Best of #econtwitter - Week of December 18, 2022: interesting tweets
Welcome readers old and new to this week’s edition of Best of Econtwitter. Please submit suggestions — very much including your own work! — over email or on Twitter @just_economics.
A slightly different format this week (also, gmail may cut off the email, and you would need to open in the browser to see all tweets). Feedback, as always, is welcome.
Interesting discussions
Saki Bigio@SakiBigio
Epistemological Econ Question: We have many frictionless benchmarks. I.e., Modigliani-Miller, Ricardian Equivalence, Real-Business Cycle, Arrow-Debreu, Wallace, Backus-Kehoe-Kydland, Atkison-Stiglitz, etc. How do you explain the value developing such benchmarks to students?
6:29 PM · Dec 13, 2022
19 Reposts · 164 Likes
Tim Willems@timwillems85
@SakiBigio When deriving those benchmark results, you discover the precise (often narrow) assumptions needed for them to hold — making you more aware of the limitations and setting the stage for subsequent work. Once aware of needed assumptions, you know where you can work to relax them
6:55 PM · Dec 13, 2022
1 Repost · 53 Likes
^other good answers too
Kris Gulati@krisgulati
"[Raising aspirations] is in fact one of the most valuable things you can do with your time and with your life." Tyler Cowen.
10:02 PM · Dec 18, 2022
2 Reposts · 78 Likes
Brian Albrecht@BrianCAlbrecht
The most underrated way to learn economics? YouTube 🎥
No. I don't mean for undergrads. I mean for academics and econ policy nerds!
Here are the best econ channels to learn from:
5:24 PM · Dec 13, 2022
1.55K Reposts · 9.65K Likes
^more; conferences/seminars version
Jennifer Doleac@jenniferdoleac
Important tips from #EconMeToo: (1) save text messages/emails that could be evidence of bad behavior; (2) tell a friend if/when something happens, even if you're not sure you'll ever want to tell anyone else; (3) save a report in @callisto once it expands to all .edu emails.
12:14 AM · Dec 17, 2022
40 Reposts · 136 Likes
Avner Strulov-Shlain@AvnerShlain
Revision rooky mistake story time:
I was lucky to get three positive reviewers who gave very constructive comments. One of the comments highlighted that it is confusing to use two samples of the data in different sections. I agreed, and then...
The Review of Economic Studies @RevEconStudies
``Consumers are left-digit biased, buying as if $3.00 is 22 cent more expensive than $2.99. However, firms underestimate this bias and price heuristically, forgoing profits.''
Check out the new paper accepted by REStud, from @AvnerShlain:
https://t.co/fpDM6ET2AY https://t.co/oHzFnqZDFR
11:51 PM · Dec 15, 2022
6 Reposts · 69 Likes
Joel Waldfogel@JWaldfogel
Since 2000, as income has continued to rise, per capita holiday gift spending has actually fallen. While holiday gift spending remains normal in post-2000 cross-household comparisons, it appears inferior in the national time series. US holiday gift giving is in retreat.
12:11 PM · Dec 17, 2022
3 Reposts · 37 Likes
Public goods
Matt Clancy@mattsclancy
Economics of innovation section!
The slides for the recently concluded 6-week online economics of ideas, science and innovation PhD short course are up here (scroll to schedule section):
progress.institute
Economics of Ideas, Science and Innovation Syllabus - Institute for Progress
6:22 PM · Dec 14, 2022
3 Likes
ChatGPT
Tyler Ransom@tyleransom
As I was grading my final exam for my upper-level undergraduate Economics of Education course, I decided to check how ChatGPT would do on the exam.
Answer: ChatGPT scored a 77%, which was just slightly below the class average.
2:46 AM · Dec 16, 2022
10 Reposts · 65 Likes
Sylvain Catherine@sc_cath
ChatGPT is bad at economics. A few examples:
1⃣ It does not understand Ricardo's 1817's comparative advantage theory. Its view is stuck on Smith's 1776 absolute advantage theory.
5:14 PM · Dec 13, 2022
8 Reposts · 78 Likes
Eli Dourado@elidourado
🤣
2:42 PM · Dec 16, 2022
2 Reposts · 19 Likes
Fin
Florin Bilbiie 🇪🇺 🇺🇦@FlorinBilbiie
"You are an economist? Maybe you can give me some hints about making money."
"Oh no, I am very bad at everything that has to do with money--and that's okay for the kind of economics I do."
"What kind of economics do you do?"
"Monetary economics".
Anton Hilado @anton_hilado
"You do math? You must be good with numbers"
"Oh no, the kind of math I do is different, I don't have to be good with numbers"
"What kind of math do you do?"
"Number theory"
6:47 PM · Dec 16, 2022
24 Reposts · 277 Likes
Yannai A. Gonczarowski @yannai@econtwіtter.net@YannaiGonch
The dirty little secrets you learn about people when you coauthor with them.
7:52 PM · Dec 14, 2022
320 Reposts · 5.26K Likes
anthonyleezhang.eth@AnthonyLeeZhang
Can you think of any pieces of text more useless than issue and page numbers in standard journal citation format
4:48 PM · Dec 12, 2022
1 Repost · 25 Likes