Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 8, 2023: paper summaries
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Best of #econtwitter - Week of January 8, 2023: paper summaries
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.
A slightly different format this week (also, gmail may cut off the email, and you would need to open in the browser to see all tweets). Feedback, as always, is welcome.
Park-Leahey-Funk (2023)
OK. I have spent much of the week finally sinking my teeth into this paper. It's really well written and convincing. But the headline result as cast a shadow over some nuances that the authors talk about but have been ignored in the commentary.
Max Kozlov 🇺🇦 @maxdkozlov
...and in some specifications, journal effects. Also I have limited myself to original work (I dropped reviews, letters, editorials, etc.). See below. /4
^“a 5% decline in the index over 50+ years is maybe a bit less than earth shattering”
“this thread is too good for twitter” writes Matt Clancy, before dropping this:
No single social science paper is decisive, but I really like this one. Seen in conjunction with other papers using a variety of methods, I think the case is strong that something troubling is afoot in science. Thread (references at the end).
The paper’s main contribution is to show papers and patents have become less disruptive on average. Disruption is measured with citations: you’re disruptive if people who cite you don’t cite your own references (you rendered your forebears obsolete).
^lots of graphs
Paper summaries
I save long-run figures I like and here are some of my favorites from 2022.
The child income penalty for mothers has declined since the 1970s
by Henrik Kleven henrikkleven.com/uploads/3/7/3/…
^thread of figures
New post! It’s about the kind of discoveries and inventions more likely to come from younger and older scientists and inventors. Thread
🚨WP 🚨 Traditional communal land-use systems that lack private land ownership & documentation are common in low-income countries.❓How such systems affect aggregate productivity & allocation of resources, especially when other markets are imperfect❓
CEPR @cepr_org
The short summary: Better to estimate program impacts within a structural model and simulate alternate policies rather than just run occasional, large, inflexible experiments and focus on the very local average treatment effect.
100% agree but there’s a HUGE limitation to this.
Giuseppe Cavaliere @CavaliereGiu
^specifically: “For many social phenomena, we don’t have a tractable model to estimate”
An exogenous 22% increase in sugar intake in early life drives a 52% increase in adult diabetes and an 18% drop in post-secondary education.
From a regression discontinuity design exploiting sugar rationing in the post-WWII United Kingdom.
nber.org/system/files/w…
^the instrument here is “being born in 1950-53” vs. “being born in 1955-58”: 🤔
@Chris_Said @albrgr I don't believe the "18% drop in post-secondary education.".
This would effectively imply brain damage from sugar consumption, which doesn't match w/ reality of rising IQ scores / edu attainment at same time as sugar consumption increases.
^🥴
Just landed in NOLA for #ASSA2023! Have work you think would interest Economist readers? I'd love to chat. DMs open.
I'll also be presenting newly updated work with @I_Am_NickBloom showing the persistence of the #DonutEffect in big cities worldwide. A few key results: 1/
More papers
About 1 out of every 5 child care workers in the U.S. is an immigrant.
Do immigration enforcement policies have downstream implications for the child care market?
I'm excited to share my new WP w/ @JHB_econ & @Umair_at_ASU, which studies this question.
iza.org/publications/d…
✨I could not be happier that my paper w/ @RitaGinja on the health effects of #Seguro #Popular in #Mexico is out! 🥳
👶🏽Who benefit?”The decline in infant mortality rate caused by SP closed nearly all of the infant mortality rate gap between poor and rich municipalities.”
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
Rita Ginja @RitaGinja
Every year, poor road quality causes more than $100 billion in expenses due to blown tires, broken axles, and battered shock absorbers. But how is an essential public good like road quality distributed? Andrea Vallebueno Aimar and I investigate, finding surprising results.
First WP with @ebert_cara and @berndbeber!
How does information on regional income differentials affect migration intentions and destination preferences?
More details 👇
docs.iza.org/dp15826.pdf
A number of cool papers in first week of 2023! In JEEA, Zhuang presents evidence of underreporting of corruption scandals in Chinese media, particularly of those involving (well-connected) local officials (same city in graph below)
academic.oup.com/jeea/article/2…
Policymakers emphasize the role of information about CO2 emissions in combating #ClimateChange.
But by how much does such information change consumers' behavior?
The answer in my new paper, with Taisuke Imai, @schwardmann , and @JoelvdWeele.
Link: bit.ly/CO2InfoWP
1/N👇
Ron Alquist, @DiltsStedman, and I recently released a new version of our paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
We show the use of the USD as reserves exposes US money markets to foreign countries' net export shocks, providing a role for the Fed as "central banker to the world."
1/14
Denmark has one the highest level of fiscal redistribution in the world. Does it show in the data? A 🧵on: Inequality and Dynamics of Earnings and Disposable Income in Denmark 1987-2016
By Søren Leth-Petersen and Johan Sæverud
doi.org/10.3982/QE1843
