Best of #econtwitter - Week of November 14, 2021 [2/2]

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 two of two, this week. Part one is here.

Paper summary threads

Amory Gethin @amorygethin

3/ The US tax system is MORE progressive than European countries'. This is because the personal income tax is about as progressive in the US as in Western Europe (and much more progressive than in Eastern Europe), while indirect taxes are much lower.

Amory Gethin @amorygethin

4/ As a result, despite lower transfers, the US tax-and-transfer system is MORE redistributive than that of any European country. About 6% of the national income is transferred to the bottom 50% in the US, versus 4% in Sweden and 0% in Serbia.

Anna Stansbury @annastansbury

Key stylized fact: Amongst US-born PhDs, Economics is less socioeconomically diverse than *all* the major PhD fields, including math, computer science, physical and biological sciences, and other social sciences. (3/N)

^thread (note the one caveat: only US-born PhDs); started a lot of good discussion, eg:

John Horton @johnjhorton

@annastansbury I'm in the group w/ parents w/o a BA. My family members all work in skilled blue collar jobs (eg carpenter, upholster, mechanic) or own businesses. I'm not sure this has given me any special insights. Probably more familiar with a wider variety of labor markets I suppose

Anna Stansbury @annastansbury

@johnjhorton Interesting! I think on average it must help to bring more familiarity with different types of jobs, income levels, and lifestyles into the profession which studies these things?

^related: a lot of discussion on whether political diversity in academia has the same benefits, starting here (warning, warning, warning: politics)

Michael Ewens @startupecon

Happy to release a new survey paper and companion website with @jfm82 on the growth in private capital markets and its impacts for public equity markets. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… (companion website privatepublicmkts.com). Motivated by several facts, a🧵 1/12

Christian vom Lehn @C_vom_lehn

But first, the question – what is the rate of occupational mobility? This is tricky because the CPS gives two very different answers if you use retrospective questions (left -- small) or the panel part of the survey (right -- BIG!) (below is 1 digit; paper 2,3 digit too). 2/7

Jason Lyall @jaylyall_red5

New paper: What are the battlefield effects of using violence against your own soldiers? Yuri Zhukov and I explore this question using 34 million Red Army personnel records; process-tracing in 2 Rifle Divisions; and data from 526 battles since 1939 1/6 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Petra Moser @PMoserEcon

@andreamatranga @nberpubs @KiraboJackson @ScottDaewonKim The big difference is that mothers who did get tenure experienced no productivity decline while kids were young. They either had help, crazy super powers, or, I guess, neglected kids.

More: GI bill and race; union supporters resume audit study; nowcasting with BVARs; committee decision-making and grants; autocratic directed technical change; net income accounting; why is agricultural productivity low in poor countries

Job market papers

Dylan T. Moore @dylantmoore

What follows is an animated explainer of my JMP. With any luck, if you read on you'll understand the main result of the paper within ~2 minutes & you'll understand its derivation within ~6 minutes. For more details, check out the paper: dylantmoore.github.io/website/JMP_Dy… 1/11

Dylan T. Moore @dylantmoore

This paper presents a new method for evaluating proposed reforms of progressive, piecewise linear tax schedules. 2/11

^astounding thread of GIFs

Pol Antras @pol_antras

Patent citations are often used to measure knowledge spillovers between firms. Evgenii’s JMP shows that even the most cited patents granted before 2000 received around 50% of citations from one firm only (!), and this concentration has increased up to 75% after 2000. (2/10)

Maggie Shi @maggieshi311

I'm on the job market, so it's time for a JMP thread! 🧵#EconTwitter I study a Medicare monitoring program that at its peak reclaimed 1% of inpatient stay revenue. I find major savings from deterred stays, no pt health effects, BUT private compliance costs to achieve savings

Francesco Filippucci @f_filippucci

My Job Market Paper is just out! "What Do NEETs Need? The Effect of Combining Activation Policies and Cash Transfers" Have a look at it on francescofilippucci.eu, or unroll this thread for 3 quick highlights and 2 implications for research and policy 🧵👇 #EconTwitter

Interesting discussions

Arindrajit Dube @arindube

Zommers' and millennials' economic experiences (around similar ages) couldn't be more different. Graduating in 2021 and graduating in say 2011 will have radically different lifetime implications.

David Powell @thedavidpowell

This paper should be split into 2 papers, both of which we would also reject.