Best of #econtwitter - Week of February 14, 2021
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.
Paper summary threads
![Twitter avatar for @kevin_volpp](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/kevin_volpp.jpg)
An increase of 33.6% in out-of-pocket price (11.0 percentage points (p.p.) change in coinsurance, or $10.40 per drug) causes a 22.6% drop in total drug consumption ($61.20), and a 32.7% increase in monthly mortality (0.048 p.p.) due to to cutbacks in statins and antihypertensives
![Twitter avatar for @amitabhchandra2](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/amitabhchandra2.jpg)
Amitabh Chandra @amitabhchandra2
^and:
![Twitter avatar for @amitabhchandra2](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/amitabhchandra2.jpg)
Why did other studies did not detect mortality?
To measure a 10% increase in mortality when baseline risk of mortality is 1%, need to randomize 325,000 patients. Oregon treatment group was 9,000 patients; RAND randomized ~5,500 patients; typical physicians has ~1500 patients
^also: related paper on cost-sharing in MRIs
![Twitter avatar for @JakeVigdor](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/JakeVigdor.jpg)
For the small number of people who are not totally sick of #minimumwage threads, let me walk you through some of the @UW team's findings for #Seattle now that they've cleared peer review (conditionally accepted, AEJ:EP).
A lot of them are packed into this one picture.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEt16n3mUUAMqfpK.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ChrisSeveren](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ChrisSeveren.jpg)
We show that (1) teen exposure to the 1970s oil crises decreases later life driving, and (2) this is a general phenomenon (using all state-year gas price variation from 1966-2010).
This picture sums it up ('70s oil crises in red, driving behavior in **year 2000** on y-axis):
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtzfLMrXIAUSIk6.png)
![Twitter avatar for @florianederer](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/florianederer.jpg)
The latest and greatest job market strategy is to be beautiful.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtyFl3DXUAERCnu.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtyFmEjXYAMpyS-.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtyFmO6WQAIKbu2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @galinahale_ucsc](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/galinahale_ucsc.jpg)
Galina Hale @galinahale_ucsc
^lots of discussion (eg) since everyone loves navel-gazing. Obviously (“obviously”?), this evidence is correlational
![Twitter avatar for @jonmummolo](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/jonmummolo.jpg)
So what do we find? In short, when facing similar civilians in comparable places and times, officers from marginalized groups engage in much less enforcement activity & violence than their white and male counterparts. 6/
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEt95hVsWYAc1ehK.jpg)
^see also: testing the Becker model of discrimination
![Twitter avatar for @simon_jaeger](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/simon_jaeger.jpg)
New working paper on causal effects of codetermination: "Voice at Work". @jarkko_harju, @Schoefer_B and I study the 1991 introduction of a worker right to shared governance in Finnish firms with 150+ employees. economics.mit.edu/files/21196
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEuHsNp2XMAYhFZG.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEuHsZoQXcAEcZny.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @aakaash_rao](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/aakaash_rao.jpg)
Excited to post a new paper on the effects of long-run contact on attitudes, political preferences, and altruism!
Joint work with the fantastic Leo Bursztyn, Thomas Chaney, and Tarek Hassan.
bit.ly/3cVrtQy (1/11)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F04d53b8c-9608-4857-8887-08ac28063b4d_160x160.png)
![Twitter avatar for @deaneckles](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/deaneckles.jpg)
We often say that networks exhibit homophily in that similar people are more likely to be connected.
But how much of this is actually "love of the same" — preferences for forming ties with similar others?
New experimental evidence of partisan homophily:
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtz1uWbWgAMXNsD.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @DanieleGirardi_](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/DanieleGirardi_.jpg)
Our work (w/ @RaphaelGouvea_ ) on the politics of municipal budgets in Brazil is now online at JDE.
We find that left-wing mayors don't increase the size of the city government. They do try raise the share of social spending, but face constraints.
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
[1/6]
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEt-MAYBWgAArJIg.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @arpitrage](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/arpitrage.jpg)
Maybe laptops aren't so bad in class after all
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtv3lf2WgAE2-Z6.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEtv3pg4XMAIiiCs.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @Paul__Bruno](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/Paul__Bruno.jpg)
Paul Bruno @Paul__Bruno
More: model of automation and inequality; licensing transistors; informational interventions as salience effects?; ag subsidies; euro asset purchases; social security solvency and adaptive learning
Public goods
![Twitter avatar for @NoDumbEconQs](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/NoDumbEconQs.jpg)
A very non-scientific experiment to try to offer information to the people who need it. Have a question you wish you knew the answer to, but you're afraid of asking on #EconTwitter? Let me ask for you.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff0bb42e9-2a6a-4f5b-9156-6e650d1f0dc4_1200x630.png)
![Twitter avatar for @paulnovosad](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/paulnovosad.jpg)
📢📢Trying something new: Instead of waiting 10 years until our judicial bias paper publishes, we are posting the public data RIGHT AWAY.
80 million cases, 80k judges, the near universe of Indian lower court cases from 2010–2018. 🧵 1/5
Details: devdatalab.medium.com/big-data-for-j…
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff501f30-a989-4e44-a158-1a9d065d8e3f_960x955.png)
Interesting discussions
![Twitter avatar for @paulnovosad](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/paulnovosad.jpg)
1. Authors post their replication repos
2. Grad students can try to download and replicate
3. If they succeed, the journal puts a *replicated* emoji on the article, credits the grad student.
4. Authors develop reputations for having replicable papers.
20/N
![Twitter avatar for @Jabaluck](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/Jabaluck.jpg)
A critical error that I see many grad students make: they try to estimate Frankenstein's model. Rather than viewing a model as answering a research question, they view a model as an arbitrary hodgepodge of models they learned about in their classes.
![Twitter avatar for @FedericoHuneeus](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/FedericoHuneeus.jpg)
I've completed a couple of years of doing referee reports and I admit that it would be great if editors provide brief feedback to the reviewers of how useful the report was for their decision (other than inferring it from the decision letter). Does this happen in any journal?
![Twitter avatar for @ashdgandhi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ashdgandhi.jpg)
I've seen surprisingly little #EconTwitter advice for second years, so here's a short thread with three pieces of advice I found helpful when reading papers to prepare for field exams. [1/4]
![Twitter avatar for @datacrat](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/datacrat.jpg)
Dear #EconTwitter,
Are there papers that estimate how much top-five publications affect your career as an economist (how many top fields = 1 top five)?
Thank you!!
![Twitter avatar for @EmilyNix100](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/EmilyNix100.jpg)
@JaminSpeer @datacrat It is insane that this is the approach. For example, AEJ Applied has a lower acceptance rate than AER. I would bet lots of money there is wild variability in acceptance rates across fields at T5. And yet, we tend not to think carefully about these facts and what they imply. [1/n]