Bookmarks (2914)

He is a well-known chemist (and more) at UC San Diego. We started with classic Star Trek and then moved into textiles, chemistry, music vs. sound, nanobots against Covid, how to interview, traveling during a pandemic, art collecting and voodoo flags, the importance of materials science, and much more.  Mostly he interviewed me, though it […] The post My podcast with Darren Lipomi appeared...

From the archives of Irwin Collier (I won’t do any extra indentation): Economics Candidates: Answer any FOUR questions (thirty minutes each). S.I.M. Candidates: Answer any TWO questions (thirty minutes each). Within the framework of static, partial-equilibrium theory, indicate under what circumstances advertising will reduce product prices in the long run, (a) if the advertiser is […] The post MIT graduate micro exam, 1961 appeared...

He was one of the true microeconomists, from Wikipedia: Edward Paul Lazear…an American economist, the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Davies Family Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Lazear served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors from 2006 […] The post Edward Lazear has passed away appeared...

1. What Vietnam has been like.  And the Katya Simon recommendations. 2. Leopold Aschenbrenner is now blogging. 3. Don Boudreaux on “Tyler vs. Tyler.”  (Usually a rich topic, I might add.)  In my view, the mobility data and cross-comparative data show that most of the real resource costs have come from fear and risk avoidance, […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

We can all admit now that it isn’t a bubble, right?  Of course you still might think the current price is too high, as returns are a (near) random walk. This WSJ article ably surveys the current landscape.  I put the least stock on “inflation hedge” arguments, and the most on ordinary factors such as […] The post Why is bitcoin at $18,000? appeared...

There is something to be said for tearing it all down and starting again. The flat tax, for example, has long been debated but has never been fully adopted in the United States. After the end of communism, however, many countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia adopted flat taxes. Brian Wheaton, on the market […] The post The Flat Tax Increases Growth appeared...

No, according to Barry Eichengreen, Cevat Giray Aksoy, and Orkun Saka: It is sometimes said that an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic will be heightened appreciation of the importance of scientific research and expertise. We test this hypothesis by examining how exposure to previous epidemics affected trust in science and scientists. Building on the “impressionable […] The post Do pandemics boost public faith in...

Here goes: A central yet neglected point is that vaccines should not be sent to each and every part of the U.S. Instead, it would be better to concentrate distribution in a small number of places where the vaccines can have a greater impact. Say, for the purposes of argument, that you had 20,000 vaccine […] The post The case for geographically concentrated vaccine...

In our estimation, and with standard preference parameters, the value of the ability to end the pandemic is worth 5-15% of total wealth. This value rises substantially when there is uncertainty about the frequency and duration of pandemics. Agents place almost as much value on the ability to resolve the uncertainty as they do on […] The post The pandemic is indeed a big...

1. Short video, Beijing residents on Biden and Trump.  They are better thinkers than the lot of you. 2. Worthwhile Canadian moose car-licking warnings.  And new Jordan Peterson book coming in March. 3. Other coronavirus variants found in frozen bats outside of China. 4. Tanner on Substack. 5. Rolf is wrong again.  And yet another […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

‘If rapid antigen tests are so good how come other countries aren’t using them’? is a question I get asked a lot. In fact, India authorized these tests months ago. Slovakia tested most of their population using antigen tests. Germany is using them to protect nursing home residents. Lufthansa is trialing rapid antigen tests on […] The post Rapid Antigen Tests in Europe appeared...

I am getting a little ornery with all of the people citing Covid externalities, and then not going a step deeper.  To be clear, I agree we should subsidize preventive measures (most of all vaccines and testing, but more too), and close down high-risk indoor gatherings in many locales.  No more Democratic Party fundraisers in […] The post Externalities and Covid appeared first on...

If you think of state governments as basically being as permissive as possible consistent with not overwhelming their hospital systems then even vaccinating 20% of the population has a huge economic impact as long as it’s targeted in a halfway plausible way. That is from Matt Yglesias.  I would stress also the bad news that […] The post Vaccination economic resumption sentences to ponder...

1. 40 labs in 21 states (SalivaDirect update). 2. “One travel job that is booming during the pandemic is pet delivery specialist.” 3. Nanobots and mini-binders against Covid (NYT). 4. Kingmakers. 5. Short history of India Pakistan economic growth. 6. Volunteer data heroes of Covid (Bloomberg). The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

Hong Kong will give a one-time HK$5,000 ($645) payment to anyone in the city who tests positive for Covid-19 to encourage people to take tests for the virus, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said. Here is the full Bloomberg report, via Jackson. The post I guess we will learn something from this experiment appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

Elena Ferrante named her top forty, and I am not sure I approve of the exercise at all.  Still, here are my top twenty, in no particular order, fiction only, not counting poetry: 1.Lady Murasaki, Tale of Genji. 2. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights. 3. Alice Munro, any and all. 4. Elena Ferrante, the Neapolitan quadrology. […] The post Favorite books by female authors appeared...

1. Why did Wikipedia’s competitors fail? 2. Wallabies from Australia have gained a foothold in the U.K. and may be there for good. 3. Magnus Carlsen on Queen’s Gambit and other matters. 4. Supermarkets drop brand of coconut milk after allegations of forced monkey labor. 5. Best inventions of 2020? (not my picks) The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

Although the 1960s race riots have gone down in history as America’s most violent and destructive ethnic civil disturbances, a single common factor able to explain their insurgence is yet to be found. Using a novel data set on the universe of radio stations airing black-appeal programming, the effect of media on riots is found […] The post Radio and riots appeared first on...

Previous research has isolated the effect of “congressional dominance” in explaining bureaucracy-related outcomes. This analysis extends the concept of congressional dominance to the allocation of H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine doses. States with Democratic United States Representatives on the relevant House oversight committee received roughly 60,000 additional doses per legislator during the initial allocation period, […] The post The political economy of Swine flu...

Why not sooner? Inquiring minds wish to know.  Was the meeting hard to schedule? The post “The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee will meet Dec 8-10” appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

Earlier I had reported incorrectly that one in five Covid patients developed subsequently mental health problems.  Here is the original paper, and a more accurate rendering of the result is this: “In the period between 14 and 90 days after COVID-19 diagnosis, 5.8% COVID-19 survivors had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness (F20–F48), compared […] The post Mental health and Covid — correction...

1. Redux of my March Conversation with Russ Roberts on the coronavirus. 2. Is Wall Street turning Blue? 3. Did HIV-Aids increase the birth rate? 4. New Vitamin D result. 5. Lockdowns for thee but not for me. The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

While an effective vaccine against HIV may still be a long way off, a new HIV prevention technique has proven remarkably effective at protecting women against the virus. A single injection of a drug called cabotegravir every two months was so successful in preventing HIV in a clinical trial among women in sub-Saharan Africa that […] The post Progress against HIV-AIDS hasn’t been reported...

EVA Airways, one of the largest carriers in Taiwan, is partnering with travel experience company Mobius on a campaign called “Fly! Love is in the Air.” These are flights for singles on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year Day. “Because of Covid-19, EVA Air has been organizing “faux travel” experiences to fulfill people’s […] The post Covid travel markets in everything appeared...

– A working mRNA vaccine (first ever in humans!), – Apple M1 chip, – SpaceX rocket launch, – GPT-3, – Tons of cool companies IPO’ing and tons more getting started, – V-shaped recovery – Electric cars – Crypto going mainstream That is from a tweet by Nabeel S.Qureshi.  One could add warp speed, affordable solar […] The post Is the Great Stagnation over? appeared...

1. The only thing worse than a meritocracy… 2. Covid betting markets in everything? 3. Matt Yglesias on what is wrong with the media. 4. A bit slow to start, but this is an excellent piece on how biologists think and why others might be slow to get it. 5. Would you flee the FBI […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

Excited and humbled to announce that as of March 1, I will be president of Shalem College in Jerusalem moving there in the summer, Covid permitting. I will stay affiliated with Hoover and continue doing EconTalk. More on Shalem here. It’s an amazing place: Here is the tweet, here is the link to more about […] The post Russell Roberts update Israel fact of...

As noted, Ben has a new and very interesting book coming out Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.  He is also the author of the superb The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, and the earlier Day of Reckoning, about the economic policies of the Reagan administration.  Ben has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, […] The post What should I ask Benjamin M....

The Trump tariffs are the biggest change in trade policy since Smoot-Hawley. Whatever the economic merits of the Trump tariffs, they make great material for textbook authors! As we illustrate in the new edition of Modern Principles, drawing on a great paper by Flaaen, Hortaçsu and Tintelnot. The excerpt illustrates our approach throughout our textbook, […] The post International Trade in Modern Principles appeared...

There are certain ideas that are highly seductive, so much so that even “WEIRDOS” occasionally dabble in conspiracy theories. So why weren’t conspiracy theories a bigger part of life in the late 20th century? I believe this is because the media was almost completely controlled by WEIRD people. The news desks at ABC/NBC/CBS stuck to […] The post Why conspiracy theories are on the...

When estimating income inequality with tax data, accounting for missing income presents many challenges. Researchers have adopted different approaches to address these challenges. Saez and Zucman (2020) discuss differences between the national income distributions of Piketty, Saez, and Zucman (PSZ, 2018) and Auten and Splinter (AS, 2019a). Saez and Zucman also make updates to their […] The post David Splinter responds to Saez and...

1. Rob Schneider likes Mises. 2. Nakamura’s life and income. 3. Where are the Covid deaths in Europe?  Some people had been wondering.  And cross-immunities from Asian history?  And using wearables to detect pre-symptomatic Covid?  And Dolly Parton Fast Grants.  And more on Dolly.  And “Hospitalizations are rising faster in Sweden than any other European […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

It was excellent throughout, here is the audio, video, and transcript, here is part of the summary: Jimmy joined Tyler to discuss what happens when content moderation goes wrong, why certain articles are inherently biased, the threat that repealing section 230 poses to Wikipedia, whether he believes in Conquest’s Law, the difference between “paid editing” […] The post My Conversation with Jimmy Wales appeared...

A very important result from Ahmed, Hoddinott, Abedin and Hossain in The American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Bt eggplant offers a 51% increase in yield, a 37.5% decrease in pesticide use, increased farmer profits and decreased farmer sickness. Wow! We implemented a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of genetically modified eggplant (Bt […] The post Bt Eggplant is Great appeared first...

Chile’s celebrated $200bn private pensions system has served as a model for dozens of emerging markets since it was introduced in the 1980s. Now, it faces an existential crisis as public support for the model fades and populist politicians allow savers to withdraw funds during the coronavirus crisis. The lower house of congress voted to […] The post The Chilean pension system is in...

Erasmus Darwin plunged into popular scientific poetry.  Cantering along in the style — if not with the elegance — of Alexander Pope, he never aspired to greatness.  His verses, however, were remarkable for their vivid pictures of evolution interlaced with stirring accounts of the advancement of science, technology, and human culture during the late eighteenth […] The post Erasmus Darwin, apostle of progress appeared...

1. I did a Firewall podcast with Bradley Tusk. 2. Complacency and American girl dolls. 3. In China, “grey market” vaccine doses are going for $600-$1500. 4. Who are the greatest right-wing literary authors? 5. Canadian clustering. 6. The rise of undrafted NBA talent.  A good piece and of general interest. 7. Reduce event size […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

I don’t think so, as I argue in my latest Bloomberg column, here is one bit: If you are wondering whether China or the U.S. with its allies is more likely to make a big breakthrough, in, say, quantum computing, ask yourself a simple question: Which network will better attract talented immigrants? The more that talent […] The post Post-Covid, is the U.S. falling behind...

Why is Facebook free? Why are credit cards less than free? Why do singles bars sometimes have women drink free nights but never men drink free nights? All of these questions are in the domain of platform economics. Platform economics is new. Tirole and Rochet practically invented the field with a seminal paper in 2003–and […] The post Platform Economics in Modern Principles appeared...

Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of Moderna, is a two-time immigrant. He was born to Armenian parents in Lebanon and immigrated with his family in his early teens to Canada. After attending college, Afeyan came to the United States and earned a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He started his […] The post More immigrant founders and co-founders, in...

Ball, though, wasn’t content with just having been a solid player in Australia. Instead, he raised some eyebrows last spring when he attempted to buy his former team. The talks eventually fizzled out. It wasn’t a typical move for a teenager, but Ball isn’t a typical teenager. He has already lived on different continents, starred in […] The post LaMelo Ball What Price Fame? appeared...

How many will speak up for science today?: Our results show that the enormous expansions of parental leave and child care subsidies have had virtually no impact on gender convergence. That is from a new NBER working paper by Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais, Johanna Posch, Andreas Steinhauer, and Josef Zweimüller., based on decades of data […] The post Sentences to ponder appeared first on...

1. State capacity: Italian Police Use Lamborghini To Transport Donor Kidney 300 Miles In Two Hours. 2. St. Helena golf club. 3. This source argues there was no real foreign election interference. 4. “A fact that was never mentioned ahead of time. If we had reached complete suppression vaccine development would have been impossible. Depends, […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

The new edition of Modern Principles is here! We take our title, Modern Principles of Economics, seriously. Other textbooks stick with the market for ice cream year after year but when it comes to new editions we don’t just add a box or two–we rewrite entire chapters with new examples and applications and we cut […] The post Modern Principles, New Edition! appeared first...

He suggested the announcement that the roll-out of a vaccine within weeks had persuaded people to break the rules and take risks. “People maybe think the battle is over because the vaccine is coming…” Here is the Times of London story.  Of course economics suggests the exact opposite course of action, namely that when a […] The post Intertemporal substitution remains underrated (Covid in...

The Economist was kind enough to reference my earlier blog post on this topic, from April 12, so I thought we should look at it again.  Please do reread it!  Here are my first two points: 1. They [epidemiologists] do not sufficiently grasp that long-run elasticities of adjustment are more powerful than short-run elasticites.  In […] The post Economics and epidemiology, revisited appeared first...

What is the current take on foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election?  I hardly hear anyone mentioning this.  Was there much?  And if not, why not? Our sagest minds were warning of this for years, and I heard several nat sec experts warn me of this but a few weeks ago.  There have been […] The post Asking for a friend appeared first...

1. Andrew Gelman on driving and the stock market. 2. Covid and complexity (Scott Sumner, I would note that much of Africa seems to fit this same story). 3. Sanity about Sweden (both sides were wrong). 4. Diane Coyle book list. 5. China Belgium fact of the day: racing pigeon sells for $1.9 million. 6. […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

Vitamin D supplementation is cheap. Walking in sunlight is even cheaper. I’ve been doing more of both since the beginnings of the pandemic. Slusky and Zekhauser add to the evidence: Sunlight, likely operating through the well-established channel of producing vitamin D, has the potential to play a significant role in reducing flu incidence. A recent […] The post Sunny Days Protect Against Flu appeared...