Bookmarks (4109)

1. Are tunnels our transportation future? 2. American Bankers Association suggests partnership with crypto firms. 3. Which stocks are being traded on Capitol Hill? 4. The four hour rule. 5. Nature covers Fast Grants. The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Phinton. I see. While we are handeaving nuclear ... by John SmithIn reply to So Much...

…wealth inequality varies greatly across countries, and there is no clear correlation with countries’ levels of income inequality. Sweden for instance has reasonable income equality but very high wealth inequality.  Many of the southern European nations are the opposite. So which is it that matters?  Is it income inequality that matters when you wish to […] The post Inequality sentence fragments to ponder appeared...

It’s very easy to include MRU videos in a class using our textbook, Modern Principles of Economics, and the course management system, Achieve. Just a few clicks to assign videos along with auto-graded questions. Awesome! Check out the integration in the video. Sign up for an Achieve demo here. The post Achieve! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsA truly excellent linkup for classroom...

An interesting idea from Max. It’s getting harder to find a city to host the Olympics , a Charter Olympic City might be just the ticket to get a Charter City off the ground and share costs. A public-private partnership model for building the Olympic village would alleviate some of the budgetary pressure on governments […] The post Olympic Charter Cities appeared first on...

This study constructs a large new dataset to investigate whether state policy led to ethnic Ukrainians experiencing higher mortality during the 1932–33 Soviet Great Famine. All else equal, famine (excess) mortality rates were positively associated with ethnic Ukrainian population share across provinces, as well as across districts within provinces. Ukrainian ethnicity, rather than the administrative […] The post The Political-Economic Causes of the Soviet...

That is the theme of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: More broadly, it is striking how many policies of the Biden administration reflect ideas or proposals from the Trump administration. Biden’s “Buy America” plan could be a Trump administration protectionist initiative. The Trump administration spent $2 trillion on coronavirus relief; the Biden administration proposed […] The post The median voter theorem is underrated...

A loyal MR reader asks: Physical ailments generally lead to behaviors that offset or improve them, whereas mental ailments often seem to lead to behaviors that make them worse (eg it’s hard to exercise when you’re depressed) This seems very odd to me; why would this be the case? Are there any physical diseases that […] The post Physical vs. mental ailments appeared first...

1. “As Elizabeth Currid-Halkett reported in her 2017 book, The Sum of Small Things, affluent parents have increased their share of educational spending by nearly 300 percent since 1996.”  Link here. 2. The most significant buildings constructed since World War II? (NYT) 3. New Balaji interview. 4. Goose flying upside down. 5. English-language version of “Bergman Island” […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

Isabelle Brocas and Juan Carrillo have a new paper in the JPE testing when children develop strategic (k-level) reasoning. A clever game outlined below illustrates the basic idea. Players 1,2 and 3 are asked to make (simultaneous) choices to earn prizes (money for the adults and older kids, points for toys for the younger kids). […] The post Are You More Strategic than a...

With Steven Brams, an American game theorist, Ismail devised a radical but easily implemented solution to the perceived white bias in chess. Their system, dubbed “balanced alternation”, allows black to make two moves after white’s opening move, with white then taking the next two moves before reverting to standard play. By giving black a double […] The post A new chess variant appeared first...

That is the theme of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: The notion that the future will be weirder than we think, and come sooner, is a possibility raised by Holden Karnofsky, the co-chief executive officer of Open Philanthropy. It’s an intriguing and provocative idea. I consider genetic engineering, longevity research, finding signs of life […] The post Within one hundred years the future...

1. “Due to the extreme heat, Oregonians can pump their own gas until midnight tonight.“- 2. Roberto Calasso, RIP (NYT), and Guardian obituary. 3. How does incarceration affect reoffending? 4. Daily turnover of Australian and Chinese currencies about the same. 5. China Covid cases rising again. The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to God of Thunder. The...

Most of all, I was surprised at how beautiful the city setting is — gleaming skyscrapers surrounded by green mountains. The red Faro del Comercio is the city’s landmark, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. You can visit an excellent old iron works factory. For “randomly […] The post Monterrey notes appeared first on Marginal...

Yes you need a negative result on the test to return to the United States, but you never know the sensitivity of the test you are taking.  It should be from an “approved provider,” but what does that mean?  No authority from the United States can readily verify how good the test is. Let us […] The post The incentives for Mexican hotel Covid...

1. Richard Lapper, Beef, Bible, and Bullets: Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro.  A very good country-specific book, it takes you from “Brazil is the country of the future and always will be” to “Brazil was the country of the future and maybe never will be again.”  Did you know that the Pentecostals and Evangelicals […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

1. Markets in everything. 2. “Perhaps they are everywhere? Undetectable distributed quantum computation and communication for alien civilizations can be established using thermal light from stars.” 3. “Biles briefly posted videos of her practicing bars and landing on her back on two dismount attempts, unable to complete the double-twisting double tuck as normal.” 4. Speculative […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

That is the new forthcoming Ross Douthat book, focusing on his struggles with Lyme disease.  It is very much a memoir, starting with talk of Connecticut, deer, and his family’s dream house, all leading to an unfortunate bite from a tick.  Visits to many doctors ensue, motivated by chronic pain and weakness. Overall this is […] The post *The Deep Places: A Memoir of...

I will be doing a Conversation with her, so what should I ask? Here is part of her Wikipedia page, which perhaps ought to have emphasized economic history more?: Claudia Goldin…is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the Development of the American Economy program at the National Bureau of […] The post What should I ask Claudia Goldin?...

That is the new Amartya Sen autobiography, and it is well…a biography.  You learn that he loves Sichuan duck and “hilsha fish” (if done properly with the mustard), his thoughts of enduring military service, Sen’s study of Sanskrit, his self-description as a hypochondriac, his bout with mouth cancer at a young age, and that Calcutta […] The post *Home in the World: A Memoir*...

The U.S. agency leading the fight against Covid-19 gave up a crucial surveillance tool tracking the effectiveness of vaccines just as a troublesome new variant of the virus was emerging. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped comprehensively tracking what are known as vaccine breakthrough cases in May, the consequences of that choice are only […] The post Our regulatory state is still, still,...

Australia has deployed hundreds of soldiers to Sydney to help enforce a Covid lockdown. A Delta outbreak which began in June has produced nearly 3,000 infections and led to nine deaths. Australian Defence Force soldiers will undergo training on the weekend before beginning unarmed patrols on Monday. But many have questioned whether the military intervention […] The post The great psychometric test continues appeared...

1. Interview with Dan Wang. 2. Vitalik on overuse of the Gini coefficient. 3. “…compartmentalizing is a fantastic tool when you’re an athlete, just blocking everything out that isn’t in line with one goal. But it’s terrible for other aspects of your life; it’s terrible for relationships.” 4. James Buchanan and club theory. 5. The […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, has had it with the FDA: Nearly all public-health authorities in the country are urging people to get vaccines. We see the incredible results that the vaccines have had and how many lives they’re saving, and still the F.D.A. has not offered full, […] The post Welcome to the Club appeared first...

There are other complications too; some people are just low IQ, and maybe their dumb beliefs aren’t their fault. But if you believe in personal responsibility at all as a guide to policy, for reasons of utilitarianism or justice, you have to assess blame at some point. Incentivizing people to get free vaccinations is not […] The post Richard Hanania on safety craziness appeared...

When the French government launched a smartphone app that gives 300 euros to every 18-year-old in the country for cultural purchases like books and music, or exhibition and performance tickets, most young people’s impulse wasn’t to buy Proust’s greatest works or to line up and see Molière. Instead, France’s teenagers flocked to manga. “It’s a […] The post The manga culture that is French...

Conditional cash lotteries (CCLs) provide people with opportunities to win monetary prizes only if they make specific behavioral changes. We conduct a case study of Ohio’s Vax-A-Million initiative, the first CCL targeting COVID-19 vaccinations. Forming a synthetic control from other states, we find that Ohio’s incentive scheme increases the vaccinated share of state population by […] The post The vaccine lottery is a worthwhile...

1. Against CBDC. 2. Confirmation of radar data on Tic Tac.  And the Navy filmer, now a commander, claims he received “jamming cues” on his data stream.  Lots of additional detail in the chat. 3. Cowen’s Second Law: “Beer mats make bad frisbees.”  And what’s in the new infrastructure bill (NYT). 4. “The study maintains […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

From Google’s Deep Mind: In recent years, artificial intelligence agents have succeeded in a range of complex game environments. For instance, AlphaZero beat world-champion programs in chess, shogi, and Go after starting out with knowing no more than the basic rules of how to play. Through reinforcement learning (RL), this single system learnt by playing […] The post A Step Closer to General AI...

Most individual life insurance policies lapse, with lapsers cross-subsidizing non-lapsers. We show that policies and lapse patterns predicted by standard rational expectations models are the opposite of those observed empirically. We propose two behavioral models consistent with the evidence: (i) consumers forget to pay premiums and (ii) consumers understate future liquidity needs. We conduct two […] The post Lapses in insurance payments appeared first...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, or use this link https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-27/america-s-covid-policies-are-a-contradictory-mess, some of it you already have heard here from me and from Alex.  Excerpt: The delta variant is sweeping the U.S., and it is significantly more infectious, yet the Centers for Disease Control doesn’t have the data tools to know whether this is […] The post America’s Covid policy remains largely a...

1. Renderings of large, extinct animals. 2. Rank size of a minority group matters for hate crime. 3. Is adolescent loneliness rising? 4. Good Klein-Douthat dialogue.  By the way, here is Ross’s forthcoming book The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery. 5. NFTs update (NYT).  To make your head spin: “One issue that […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is part of the CWT summary: Niall joined Tyler to discuss the difference between English and Scottish pessimism, his surprise encounter with Sean Connery, what James Bond and Doctor Who have in common, how religion fosters the cultural imagination to produce doomsday scenarios, which side of the […] The post My excellent Conversation with Niall Ferguson...

You people are weird: Changes in political leadership drive large changes in economic optimism. We exploit the surprise 2016 election of Trump to identify the effects of a shift in political power on one of the most consequential household decisions: whether to have a child. Republican-leaning counties experience a sharp and persistent increase in fertility […] The post Donald Trump and partisan fertility appeared...

The recent Supreme Court decision NCAA vs Alston (June 2021) has heightened interest in the benefits and costs of participation in sports for student athletes. Anecdotes about the exploitation of student athletes were cited in the opinion. This paper uses panel data for two different cohorts that follow students from high school through college and […] The post Sports are good for student athletes...

I will be doing a Conversation with her, her forthcoming book The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century is already making a big splash.  Here is an excerpt from her Wikipedia page: Amia Srinivasan (born 1984) is an American philosopher, specialising in political philosophy, epistemology and metaphilosophy. Since January 2020, she has been […] The post What should I ask Amia Srinivasan?...

1. Where Elon Musk lives/lived. 2. Are Treasuries undervalued (in absolute terms)? 3. On Medici and Thiel.  On the need to radically scale genius grants.  And Hou Yifan update. 4. Applied Divinity Studies wishes to reform the Olympics. 5. Podcast with Alex T. 6. The vaccine incentive culture that is San Francisco (cannabis). 7. Hermitage […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

International travel restrictions are a farrago built on fear, statistical confusion, and out-dated information. The US, for example, is still requiring a virus test to enter the US but not proof of vaccination. In other words, a fully vaccinated citizen can now travel to Canada (with Canadian requirements) but if they want back in they […] The post The Farrago of International Travel Restrictions...

Use monetary rewards (or penalties) if need be.  Here is Joshua Gans applying some game theory to the vaccine passport idea: Vaccine hesitancy is modelled as an endogenous decision within a behavioural SIR model with endogenous agent activity. It is shown that policy interventions that directly target costs associated with vaccine adoption may counter vaccine […] The post Why vaccine passports are a welfare-dominated...

The real monopoly problems in our economy are not the firms that push up some very particular concentration indices, rather they are the small, local monopolies, hospitals, and the public education system.  Here is a new investigation (AEA gate) from Sharat Ganapati, you will note that the bold emphasis has been added by yours truly: […] The post Growing Oligopolies, Prices, Output, and Productivity...

It seems they do: We document appearance effects in the economics profession. Using unique data on PhD graduates from ten of the top economics departments in the United States we test whether more attractive individuals are more likely to succeed. We find robust evidence that appearance has predictive power for job outcomes and research productivity. […] The post Do looks matter for an academic...

1. How number theory works, excellent thread. 2. Task-based discrimination. 3. Buchanan and Vanberg reading list from 1990. 4. Architecture and design in Monterrey. 5. More on the puzzle of why the wealthy buy so much insurance. 6. Malmendier on experience effects in finance. 7. “The key insight is that crypto is introducing explicit order […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

In 1991 on the verge of bankruptcy, India abandoned the License-Raj and freed its economy from many socialist shackles. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao announced to the nation: We believe that a bulk of government regulations and controls on economic activity have outlived their utility. They are stifling the creativity and innovativeness of our people. Excessive […] The post The 1991 Project appeared first on...

Women see fewer advertisements about entering into science and technology professions than men do. But it’s not because companies are preferentially targeting men—rather it appears to result from the economics of ad sales. Surprisingly, when an advertiser pays for digital ads, including postings for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), it is more […] The post They modeled this — why women...

Swedish volunteers will be paid £17 each to be immunised in Europe’s largest test of whether small cash incentives can improve vaccine uptake… The Swedish study, led by Erik Wengstrom, an economics professor at Lund University, uses gentler methods. Over the next few weeks 8,200 unvaccinated people under the age of 60 will be split […] The post Swedish study will pay people to...

1. Anecdotal: “But Herring’s refusal to give up his @Tennessee handle, federal prosecutors say, led to a night in which the shocking and confusing sight of police with their guns drawn outside his home caused the computer programmer to suffer a massive heart attack that killed him. His death in Bethpage, Tenn., was triggered by […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

And I actually would go so far as to say that I think that might be one of, if not the biggest technological challenge that our industry will face in the next decade. We tend to really celebrate things that are big, right? But I actually think miniaturizing things and getting a supercomputer to fit […] The post Mark Zuckerberg and the metaverse appeared...

Yes, wrapped in clear shrink wrap.  So you can’t page through them and see what the book might be like.  I can think of a few hypotheses: 1. They don’t want you standing in the bookstore reading the thing, rather than buying it.  A bit like some U.S. comics news stands in days past.  Yet […] The post Why do they keep the books...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: First, if you do it right, most of your best meals will be eaten before 3 p.m., sometimes even before 10 a.m. Most “comida popular,” as it is called, is sold in the earlier parts of the work day, as the evening […] The post How to find the best food...

What do you all recommend I do here? I thank you in advance for the kind assistance. The post Monterrey, Mexico bleg appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsYour a foody. Talk to 'Monterey Jack.' Next time, try ... by IrwinRead the travel advisory for Mexico before you go. There is a ... by joanTacos al Compadre by GregPIn reply to Cellador. Cannery Row...

1. New Kalshi prediction markets in beta form. 2. The Austin Vernon blog.  Or better link here. 3. The game theory of the infrastructure bill. 4. Should doctors be on first name terms?  And U.S. rules that Bezos and Branson are not “astronauts.” 5. Using lottery winner results to predict that effects of UBI. 6. […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...