The NYT has some thoughts on the matter.Two factual errors right of the bat:The fact that the discipline of economics hasn’t helped us improve our predictive abilities suggests it is still far from being a science, and may never be. Still, the misperceptions persist. A student who graduates with a degree in economics leaves college with a bachelor of science, but possesses nothing so firm as the student of the real world processes of chemistry or even agriculture.Trivially, many economics degrees (including mine) are bachelor of arts degrees rather...
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
I'm So Excited got amazingly half-hearted reviews given that it comes from famous Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. I agree that it is not his best, but it is a pleasant enough bit of fluff in his signature style. I suspect that it is just a bit too 70s for our more serious age.It is worth noting, too, that both the NYT and the other review I looked at (can't recall just where) interpret the movie outside its Spanish cultural context. Spain is still both getting over the extreme cultural conservatism of the Franco years and trying to distract itself...
As we appear to be about to embark on another ill-considered war, this list of 20th century US foreign policy mistakes (he calls them Shatners for reasons explained in his post) from Dan Drezner is particularly apposite.I would drop the one about the League of Nations and replace it with one about entering World War 1. I would replace one of the others, I am not sure which, with the failure of the US to open its doors wide to immigration by European Jews during the 193...
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Koedel, Cory. 2011. "Higher Education Structure and Education Outcomes: Evidence from the USA." Education Economics.This paper documents substantial differences across states in their higher education (HE) structures and highlights several empirical relationships between these structures and individuals’ HE outcomes. Not surprisingly, individuals who are exposed to more-fractionalized HE structures are more likely to attend small public universities and less likely to attend large public universities. Exposure to more-fractionalized structures...
1. A truly awe-inspiring pun, all the better for including the word "penultimate", which is one of my favorites.2. A history of the bikini from Slate. I had no idea where the name came from but now I know.3. Some history about the newly renovated law quad at Michigan.4. Everything is okay now.5. I really enjoyed this page that MR linked to about things that everyone in an occupation knows that outsiders do not.Hat tip on #1 to Tanya Byker. #4 via the Honest Courtes...
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
I tried Belly Deli last week at the suggestion of my teaching assistant for my graduate course this fall. It is in the space that No Thai! vacated when they moved to larger digs in the ground floor of one of the new luxury student apartment buildings.Belly Deli offers Asian Fusion food, including the tasty pork "Belly Sammy" that I had.And they surely deserve some bonus points for picking a name that is a pun on a euphemism for diarrhea.Recommend...
1. Borders resurfaces in Singapore2. Arbor Hills shopping center opens across the street from the Whole Foods temple.3, Sue Dynarksi explains Finnish educational success.4, Does this critique actually apply to more than one famous economist? I don't think so.5, Ginger Ambition offers post-graduation life advi...
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
1. NPR on the anniversary of the drive-in theater. I have an especially fond memory of the Fife drive-in.2. Politics Texas style, with cats. It is indeed a marvel that anything works at all.3. Is Linda Lovelace a good guide to the adult film industry?4. The shrinking (relative) role of tenured professors. I am not sure that this is such a bad thing.Hat tip on #2 to Charlie Bro...
Ehrman, Bart. 2006. The Lost Gospel of Judas Escariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed. Oxford University Press.This book tells the tale of a lost gospel found in Egypt late in the last century and ultimately liberated into the public eye by National Geographic. Really, there are two stories here, perhaps three. One story is the history of the manuscript itself, the highlight of which is a 16 year stay in a safe-deposit box in a bank on Long Island. It turns out that this is a bad way to store ancient papyrus manuscripts. Who would have guessed?...
Saturday, August 17, 2013
I am generally in agreement with what Miles and Noah have to say, but would add or alter a few bits:1. By all means do not just focus on the top five or 10 or 15 programs. The poster child here is probably Amitabh Chandra (now at the Kennedy School), whose doctorate is from Kentucky. On my very first visit to Kentucky back in my assistant professor days, I was assigned to meet with Amitabh and told to talk him out of staying at Kentucky for his doctorate. I failed, but his career seems to have turned out fine anyway. The reason it turned out fine...
Friday, August 16, 2013
You can now watch the videos and look at the slides from a conference on "The Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Research University Today" that was held here in Ann Arbor in the spring.You can watch Paul Courant and me talk about the labor market effects of college and college major in the Thursday morning session. Watching myself is not as cringe-worthy as I was expecting. Keep in mind that the audience includes zero economists; instead it is mostly deanish types.The conference was a fascinating cultural experience for me as it was very much not...
The folks at seekingarrangement.com (not safe for particularly puritanical workplaces) got the Daily Mail to bite on their press release about the many teachers on their website looking for financial aid.Hat tip: anonymous colleagueNote to younger readers: the title of the post refers to this Van Halen song, which has a slightly different spin on the matt...
Monday, August 12, 2013
The Determinants of Mismatch Between Students and CollegesEleanor Wiske Dillon and Jeffrey Andrew SmithNBER Working Paper No. 19286August 2013ABSTRACTWe use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine mismatch between student ability and college quality. Mismatch has implications for the design of state higher education systems and for student aid policy. The data indicate substantial amounts of both undermatch (high ability students at low quality colleges) and overmatch (low ability students at high quality colleges). Student...
1. When bad things happen to good people at Georgetown.2. Matt Damon is a public policy hypocrite. Who knew?3. On the economics of lesbian bars in NYC.4. WTFWJD? I am with the vicar on this one.5. The Economist on the history of Gibraltar. These little nationalist flare-ups are always a distraction from a government's domestic failures.Hat tip on #4 to Charlie Bro...
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Megan McArdle on recent policy talk about the minimum wage.The problem of confusing short run and long run impacts (or simply forgetting the distinction entirely) is hardly unique to the literature on minimum wages. The literature on "the" elasticity of taxable income has exactly the same problem. I think the underlying problem is the same in both cases (and in many others), which is that it is easier to provide compelling identification for short run effects than long run effects, and applied economics these days is too often willing to trade...
Monday, August 5, 2013
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Physicians Treating Physicians: Information and Incentives in ChildbirthErin M. Johnson, M. Marit RehaviNBER Working Paper No. 19242Issued in July 2013Abstract:This paper provides new evidence on the interaction between patient information and financial incentives in physician induced demand (PID). Using rich microdata on childbirth, we compare the treatment of physicians when they are patients with that of comparable non-physicians. We exploit a unique institutional feature of California to determine how inducement varies with obstetricians' financial...
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