Best of #econtwitter - Week of February 27, 2022
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.
Apologies for the late edition this week!
Paper summary threads
Thread from the locked account of pseudonymous @Pseudoerasmus on The Economic Effects of the English Parliamentary Enclosures. “The HRV paper is very low-key about what it’s doing, but surely it is the most important intervention in British agrarian history since Allen’s 1992 Enclosure & the Yeoman.”

Proud to see this in @JPubEcon.
Tim, Bill and I started working on two papers about long run effects of crack cocaine markets when I was in graduate school.
This published paper is a testament to both silly process and to persistence.
This topic is really important (1/6)

Journal of Public Economics @JPubEcon

A thread on “Volatility Expectations and Returns” w Lars Lochstoer
There’s lots of work on agents expectations of returns or cash flows, but lot less on how they perceive risk. Perception of risk obviously very important for asset pricing! https://t.co/zYaFsoFwRH

Journal of Finance @JofFinance

Good paper finding that an air quality warning system in South Korea massively passed a cost-benefit test just based on day-of healthcare costs, not to mention any actual health or longer term benefits: nber.org/papers/w29637





How do financial sanctions (FS) in the criminal justice system affect long-term labor and criminal outcomes and household spillovers? Joint work Keith Finlay, Matthew Gross, and Elizabeth Luh. A thread🧵 1/12


A randomized experiment in Oklahoma County took a group of people convicted of misdemeanors. The treatment group had all their past and current county debt paid off. What happens when your debt is relieved? 2/9

למי שמתעניינ\ת- מציע תקציר של המאמר המשותף עם פרופסור ויקטור לביא על ההשפעה של תוכניות מחוננים בבתי הספר התיכונים בישראל. המאמר ארוך וכולל הרבה ניתוחים. אנסה לתמצת. מי שרוצה להעמיק מוזמנ\ת לקרוא עוד במאמר ו/או לשאול :) שרשור 1/14

NBER @nberpubs

Using five new population-representative data sources, I find—again and again—that gay men achieve stunning academic success.
I show, for example, that if America’s gay men formed their own country, that country would be the world’s most highly educated by far.

El indice de incertidumbre mundial actualizado hasta el tercer trimestre del 2021.
Los datos: worlduncertaintyindex.com/data/
Paper: nber.org/papers/w29763




Do highly publicized police killings of civilians (eg Ferguson) have an effect on policing?
An analysis of St. Louis and a multi-city analysis of 60 large U.S. cities suggest "yes."
High-profile killings during 2014-2016 in the U.S. led to fewer police activities and arrests.



@ConBerd, Bryan Dowd, and I have a new piece out at @JPubEcon
Sources of Inertia in Health Plan Choice in the Individual Health Insurance Market
doi.org/10.1016/j.jpub…
@PittHpm @PittCP3 @HPM_PittPubHlth @PennStateEcon @PublicHealthUMN @CoveredCA 1/10
More: cyclicality of nonprofits; effect of building the (Great) wall; “fake news” is fake news
Public goods

New package announcement!
Estimation and inference in synthetic controls. Uncertainty around synthetic controls is a tough problem, and active area, so hopefully this will help applied people. Stata, R, Python.
nppackages.github.io/scpi/
#EconTwitter #causaltwitter
Interesting discussions

Around this day, 2 years ago, I gave my last in-person econ seminar.
Since then, I have had dozens of virtual seminars presentations and conferences, and hundreds of meetings with co-authors over Zoom.
As I reflect on this time period here are some takeaways. 🧵
#EconTwitter

Strategic exploding reasons to potential students/APs are shockingly unethical. AEA/dept chairs should publicly encourage people affected to accept then renege later if better offer. Otherwise markets unravel like in many other fields. Btw, virtual AEA is partly the cause...

Claudio Ferraz @claudferraz

hi #econtwitter - do you like writing lit reviews? me neither! a brief thread for on how I conduct a #betterlitreview using ConnectedPapers, Zotero, and LaTeX (+ Word!!) [1/n]

^“He should do one of those “how to think like an economist” books but focused on warlording”