Best of #econtwitter - Week of July 26, 2020

Jul 27, 2020

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Best of Econtwitter. Recommendations always welcome over email or on Twitter @just_economics.

New papers

Jeff Denning @JeffDenning

We've updated our working paper "Why Have College Graduation Rates Increased?" with @EricEide1 @merrilldub and two new coauthors @KJMumford and @Richwpatt We have added some evidence on why GPAs are increasing edworkingpapers.com/ai20-77

Natasha Sarin @NatashaRSarin

In a new NBER WP out today, @LHSummers and I estimate that investment in tax compliance can generate over $1T in the next decade. NBER: nber.org/papers/w27571.… A version is also out in Tax Notes today: taxnotes.com/tax-notes-toda…

Ryan Edwards @ryanbedwards

New paper alert! 🚨🎉 Fight fire with finance: a randomized field experiment to curtail land-clearing fire in Indonesia w/ Wally Falcon, Grace Hadiwidjaja, Matt Higgins, Roz Naylor and Sudarno Sumarto @FoodSecurity_SU @tnp2k @SMERUInstitute Paper: bit.ly/30ATmWc

Kimberly Clausing @KClausing

(1/9) How to make a more equitable globalization? The tax system is essential. Of late, the labor share of income has fallen, yet capital is difficult to tax due to its international mobility. In a new draft, @gabriel_zucman, Emmanuel Saez and I propose a coordinated minimum tax.

Matthias Doepke @mdoepke

The impact of the Covid-19 recession on women's employment is unlike any other in history. In a new paper with @janeor_econ, @TertiltMichele, and @TitanAlon, we explore what this implies for the recession, the recovery, and gender equality. faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~mdo738/resear… (thread)

Jake Vigdor @JakeVigdor

Q: Why is rent so high? (median US renter paid 14% of income for rent in 1960, 24% by 2017.) That’s the topic of my new paper with @evansuw alum Alanna Williams, presented this morning @nberpubs #NBERSI2020. Want the answer (or at least a partial one)? Follow along! (1/11)

Jonathan A. Parker @ProfJAParker

(1/7)I'm going to take this @JoeVavra Tweet as the taking off point to Tweet out my new-and-improved (and should be accepted "as is") paper on the dynamics of lending standards with @ludwigstraub and Mike Fishman. Link: s3.amazonaws.com/mitsloan-php/w…

Joe Vavra @JoeVavra

And if anything, we probably understate limits on refi right now because we don't have tightening lending standards, delays in underwriting, and inability to refi due to huge unemployment spike. cc: @MortenORavn @SorryToBeKurt @RalphLuet @stef_alba @pilossopher @claudia_sahm

Summaries of existing papers

Thanks to NBER SI, a lot of these this week:

Adrianna McIntyre @onceuponA

This paper is so interesting, and it's going to make (some) people mad. There was a great chart in the presentation—doesn't appear to be in the current paper draft—on what a small sliver of overall earnings medical school tuition is (2%). conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f1…

Jason Abaluck @Jabaluck

This is an excellent descriptive paper with fascinating new data. It raises many questions. In my view, the foremost among them is -- what bad stuff, if anything, might happen if we pay physicians less?

^the thread here made a lot of doctors on twitter mad (see this chart); very important research. The original thread here.