Best of #econtwitter - Week of April 11, 2021 [2/2]
Welcome readers old and new to this week’s edition of Best of Econtwitter. Thanks to those sharing suggestions, over email or on Twitter @just_economics.
This is part two of two, this week — part one is here.
Paper summary threads
Why might firms benefit from pay secrecy among employees?
This theory paper by Marina Halac @ElliotLip & Daniel Rappoport offers some remarkable & humble insights 1/
While my sense is that often standardized tests are less biased than alternatives, that doesn't mean they are free of important biases! Here evidence that money-themed questions negatively affect low SES students' scores
drive.google.com/file/d/1f_H6JC…
^seems completely bonkers, but big if true
How do you post a paper that includes analysis of how #econtwitter users bargain for attention within "clubs" of different "abilities" — and not tweet it, @johnjhorton?
arxiv.org/abs/2104.00834
New @cepr_org working paper by Anagnostopoulos, @eremates, Faraglia & @giannitsarou.
💡 The increase in FDI over the past 3 decades can explain ~1/3 of the rise in the correlation between US and developed country stock markets over the same period.
Chryssi Giannitsarou @giannitsarou
1/ Crowding and Factor Returns (Kang, Rouwenhorst, Tang)
"We construct a direct measure of factor strategy crowding that is based on CFTC aggregate positioning. Crowding measure has a strong negative predictive impact on expected factor returns."
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Federal EITC expansions in the 1990s and in 2009 increased the labor supply of mothers, which increased the taxes households pay and reduced the government transfer payments they receive.
The EITC's short-run net cost is only 17% of the $70 billion annual budgetary cost
You are likely to spend:
- Too much time thinking about small decisions, like which pen to buy.
🖌🖋
- Not enough time thinking about big decisions, like which house to buy.
🏘🏡
But you likely learn from experience.
Just accepted @ Experim. Econ. 1/
ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/6…
What makes a good influencer video ad? In a new working paper joint with Juanjuan Zhang and Yuhan Zhang, we construct and evaluate an algorithm that predicts an influencer video ad’s causal effect on product sales. Link: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… (1/18)
Research on rural Indian labor markets finds evidence of large distortions:
- in lean months, 24% of male workers are rationed out of the market (involuntary employed/self-employed)
- in semi-peak periods, the labor market adjusts quickly to shocks
nber.org/system/files/w…
The Great Italian Divergence!
Why do men monopolise political & managerial positions in the south but less so in the north?
Monica Bozzano points to religiousity, but ofc there's a further question... sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Really interesting new paper on "Sort Selling" describes the residential sorting by political orientation. Homeowners sell their homes and move when their next-door neighbors are affiliated with the opposite party. philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/a…
With a new tool for mapping schools against population, @danrodseg and @brhkim identify how "350 optimally placed schools" in Guatemala would have had the same impact on reducing education deserts as 7,000 schools that were actually built. …7-4b67-b6a9-cd692ccb5e35.filesusr.com/ugd/609103_ed7…
More: lead mandates for old homes, macropru and housing prices; business services marketplace RCT; central bank transparency under incomplete info; teacher grading differences across gender; farmer RCT; female police stations; Norway school shootings
Interesting discussions
Happy birthday to Albert Hirschman, who would be 106 today.
Hirschman—anti-fascist, resistance hero, later a development economist—may be the most interesting person to ever take up the profession.
🧵 and blog post on his remarkable life and work. 1/
oliverwkim.com/Hirschman-Stra…
1) Academic colleagues I otherwise admire have a tendency to, well, *sneer* when the issue of ‘viewpoint’ diversity comes up as below, especially when it comes to conservatives.
I have THOUGHTS and some anecdotes. 🧵
Conor Friedersdorf @conor64
What was Marx actually right about?
Any reason not to treat him as Freud - little lasting scientific value, mostly literary influence?
A serious question.
^interesting replies, e.g. Brad DeLong thread:
@wwwojtekk You asked: <github.com/braddelong/pub…>
Marx the economist was among the very first to recognize that the fever-fits of financial crisis and depression that afflict modern market economies were not a passing phase or something that could be easily cured, but rather a deep... 1/
