Best of #econtwitter - Week of March 13, 2022 [1/2]

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 one of two. Part one is here.

Paper summary threads

Alice Evans @_alice_evans

What do you discover if you analyse estimated historical living standards and ALL the literature on “love” (from @Wikipedia)? Economic development begets desire for romance!! As people move to towns, mix & mingle more freely, fiction valorises romance! nature.com/articles/s4156…

Michael Ewens @startupecon

🧵about paper with @kairong_xiao + @TingXuFinance. We explore public firms' regulatory avoidance: manipulating public float. TLDR: firms bunch around regulatory thresholds➡️reveal major💲of being public.Though meaningful, costs cannot explain ⬇️ listed firms 1/

Rebecca Dizon-Ross @RDizonRoss

Using willingness-to-pay (WTP) as an outcome variable in your study? Try also eliciting WTP for a "benchmark good" -- one unrelated to your outcome or independent variables of interest. Include it as a control in your regressions. Can improve power a lot! among other benefits.

Ben Glasner @BenGlasner

Excited that my job market paper, and first publication, has found a home on the Journal of Labor Economics Just Accepted page! journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/71… "The Minimum Wage, Self-Employment, and the Online Gig Economy" #EconTwitter @SOLE_Labor_Econ #minimumwage #Uber 1/n

journals.uchicago.eduThe Minimum Wage, Self-Employment, and the Online Gig Economy | Journal of Labor Economics: Vol 0, No ja

Erik Brynjolfsson @erikbryn

How Many Americans Work Remotely? @johnjhorton, Christos Makridis, @AlexMasPton, @ModeledBehavior, @danielrock, @ocolluphid & I find that gov't stats underestimate remote work. The actual share is ~50% working remote at least 1x/week. #EconTwitter #WFH digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publications/h…

^related paper thread, on the donut; see also, graph

Aaron Chalfin @AaronChalfin

In an era of big data, linking between datasets is critical. Unfortunately datasets often lack common identifiers. With @tahamonster, @zubinjelveh, @melissa_mcneill, @shiyan_cj, @benconomics, I've got a new paper that shows that a little ground truth can go a long way.👇

Ben Golub 🇺🇦 @ben_golub

An argument that pecuniary externalities are morally significant and so we are morally obligated to, e.g., buy less wheat. Would be interested to hear people's reactions! @akbarpour_ @skominers

Tom Adamczewski @tmkadamcz

Hey @ben_golub @ShengwuLi what do you think of this argument? https://t.co/skNPSCpCTj

Dr. Chloe N. East (she/her) @ChloeEast2

🎉1st announcement of the week! & on #InternationalWomensDay! @a_velasquezg & I's paper is accepted at @J_HumanResource! We show immigration enforcement reduces employment of college-educated moms w young kids bc of higher cost of household help chloeneast.com/uploads/8/9/9/… 🧵👇

Lee Crawfurd @leecrawfurd

For #InternationalWomensDay a new study showing that when mothers work during preschool years it has no impact on children's education outcomes (age 15). - effect of less time is entirely compensated by + effect of more money journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/71… iza.org/publications/d…

John B. Holbein @JohnHolbein1

Did expanding the Child Tax Credit in 2021 make fewer people work? Nope! "Our analyses suggest that the expanded CTC did not have negative short-term employment effects that offset its documented reductions in poverty and hardship." nber.org/papers/w29823

Tom Vogl @tom_vogl

Women who lost siblings in childhood are much more likely to lose children of their own. ➡️ Over the generations, a small share of lineages accumulates a large share of child deaths.

Public goods

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina @EOrtizOspina

The World Bank has released a brand new Gender Data Portal: genderdata.worldbank.org They’ve revamped the entire site and I found a lot of cool new features / changes. Five highlights 🧵

genderdata.worldbank.orgWorld Bank Gender Data PortalThe Gender Data Portal is the World Bank Group’s comprehensive source for the latest sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics across a variety of topics.

Interesting discussions

John List @Econ_4_Everyone

We will be announcing some exciting new features of JPE-Micro soon. But, here is a glimpse: time to change the incentives around replications. We will take them! The knowledge creation market in economics can do better. We hope to help.

Konrad Burchardi @kbburchardi

Last year I had the chance to serve on the @ERC_Research Starting Grant evaluation panel. I wanted to quickly share a couple of things I learned. Maybe they are helpful to future applicants. I guess some points apply to other grants as well.

Fiona Conlon @FionaConlon4

Jean Drèze's piece in @Ideas4India is essential reading for anyone in the evidence-scaling-policy space. A summary:

Road Scholarz @roadscholarz

Jean Drèze on the perils of some “randomized controlled trials” (RCTs) in economics, and possible safeguards – with a startling case study. Do read. https://t.co/buzBS6vMPl

^overselling is not a problem just for RCTs, but for any piece of research; but interesting discussion

Dina D. Pomeranz @DinaPomeranz

Yes, the world is extremely unequal: the 10% of people with the highest incomes in Madagaskar have a lower income on average than the poorest 10% in the UK. Where you are born has a huge impact on your economic opportunities. (Adjusted for prices, i.e. for purchasing power).

Dina D. Pomeranz @DinaPomeranz

Question about global income inequality: How do you think the income of the top 10% of people in Madagaskar ("M top") compares to the income of the poorest 10% in the UK ("UK low")? I'll post the answer tomorrow (This is adjusted for prices, i.e. adjusted for purchasing power)