are the second most indebted in the European Union https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm And if you think that private debt is different than

Until last year, the 100% state-owned Dutch public railways owned an Irish subsidiary whose only function was to formally own trains that were leased in the Netherlands. This way NS

A thread about how the coronavirus seems to disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups/minorities in different countries. In Sweden, a disproportionate share of the first Covid deaths were among the Swedish-Somali

Applying for unemployment assistance amidst the pandemic:Germany: apply online, money on bank account within 6 days.US: 4 days to reach someone to explain what the procedure is, application has to

Question about repatriation flights: do they repatriate only nationals or also foreign residents? Say, if I was a Swiss permanent resident in the Netherlands stuck in Cameroon, would the Dutch

Here is a distribution of recorded Covid-19 cases in Iceland (which tests broadly, even people with no symptoms) and the Netherlands (which tests narrowly, only those with severe symptoms) Sources: