*Agriculture is identified as a major contributor to global biodiversity decline. This paper examines the role of agricultural trade in governing bird biodiversity losses, through changes at both the extensive and intensive margins of land use. To do so, I combine a multi-country general equilibrium model of trade, which accounts for the use and trade of agrochemicals, with a species-area model from the ecology literature. I run a set of counterfactual scenarios to estimate the impact of historical and hypothetical trade policies on regional bird species richness. As birds provide essential ecosystem services, I can then use these estimates to predict changes in ecosystems health and, subsequently, in agricultural productivity.

**This project investigates the economic content of daily U.S. newspaper horoscopes from 1960 to 1995, using natural language processing techniques to analyse changes in topic and sentiment over time. Belief in astrology remains puzzlingly persistent in developed economies, despite a backdrop of declining religious service attendance and a longstanding lack of empirical support. Horoscopes - the most mainstream feature of astrological belief - are read by a sizable proportion of Americans daily, and have appeared in newspapers for nearly a century. Resurgent interest often coincides with moments of economic and political uncertainty, with the COVID-19 pandemic being a notable example. This project investigates the content of daily US newspaper horoscope texts across time. By examining how content varies with economic phenomena, the project aims to shed light on why and how horoscopes and astrological beliefs persist in the face of uncertainty.