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Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 15, 2023: interesting tweets

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Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 15, 2023: interesting tweets

Jan 17, 2023
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Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 15, 2023: interesting tweets

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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.

Massive negative TFP shock for newsletter writing this week, thanks to the shutdown that Joshua Gans describes here:

Twitter avatar for @joshgans
Joshua Gans @joshgans
Twitter shutting off its API to other apps without warning is unconscionable. Having never used the main Twitter app, it is impossible to replicate my use-flow that I had in Tweetbots. I now get why some people didn’t think moving to Mastodon was a problem.
1:32 PM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
64Likes37Retweets

As always, submissions welcome, if things are missing from the newsletter. Still a lot of juicy content below, though!

First-year macro

Twitter avatar for @JonSteinsson
Jon Steinsson @JonSteinsson
I just heard that 1st year PhD students in Econ at MIT no longer need to take a full year of macro. This should be a wakeup call for macro, lest this turn into a new trend. Some (perhaps controversial) thoughts. 1/
4:53 PM ∙ Jan 12, 2023
1,385Likes188Retweets

^prompted lots of discussion. Specifically: “you can skip 2 of the 14 ‘core’ courses. Doesn’t have to be macro” (more)

Twitter avatar for @ben_golub
Ben Golub 🇺🇦 @ben_golub
I think this is actually an amazing feature of economics, and should continue. There are huge returns to the cohesive disciplinary identity that this fosters.
Twitter avatar for @instrumenthull
Peter Hull @instrumenthull
I don't have anything smart to say about what macro stuff people should learn but man it's strange that there's usually only a single curriculum for all econ PhD students in the first year, regardless of research interests
4:17 AM ∙ Jan 13, 2023
180Likes7Retweets

^correlationally, it’s interesting that more unified fields seem more successful (e.g. econ vs. psychology). Of course causality also goes the other direction, but

Twitter avatar for @pontus_rendahl
Pontus Rendahl @pontus_rendahl
One thing that I notice amongst my non-macro colleagues (and sometime even the macro ones 😱) is how ingrained partial equilibrium reasoning is. Just things like Ricardian equivalence etc is not well understood, or doesn’t come naturally https://t.co/SOd1fVccC3
Twitter avatar for @JonSteinsson
Jon Steinsson @JonSteinsson
I just heard that 1st year PhD students in Econ at MIT no longer need to take a full year of macro. This should be a wakeup call for macro, lest this turn into a new trend. Some (perhaps controversial) thoughts. 1/
7:11 AM ∙ Jan 13, 2023
87Likes13Retweets
Twitter avatar for @UpdatedPriors
Ryan Decker @UpdatedPriors
People are talking about dropping macro classes. But this week's big policy discussion involved simple extrapolation of micro empirical estimates to aggregate quantities.
1:43 PM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
Twitter avatar for @joachim_voth
Joachim Voth @joachim_voth
@JonSteinsson Tbh Jon, almost all of those arguments could be made for having compulsory echist in the first year, too…
10:47 PM ∙ Jan 12, 2023
Twitter avatar for @JonSteinsson
Jon Steinsson @JonSteinsson
@joachim_voth At Berkeley we do. :)
10:59 PM ∙ Jan 12, 2023

^also, in particular, how about IO methods?

Twitter avatar for @PierfrancescMei
Pierfrancesco Mei @PierfrancescMei
@JonSteinsson Great thread, thank you! A few thoughts. I think the structure of 1st year syllabi in many schools still reflect a time when students started grad school with less tools than now. The focus was on techniques. 1/n
12:58 AM ∙ Jan 13, 2023
Twitter avatar for @BachmannRudi
Rudi Bachmann @BachmannRudi
. @tylercowen is in the pro macro in first year camp but advises: “That all said, I would make macro sequences “more practical,” more about economic growth, more about economic history, and less about dynamic programming than is often currently the case.”
Twitter avatar for @MargRev
Marginal Revolution @MargRev
Why I think graduate programs should keep macro in the first-year sequence https://t.co/hh5YwTM9V9
6:25 PM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
20Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @EmilyNix100
Emily Nix @EmilyNix100
Very thoughtful thread. My controversial opinion: a) I eventually came to appreciate macro-labor after 1st-year core. So room for improvement to be more relevant across fields, but... b) Macro/micro shouldn't be required over labor/other equally important fields. [1/3]
Twitter avatar for @JonSteinsson
Jon Steinsson @JonSteinsson
I just heard that 1st year PhD students in Econ at MIT no longer need to take a full year of macro. This should be a wakeup call for macro, lest this turn into a new trend. Some (perhaps controversial) thoughts. 1/
6:45 PM ∙ Jan 12, 2023
45Likes2Retweets

This discussion also all comes in the aftermath of a discussion (also prompted by Steinsson) on gender diversity in macro:

Twitter avatar for @Afinetheorem
Kevin Bryan @Afinetheorem
The ratio here is crazy, but the cause is less evident. I pointed out this pattern in a paper in Econ Inquiry (kevinbryanecon.com/YoungStars.pdf) a few years ago, but there is a *huge* difference in field choice and in prep between US/Can/UK/Australia candidates and the rest.
Twitter avatar for @JonSteinsson
Jon Steinsson @JonSteinsson
Macro is really awful on gender diversity. In top 10 econ departments there are 68 men in macro and only 7 women. Ratio is lower for juniors than seniors: 18 junior men, versus 1 junior woman.
6:56 AM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
11Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @Afinetheorem
Kevin Bryan @Afinetheorem
This year, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Chicago, Pton, Stanford, Cal, NW, Columbia, LSE, Penn have 54 candidates self-identified w/ macro as primary or secondary field. 14 are women. ONE is a US/Can/UK citizen, and even her main field and job market paper is structural labor.
6:56 AM ∙ Jan 14, 2023

---

Twitter avatar for @ben_golub
Ben Golub 🇺🇦 @ben_golub
Tfw you didn't take a core macroeconomics course
Twitter avatar for @YannaiGonch
Yannai A. Gonczarowski @yannai@econtwіtter.net @YannaiGonch
Picking out decorations with @EleeShimshoni for our kid's birthday party. The seller told us the price of balloons doesn't include #inflation and that we have to pay for #inflation separately. Took me a moment to understand what he meant. https://t.co/KImTVC89kH
11:15 PM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
46Likes4Retweets

Interesting tweets

Twitter avatar for @ShengwuLi
Shengwu Li @ShengwuLi
In the past, I've had students call my problem sets "emotionally trying". (These are for 2nd-year PhD game theory.) This year I'm going to explain myself and set clearer expectations.
Image
2:54 PM ∙ Jan 15, 2023
1,608Likes138Retweets
Twitter avatar for @bradchattergoon
Brad Chattergoon @bradchattergoon
Good on SL for setting expectations but I also want to comment a bit. If research is all about being comfortable with uncertainty, we have an adverse selection problem. I went through undergrad with this “comfort with uncertainty, just try things out” mentality and it hurt me. 1/ https://t.co/wngISGgP7O
Twitter avatar for @ShengwuLi
Shengwu Li @ShengwuLi
In the past, I've had students call my problem sets "emotionally trying". (These are for 2nd-year PhD game theory.) This year I'm going to explain myself and set clearer expectations. https://t.co/ubGqdES1qh
9:56 PM ∙ Jan 16, 2023
24Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @ShengwuLi
Shengwu Li @ShengwuLi
@bradchattergoon I agree. The problem is that research requires both technical skill and ability to deal with uncertainty. And one of these is easily measured (grades), while the other is, if anything, mildly decreasing in grades.
10:00 PM ∙ Jan 16, 2023
Twitter avatar for @paulgp
Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp
Changes to my metrics syllabus for this year: 1. Adding another day of diff-in-diff. At least in finance, it's pretty obvious that this is the dominant empirical paradigm and there's value in spending more time /1
3:58 PM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
249Likes15Retweets
Twitter avatar for @florianederer
Florian Ederer @florianederer
This is the first time I've ever seen a formal retraction in economics. Kudos to the authors for being so intellectually honest!
academic.oup.comRetraction of: Growing up in a RecessionThis is a retraction of: Paola Giuliano, Antonio Spilimbergo, Growing up in a Recession, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 81, Issue 2, April 2014, Pages 7
9:54 AM ∙ Jan 11, 2023
721Likes99Retweets

^not actually the first, but

Twitter avatar for @JeffreyRMillman
Jeffrey Millman @JeffreyRMillman
WashU just emailed about the use of AI in coursework
Image
4:03 PM ∙ Jan 10, 2023
1,234Likes141Retweets

^NYT had a full article on this phenomenon yesterday

Twitter avatar for @darbysaxbe
Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe
This weekend, my lab tried a new experiment: we wrote a paper in one day! Inspired by @JnfrLTackett, we blocked out a whole Sunday, & in <8 hours, we cranked out a surprisingly decent full-length draft. Plus, we had fun, ate a lot of snacks, & fit in a Starbucks run. Here's how!
Image
7:24 PM ∙ Jan 11, 2023
1,250Likes67Retweets

^obviously couldn’t work for every field/every project, but…

Twitter avatar for @giacomo_rubbini
Giacomo Rubbini @giacomo_rubbini
What advice would #EconTwitter give to prospective PhD students evaluating their offers?
11:53 AM ∙ Jan 14, 2023
36Likes3Retweets
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Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 15, 2023: interesting tweets

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