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In my 2011 book, Launching the Innovation Renaissance, I wrote: At times, teacher pay in the United States seems more like something from Soviet-era Russia than 21st-century America. Wages for teachers are low, egalitarian and not based on performance. We pay physical education teachers about the same as math teachers despite the fact that math […] The post Pay For Performance Increases Performance (Water...

Stanford alum, business school dean Jonathan Levin named Stanford president The post Economist Jonathan Levin is the new president of Stanford appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsHe looks a bit lacking in diversity pokemon points. by HorheIn reply to Blutowski. The stay in their dorm rooms not ... by OutHereLooks like a hack by BDidn’t he used to be president of Yale a...

Here is the transcript, audio, and video.  Here is the episode summary: But might technological advances and good old human resilience allow kids to adapt more easily than he thinks? Jonathan joined Tyler to discuss this question and more, including whether left-wingers or right-wingers make for better parents, the wisest person Jonathan has interacted with, […] The post My contentious Conversation with Jonathan Haidt...

Alex Bartik and Arpit Gupta, Chicago and NYU, to work on zoning codes, machine learning, and LLMs. Sasha Przyblski, 16, Ontario, building more durable batteries. Egzona Marina, Kosovo and MIT, to promote science and neuroscience education in Kovoso. Aldrich Heinz Alvarez, Manila, travel grant to San Francisco and Singapore, wearables that harness multi-modal AI. Molly […] The post Emergent Ventures, 33rd cohort appeared first...

Here’s my talk on teaching the super simple Solow model which Tyler and I present in our principles textbook, Modern Principles. Here are the slides. The post Teaching the Super Simple Solow Model appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsAgain, US-centrism is undignified and poor scholarship. ... by Aus-econIn reply to SimonG. Did not watch the whole video but perhaps ... by johnGood stuff....

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  You can tell he knows what an interview is!  At the same time, he understands this differs from many of his other venues and he responds with flying colors.  Here is the episode summary: Tyler sat down with Fareed to discuss what he learned from Khushwant Singh as […] The post My Conversation with Fareed Zakaria appeared...

Google plagiarism and you will find definitions like “stealing someone else’s ideas” or “literary theft.” Here the emphasis is on the stealing–it’s the original author who is being harmed. I prefer the definition of plagiarism given by Wikipedia, plagiarism is the *fraudulent* use of other people’s words or ideas. Fraudulent emphasizes that it’s the reader […] The post In Defense of Plagiarism appeared first...

Indiana’s Republican governor has just signed new law that introduces “intellectual diversity” as a standard for tenure decisions in state universities. Under the law, campus boards of trustees will determine what intellectual diversity consists of, and lack of such diversity can be grounds for denying tenure. Intellectual diversity also must be considered in the post-tenure review process. […] The post Indiana’s new intellectual diversity law for...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Marilynne Robinson is one of America’s best and best-known novelists and essayists, whose award-winning works like Housekeeping and Gilead explore themes of faith, grace, and the intricacies of human nature. Beyond her writing, Robinson’s 25-year tenure at the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop allowed her to shape and […] The post My excellent Conversation with Marilynne Robinson...

Bryan Caplan has a good post on out-of-state tuition: [State schools] almost always charge students from their own state much lower tuition. In the most recent data, average out-of-state tuition for four-year colleges was $26,382, versus $9,212 for in-state — roughly a 3:1 ratio. I’ve argued for a long time that an enterprising lawyer ought to sue […] The post The Puzzling Law and Economics of...

Thomas is at the Templeton Foundation, here is the link (with transcript), here is one bit: Tom: …So, I know that you’re a voracious reader, you’re immensely curious. Going back to your childhood, what were some of your favorite books during some of those formative years? Tyler: Well, when I was very small, my favorite books […] The post My podcast with Thomas Burnett appeared...

a16z has issued the talks from that event, and we are issuing it too, as a bonus episode of CWT.  But note it is shorter than usual, and not the typical CWT format — this was done for an audience of actual DC human beings! Excerpt: COWEN: Why is open-source AI in particular important for national […] The post Marc Andreessen and I talk AI...

What percentage of individuals attending economics graduate school — at the higher levels — have an undergraduate economics major?  What is the best source on this question?  And other than mathematics, what other undergraduate backgrounds are common? The post Economics graduate school bleg appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to joan. Actually formal theory in economics is more ... by WikiIn reply...

A superb video on the history and mathematics of options pricing from Veritasium. The post The Black-Scholes-Merton Options Pricing Equation appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to rsm. It didn't at first. Customers started ... by JoshSo when the good professor says that derivatives are many ... by rsmIn reply to EdR. Does it say anywhere that Black thought ... by rsmIn...

Yesterday, someone asked me to elaborate on talent picking and why “narrowing the subset” matters. It’s easier to pick the best talent from a subset of 10 versus 100 or 1000. You’d think seeing 1000 candidates would mean you have a greater chance of finding a unicorn genius but it takes longer and gives more […] The post Very good sentences appeared first on...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript, we recorded in NYC.  Here is the episode summary: A conductor, harpsichordist, and organist, Masaaki Suzuki stands as a towering figure in Baroque music, renowned for his comprehensive and top-tier recordings of Bach’s works, including all of Bach’s sacred and secular cantatas. Suzuki’s unparalleled dedication extends beyond Bach, […] The post My Conversation with the very excellent...

Here is my episode with @patrickc We discuss: – what it takes to process $1 trillion/year– how to build multi-decade APIs, companies, and relationships– what's next for Stripe (increasing the GDP of the internet is an open ended task, and the Collison brothers are just… pic.twitter.com/Wx52cJI9Ve — Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) February 21, 2024 The post Dwarkesh Patel with Patrick Collison appeared first on Marginal...

In the political economy chapter of our textbook, Modern Principles of Economics, Tyler and I discuss how voters appear especially responsive to economic conditions in the year of an election. Politicians who want to be reelected, therefore, are wise to do whatever they can to increase personal disposable income and reduce inflation in the year […] The post Nixonian Politics and Student Debt Cancellations...

Jon Klick, Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (and a distinguished GMU econ grad), argues that Penn should “abandon the fiction that holistic evaluation is anything more than a way to hide discretion.” Instead, Penn should set a standardized test score floor and then randomly choose its admittees from the pool […] The post Random Admissions Above the Bar appeared...

Anson Yu, Waterloo, telemetry devices that can detect compromised hardware devices to protect our electrical grid and other critical infrastructure. Anshul Kashyap, Berkeley, neurotech and vision, to visit the Netherlands for work and research reasons. Kieran Lucid, Dublin, Irish videos about YIMBY and aesthetics, at the site Polysee. Matin Amiri, Antwerp, Afghanistan, and San Francisco […] The post Emergent Ventures winners, 32nd cohort appeared...

Many people think “I will do […], AI will not anytime soon do [….] as well as I will.”  That may or may not be true. But keep in mind many of us are locked into a competition for attention.  AI can beat you without competing against you in your task directly.  What AI produces […] The post A periodic reminder of your pending...

Nash won the Nobel prize in Economics for his 2-page proof of Nash equilibrium, among the slightest of his achievements. Nash’s truly staggering contributions were in his embedding theorems, according to Gromov “one of the main achievements of mathematics of the twentieth century”. In this excellent talk, Cédric Villani gives an accessible guide to these […] The post Nash’s Contributions to Mathematics appeared first...

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  No description of Michael quite does him justice, but here is Wikipedia: Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is a quantum physicist, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in San Francisco. In 1998, Nielsen received his PhD in physics from the University of New Mexico. In 2004, he was recognized as […] The post What should I ask Michael Nielsen?...

Using a quantitative heterogeneous-agent model calibrated to Korea, we find that fertility would be 28% higher in the absence of the status externality and that childlessness in the poorest quintile would fall from five to less than one percent. We then explore the effects of various government policies. A pro-natal transfer or an education tax […] The post How much does status competition lower...