I attended a lot of skit nights at Chicago (and participated in too many of those) and have been to all but one since I got to Michigan, but this year was the first time I can ever recall the faculty (and staff, in this case) skit (really video) being the consensus choice for best in show.Did I mention that Joel should be chair for li...
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Just when you think that everyone in the universe understands selection bias, you read a column like this one on late marriage by Ross Douthat, which deserves some sort of award for cramming the most selection-bias infested descriptive statistics interpreted in a causal way into a single newspaper column.Si...
From Inside Higher Education the story of Australian universities hiring people to help them do well in the local version of the U.S. News rankings.There are, of course, similar people at US universities; their jobs are just better disguised.The literature on performance management makes clear that if you give bureaucrats an objective function, no matter how misguided, they will optimize relative to it, and with great creativity and enthusia...
Saturday, March 30, 2013
David Ramsey Steele on the roots of fascism and its links to left and right.Steele is someone I got to know when I was a graduate student at Chicago as he was married (at the time) to another student in the program and both of them were part of the libertarian circle in Hyde Park. Sadly, I have not seen him in well over decade.My favorite line:As Marxists used to say, fascism "appeals to the basest instincts," implying that leftists were at a disadvantage because they could appeal only to noble instincts like envy of the rich.Well worth a read...
I liked this one much better than the NYT did, I think because I was not comparing it to the books nor was I worrying overmuch about the politics.It has fireworks, magic, charm, a nod or two to Thomas Edison, what I thought was quite lovely animation and one really bad pun.Our five-year-old found it scary at a couple of points, but was glad to have seen it overall.Recommended as a movie for ki...
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Version 3.0 of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Handbook is now available for public comment.The WWC is the Department of Education's web-based repository of evidence on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of educational interventions. One great thing about the WWC is that the evidence is evaluated for quality using the formal criteria set forth in the Handbo...
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Springs is in the air (at last, at least in Ann Arbor) and the blogosphere is aflutter with romantic thoughts about the married male wage premium.It has been a while since I looked at this literature (since shortly before I got married, as it happens) but my conclusion at the time was that it is not all selection and that the underlying causal factors are two: First, as detailed with great (nay, perhaps even creepy) joy by the female authors of this book, wives cause husbands to do fewer earnings-reducing fun things like drinking heavily. Second,...
Michigan is #13 overall, #5 in public finance and #6 in labor economics.I am puzzled a bit by the labor economics ratings, though, as it is hard to see how Chicago ends up below Berkeley. There are a lot of really good labor economists in Hyde Park. There are some in Berkeley too, but not nearly as many by my count.Also a bit puzzling is Minnesota at #11; apparently US News does not share the view that you need to be a full service department (i.e. you need to do more than be really, really good at one style of macro) to get a good ranki...
1. A fine suggestion for helping out working parents.2. Another Harvard cheating scandal.3. The perfect gift for the pre-teen who has everything. You do know what 1D means, don't you?4. Tilda in the box.5. FT on Iraq 10 years later. Not as deep as I was hoping for, but interesting.Hat tip on #3 to Lisa Gribows...
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Ron Bailey of reason examines the contention that the blue team is better than the red team on "science", broadly (and somewhat idiosyncratically) construed. Economic issues are left out here; the red team would probably do better on micro-economic issues as a general rule.Also left out are the standard errors. A potentially very interesting parallel analysis would consider the extent of red-team versus blue-team differences in the amount of uncertainty associated with current science in various issue areas. I am not sure what my prior is on this....
Friday, March 22, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Becky Blank, formerly Dean of the Ford School at Michigan and more recently acting Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration has been appointed chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.Congrats to Becky!And read the article for the once-in-a-lifetime sight of Scott Walker agreeing with Sara Goldrick-Rab.A spanking too, for the Obama administration, for not promoting her to Secretary of Commerce.Addendum: The piece I originally linked too gives a too-positive view of Sara Goldrick-Rab's position, which you can read about at her...
1. A cute commercial on the theme of paper and its reported demise.2. Kinky people are only crazy if they are sad. What is sad is how the politics drags around the "science".3. Important news items regarding toilets from the Atlantic.4. Is there anything more obviously unconstitutional (or more boorishly nationalistic) than not letting people fly the flags of other countries?5. Ann Arbor Summer Festival main stage schedule announcedHat tip on #1 to Jackie Smith and on #2 and #4 to Charlie Bro...
Monday, March 11, 2013
1. Controversy around Simcity 5 and its "always on" the internet requirement.2. The Atlantic visits icombat in NYC. 3. Is it better to drown in the ocean or under waves of international aid bureaucrats?4. Martha Steward: model . Who knew?5. Grand Traverse Pie Company closes in downtown Ann Arbor....
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Atlantic Cities column summarizes a study recently published in (ahem) JAMA Internal Medicine. The study examines cross-sectional correlations between state gun control law strictness and firearms deaths. I have some concerns:1. An alternative model would be that gun control law severity is a function of the number of firearms deaths. That is, perhaps the causality runs the other way. Or both ways. The cross-sectional "selection on observed variables" design can shed little light on this though some actual leg work on the legislative histories...
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Start with a standard scare piece on college hookup culture. I will confess that I just can't map this stuff onto the undergraduates I actually interact with on a day-to-day basis either in class or as childcare providers, but probably I am not fully undoing the sample selection.Compare that piece to this quite thoughtful piece by Hanna Rosin in the Atlantic. I particularly liked this bit:But this analysis downplays the unbelievable gains women have lately made, and, more important, it forgets how much those gains depend on sexual liberation....
The world became a slightly better place last week with the passing of Venezualan dictator / clown Hugo Chavez. This piece from the Atlantic nicely summarizes the case, though I would argue that it is both a bit too kind to Chavez and that it overstates the differences between Chavez and other initially popular leaders who gradually morphed into oppressive and ridiculous dictators, such as Mussolini, Castro, Mugabe and so on. Chavez was only the latest iteration of what is, or at least was until the last decade or so, pretty standard...
Friday, March 8, 2013
Jack the Giant Slayer is, of course, a movie version of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. I pretty much agree with the NYT reviewer down the line. The special effects around the giants are really impressive. The beanstalk itself a bit less so. My daughter, who is five, found it scary at times but in the end is very keen to see it again. She did note, though, a couple of loose ends: whatever happens to the cat, and to the uncle?Recommended with kids, but not witho...
Sunday, March 3, 2013
1. Geographic heterogeneity in the location of missed connections on Craigslist.2. New Jersey oppresses pastafarians.3. The Economist on the state of the movie industry.4. I would not tear down the remaining bits of the Berlin Wall. History matters.5. Even art schools have lawyers, it seems.Hat tip on #1 to AS...
The Detroit News has the story.$4 million in city incentives seems like a lot for a photo op for the mayor. There is, of course, no economic justification for the city favoring one grocery store over another other than photo ops for the mayor.The comments are illustrative of the on-going local discussion about the city.Hat tip: Jackie Sm...
Saturday, March 2, 2013
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