Best of #econtwitter - Week of December 27, 2020
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.
Light(er) holiday week edition!
Paper summary threads
I’m very excited to share some new work, with @SpencerPiston, @EGolberstein, @sarahgollust, and @DanielEis7, out today in @PNASNews: College roommates have a modest but significant influence on each other’s political ideology pnas.org/content/early/…
1/
^“the overall sample was slightly more conservative after 1 year of college than it was before”?
Really interesting paper by Billings, @EricChyn @k_haggag.
AEA Journals @AEAjournals
Sneak Peek 👀 Coeducation led to a decrease in the proportion of women majoring in STEM fields. We find No evidence of selection or role model effects.
New paper at the JPE: students make really important long-term decisions without very much information about the earnings of different careers, which we should probably give them (even if students also value non-pecuniary aspects of careers)
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/71…
We spent years collecting news on murdered environmentalists across the globe.
AND coding the multinationals whose projects were involved in these assassinations.
Our new study w/ @DKreitmeir & @PaulRaschky explores how markets respond to high-profile human rights abuse. 1/N
The punchline: allowing an additional competitor in Rwanda’s mobile phone system earlier could have reduced prices and increased incentives to invest in rural towers, increasing welfare by the equivalent of 1% of GDP. (2/15)
New WP! Where Does Wealth Come From?
Important ? to consider when thinking about inequality.
(w/Devereux, @FannyLandaud, and Salvanes)
If two people have same income but different spending (and hence different wealth) is that an unequal society?
Including transfers and using post-tax income increases the income share of the bottom half of the distribution and offsets the declines in their market income since 1989 (5/10)
^compare with Piketty-Saez-Zucman
Very interesting new evidence that sector-focused training programs generate large & persistent earnings gains (11 to 40%!) by getting workers into higher-wage sectors, from @lkatz42 @jondr44, Richard Hendra, & Kelsey Schaberg @nberpubs.
Lawrence Katz @lkatz42
The Ph.D. Origins of Economics Faculty: edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/… by @toddrjones and Arielle Sloan
Least diverse: Harvard and MIT, where 60% of faculty holds a PhD from Harvard or MIT
More diverse: Yale and Chicago, where more than a third comes from programs outside of the top
Just posted a new working paper, with @metrics52, @prof_parag, and @c_r_walt
It’s called “Simple and Credible Value-Added Estimation Using Centralized School Assignment”
bit.ly/2WLeFmF
Here's a short summary thread 👇
New draft paper: "Does Affective Polarization Undermine Democratic Norms or Accountability? Maybe Not" (w/ @j_kalla & @seanjwestwood)
Would love comments! Draft is here: osf.io/9btsq/.
For those who want a quick summary, a thread... 🧵 (1/n)
Job market papers
New (job market) paper: Quasi-experimental and structural analysis of novel administrative data shows that broadening public university access for lower-testing students can promote economic mobility without efficiency losses. A thread. zacharybleemer.com/wp-content/upl… #EconTwitter
