~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (554)

To track academic writing over time, The Economist analysed 347,000 PhD abstracts published between 1812 and 2023. The dataset was produced by the British Library and represents a majority of English-language doctoral theses awarded by British universities. We reviewed each abstract using the Flesch reading-ease test, which measures sentence and word length to gauge readability. A score of 100 roughly […] The post Is academic writing getting harder to...

1. AI and management tips. 2. What Sam Enright has been reading. 3. The usefulness of AI hallucinations (NYT). 4. Michael Brendan Dougherty on his ideological migration. 5. o3 and its perception abilities. 6. Ezra Klein on stuff (NYT). 7. Richard Perry, RIP (NYT). 8. The history of FRED (NYT). 9. This Little Babe. The post Christmas assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.        ...

Wishing all our readers a wonderful day and New Year! The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesJefferson’s DOGE (that was then, this is now)Stephan Miran nominated to head the CEAIs Indian food the world’s best? 

The post Merry Christmas from Spinoza! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesRecreating the past isn’t easy (but is possible)My Conversation with the excellent Paula Byrne*A Boy’s Own Story* 

Recommended, interesting and humorous throughout. The post Dwarkesh Patel interviews me at the Progress Studies conference appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesThe new o3 model from OpenAIWhy you should be talking with gpt about philosophyThe epistemics of drone incursions 

No huge surprises here, but it is getting worse yet: Official statistics show Germany’s birth rate fell to 1.35 children per woman in 2023, below the UN’s “ultra-low” threshold of 1.4 — characterising a scenario where falling birth rates become tough to reverse. Estonia and Austria also passed under the 1.4 threshold, joining the nine […] The post EU facts of the day appeared...

1. Why is Trieste doing such a good job at mental health services? (FT) 2. We are losing squirrel mobility.  However Austan Goolsbee cautions us. 3. Claude analyzes this year’s CWTs. 4. More on the new Kiwi cosmology claims. 5. The economics of the Panama Canal. 6. Do all NBA teams play the same way? […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

o1 and o1-pro are a cut above other models at economic history writing. they can combine knowledge of historical facts with economic analysis in a *much* more creative and cogent way than earlier models. it’s not just math and code, folks. Here is the link. The post Dean Ball speaks appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesArtificial Intelligence in the Knowledge EconomyThe importance...

Emily Nussbaum, Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV.  Despite its excellent reviews, I resisted buying this book for a while, because most books on TV are not good.  It is intrinsically difficult to write about the medium, and also many of the people who want to just aren’t that smart.  But the Nussbaum […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

We quantify the aggregate, regional and sectoral impacts of transportation productivity growth on the US economy over the period 1947-2017. Using a multi-region, multi-sector model that explicitly captures produced transportation services as a key input to interregional trade, we find that the calibrated change in transportation productivity had a sizable impact on aggregate welfare, magnified […] The post The importance of transportation for productivity...

New claims about cosmology.  Paper here.  Big if true.  It seems the key innovation is to make time pass at varying speeds in different parts of the galaxy? The post New claims about cosmology appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesJefferson’s DOGE (that was then, this is now)The show so far, DOGE editionIncarceration sentences to ponder 

1. The World Bank is backing mega-dams again. 2. Good review of the new McCartney biography. 3. Syllabi of great stuff. 4. Pick-up truck as Pakistani status symbol. 5. “We’re building Retainit, an AI-powered game for the podcasts you’re already listening to. We’d love to hear whether CWT listeners enjoy this AI-hosted game show for the […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Here is from Wikipedia: Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, John and Beverley Martyn, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, James Booker, 10,000 Maniacs, and Muzsikás. He was also one […] The post What should I ask Joe Boyd?...

Jefferson swiftly undid twelve years of Federalism.  He allowed the Sedition Act to expire and adopted a more catholic naturalization law.  He reduced the federal bureaucracy — small even by today’s standards — particularly in the Treasury Department (a slap at Hamilton, who had been Secretary under Washington), slashing the number of employees by 40 […] The post Jefferson’s DOGE (that was then, this...

By A.N. Wilson, an excellent book and worthy of being addended to the year’s best non-fiction list.  In addition to appreciating the work of Goethe, which one can never do enough of, Wilson argues (with reasonable evidence) that Goethe was bisexual, including with Jacobi (!).  Goethe also had, at the very least, alcoholic tendencies, at […] The post *Goethe: A Faustian Life* appeared first...

Here is Stephen on Twitter, Harvard PhD, mostly he has been in the private sector.  The NYT has further information. Via Jon Hartley. The post Stephen Miran nominated to head the CEA appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesArtificial Intelligence in the Knowledge EconomyThe show so far, DOGE editionAI is Not Slowing Down, Except for Stop Lights 

1. FT lunch with Abhijit Banerjee.  And his new book. 2. It seems Niall Ferguson has converted to Christianity? 3. Irish video warning California about its housing policies. 4. “Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Tanzania, for example, are projected to grow by at least 6%.” 5. All We Imagine as Light is an excellent movie. […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

As you likely know, we have sent money to quite a few different individuals in different countries around the world.  And one thing I have learned is that there really are legitimate payments uses for crypto.  Very often international payments simply do not work that well.  We do not use crypto for this purpose, but […] The post One thing I have learned doing...

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to fundamentally reshape the knowledge economy by solving problems at scale. This paper introduces a framework to study this transformation, incorporating AI into an economy where humans form hierarchical firms: Less knowledgeable individuals become “workers” solving routine problems, while more knowledgeable individuals become “solvers,” assisting workers […] The post Artificial Intelligence in the Knowledge Economy...

Round one is over, and so far no progress and indeed steps backwards: President-elect Donald Trump’s last-minute demands for a congressional funding package were rejected by dozens of Republicans this week, foreshadowing the legislative challenges he could face next year — even with unified GOP control. The Republicans also revealed they are not willing to […] The post The show so far, DOGE edition...

1. Good overview on DOGE. 2. The impact of new products on ethical beliefs. 3. Speculative claims about the new economics of open source AI. 4. BBC interviews me about Milei. 5. Grok rates the top economists on X.  This seems better than AGI, right?  Four of the top tier are GMU-affiliated. 6. A lengthy […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

After 25.3 million fully autonomous miles a new study from Waymo and Swiss Re concludes: [T]he Waymo ADS significantly outperformed both the overall driving population (88% reduction in property damage claims, 92% in bodily injury claims), and outperformed the more stringent latest-generation HDV benchmark (86% reduction in property damage claims and 90% in bodily injury […] The post AI is Not Slowing Down, Except...

My analysis reveals a significant change in political beliefs since being incarcerated. There is an increased effect of changing political beliefs for women and people of color incarcerated. The effect reveals that people of color are becoming, either for the first time or further aligned, with the Republican Party since being incarcerated. That is from […] The post Incarceration sentences to ponder appeared first...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one hypothesis: The NBA has a salary cap, which prevents teams in major markets, such as the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks, from snapping up all the talent.1 An unfortunate side effect it that is harder for all teams to bid for additional […] The post What is wrong with the NBA?...