Best of #econtwitter - Week of December 4, 2022 [3/3]
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.
This is part three of three.
Paper summaries
Religious observance is hard to study because it’s hard to measure.
But cell phone data can be used to measure it in Islamic countries: are people on their phones during prayer times?
Brilliant new paper by Oeindrila Dube, @jblumenstock, Michael Callen nber.org/papers/w30694
Religiosity is hard to measure. But my colleague Oeindrila Dube @HarrisPolicy and co-authors @jblumenstock & Michael Kallen cleverly use cellphone data to explore how economic shocks affect religious behaviour. A thread 1/ nber.org/papers/w30694
#EconTwitter #data
You know how the effects of air pollution on [good thing] literature has shockingly large and consistent effects? well econstor.eu/handle/10419/2…
^see discussion in the replies though
Excited to share a study I have been working on with @juhreka13 & our amazing coauthors Emily Oehlsen + @VeronicaCPerezP
We use machine learning to create text-based indices of industrial policy use around the🌍 - something we dont have data on!
osf.io/preprints/soca…
🧵1/N
New #FEDSPaper: How did the pandemic affect retirement behavior? The retired share of the population jumped sharply at the onset of the pandemic and remains elevated well above its pre-pandemic level. federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/t… (1/9)
BS: "Happiness doesn't increase above $75,000"
Truth: "Well-being rises linearly with log income (and doesn't reach a plateau)"
Interesting discussions
As a new journal Editor with high aspirations, would you:
A. largely publish papers that are incremental to a literature and wart free
B. take chances on something with clear warts but is boldly going where others haven't
What is your mixture-when bold/wartless isn't available?
^good discussion in replies
Hey #EconTwitter, I'm giving a presentation about negotiation on the job market!
I'm thinking of centering my opening remarks on:
1) Think of this job as your job for the next 2-10 years (NOT your forever/ACHIEVEMENT DEFINING job; see DiNardo late 201X)
... (cont'd)
AERE @AereOrg
^good replies. cf: “To the people going on the market. If you're thinking of having children during the tenure track, assume proximity to grandparents is worth $30k in salary and $30K in research support a year. It's actually much more, but if I said the real figure you wouldn't believe me”. Also:
In a month or so JM candidates will start to get offers, and some will be so fortunate as to have multiple offers to chose from. One fun thing you can discretely enquire about it whether any woman academic got tenured at the department while having kids on the TT.
It is of course one of the sad reality of academia that most students will make one of the most consequential decisions of their life based on largely irrelevant metrics like salary and repec ranking.
^🤔
Editing/revising a paper with a 3+ person research team can be really hard.
You get conflicting suggestions. It takes a long time.
With experience I have some general suggestions to improve the process. Esp for junior scholars who, honestly, do most of the editing.
Now accepting proposals and offering co-authorship to anyone who wants to take all of my 90% completed projects and carry them through the finish line.
My sense is that there is a serious, unexploited market for academic closers.
