Best of #econtwitter - Week of April 17, 2022 [2/4]

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 four.

Paper summary threads

Saksham Khosla @khoslasaksham

Can mobile phones save lives? New research shows that a 10 percentage point increase in mobile coverage across Africa was linked to a 0.45 percentage point decrease in infant mortality, driven by an increase in health knowledge and healthcare utilisation.

Alexander Berger @albrgr

These RCTs on cell phone access find unbelievably huge income effects: ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2… jblumenstock.com/files/papers/j…

devcroix ⚔️ 🏵 @devarbol

Underlying data:

Gordon McCord @gcmccord

(1/12) Delighted to share new paper co-authored with @EconBluhm, exploring small scale relationship between economic activity and #nightlights. Many studies implicitly assume linear relationship, unlikely at small geographies (image shows US counties) mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/5…

Fernando Saltiel @FernandoSaltiel

Glad our paper with @surzua_chile and @KaplanEthan is out in the AEJ! Does voting in important elections early in life affect long-term turnout? Turning 18 before the 1988 Plebiscite led to higher electoral turnout by 6-10% in 2013-2017 v. those who turned 18 right after.

AEA Journals @AEAjournals

Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "Voting for Democracy: Chile's Plebiscito and the Electoral Participation of a Generation" by Ethan Kaplan, Fernando Saltiel, and Sergio Urzúa. https://t.co/mJVvj5OAwq

Masha Titova @mariatitova

Have (or love) an applied Bayesian persuasion paper but hate the full commitment assumption? I’ve got great news for you: you don’t need it — 1/🧵 (link: maria-titova.com/papers/PVI-tit…) 

Michela Giorcelli @M_Giorcelli

Thanks @dkedrosky for a great summary of my work on the long-term effects of management training in Italy under the Marshall Plan. Firms whose managers visited US plants had a gain in productivity that lasted for at least 15 years after the intervention.

Davis Kedrosky @dkedrosky

Finished reading an important paper by Michela Giorcelli: "The Long-Term Effects of Management and Technology Transfers" (2019). She finds that firms receiving management training and new machines under the Marshall Plan increased long-run sales, profits, employment, and exports. https://t.co/GzeqdITjnr

Interesting discussions

Dr. Chloe N. East (she/her) @ChloeNEast

Very proud of this visual guide I created to explain different scenarios & associated problems based on the DiD literature, so thought I’d share here in case it’s helpful!

Dr. Chloe N. East (she/her) @ChloeNEast

I'm teaching @agoodmanbacon's seminar DD paper in my grad class today. At this point this paper feels like an old friend I have a toxic relationship with. I overall like spending time with them but every once a while they hurt me. https://t.co/8HjWCKDqcR

Josh Dean @josh_t_dean

Correlational/Causal claim Turing test: If you're not willing to flip the order of your "association" (e.g. Heart Attacks predict consuming avocados), you're making an implicitly casual claim and should either knock it off or be up front about it.

Austan Goolsbee @Austan_Goolsbee

Or is it the other way around?? https://t.co/bLOHO3Uw7G

John List @Econ_4_Everyone

Generalize neoclassical economics enough and you have behavioral economics

Nick HK @nickchk

The concept of businesses that make very little money from their main draw and instead profit from an associated good is not, like, an economics mystery, but it's so common now that it should probably be a principles of micro standard. I talk about it in my class. Do you?

Nick HK @nickchk

"private individuals will underprovide public goods" oh what, student, are you saying that you very naturally see this as contradicting the existence of the internet, the thing you spend your life on? Oh, well, uh, I promise we thought about it but I didn't tell you

Shengwu Li @ShengwuLi

I wasn't expecting a webcomic that would cut this deep. Bravo, @ZachWeiner. smbc-comics.com/comic/liberal-…