Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 16, 2022 [2/3]
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.
This is part two of three. Part one is here and part three is here.
Paper summary threads
Paper analyzes editor decisions and reviewer recs at JHR to analyze how match and connectivity between author/editor and author/referee affects decisions of about 8,000 papers.
Given very rich data they’re able to use a very restrictive specification: editor FE (comparing across decisions by the same editor), referee FE (comparing across papers refereed by the same person), paper FE (comparing across multiple referees for same paper).
They find significant evidence of matching. For editors: authors w/links to editor via same PhD institution, past employment (previously colleagues), shared NBER affiliation, shared coauthors significantly less likely to be desk-rejected.
For reviewers: same PhD and previously colleagues more likely to receive positive assessment, relationship for NBER is imprecise; not too much evidence of positive effect of shared coauthors (degrees of separation)
^positive not normative analysis of course
Empirical macroeconomics:
🔹in 1980: 75% Time series analysis, 25% Applied micro methods
🔹in 2018: 35% Time series analysis, 65% Applied micro methods
Macroeconomic Research, Present and Past: nber.org/papers/w29628 by @pjglandon, @smazumder1 et al.
Forthcoming in JEL
The evolution of top-50 keywords in edtech research over the last 20 years.
Field macroscopes are fascinating. I feel a bit like I'm looking at Robert Hooke's astounding image of a flea. I don't quite know what I'm looking at, but there's something interesting there.
Stefania Druga @Stefania_druga
Conclusion is both "better teaching" and "grade leniency" stories are 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜.
Or at least, they don't explain the relationship. Instead student evaluations seem to just measure how satisfied students are with the grade they got, regardless of why.
The double standard in punishing misconduct:
🔹Women are punished more severly than men.
🔹Ethnic minority men are punished more severly than other men.
Evidence from the financial advisory industry: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/71… by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, and Amit Seru
Studying economics reduces the risk of getting into financial problems:
🔹risk of loan default is 50% lower in the long run
🔹reduction is associated with change in financial behavior, not with change in income
Causal evidence from 🇩🇰: econ.ku.dk/cebi/publikati… by @KBHvidberg
Public goods
A couple years ago I asked #EconTwitter about small grants for graduate students. People commented and I made a spreadsheet.
I have updated that spreadsheet, and invite people to comment with additions or changes (this is all a work in progress):
I’ve been using #AnnotatedEquations in my recent papers. I think it really adds to the readability and understanding of the math.
Here are some examples. It uses #tikz in #latex.
Let me know if you like it. Happy for any feedback. [GitHub link: next tweet]
#AcademicChatter
+
This website rewrites your abstract so a 2nd grader can understand it. It is just excellent:
tldrpapers.com
Interesting discussions
Solid advice on how to write a better statement of purpose for PhD applications. Should be relevant for Econ or Econ-adjacent fields #AcademicChatter #EconTwitter #phdchat
Chris Blattman @cblatts
New blog post with a suggested timeline for those planning on going to the econ job market next year, backward-induction style! Quick summary below.
#EconTwitter: what are the things you wish you had known earlier in grad school to navigate this (complicated) moment? I am teaching PhD in two weeks and my first lecture will be just about how to deal with / behave in grad schools, stay mentally healthy, etc.
