Best of #econtwitter - Week of November 21, 2021 [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 two is here.
Paper summary threads
Your health depends on where you live. But it wasn't always that way
In 1968 (top row), no correl between midlife mortality and state income. Arkansas and NY had same mortality rates
By 2019 (2nd row), ppl in rich states live much longer
Mortality now lines up w state income
Swedish schools that implemented a cell phone ban so no resulting change in grades or national math test scores of their students (N = 16,724).
Maybe, just maybe, we need to stop blaming technology all the time
from @danykessel @BTyrefors
econstor.eu/bitstream/1041…
Related to this, there’s a great AER paper by @mdoepke and Kindermann “Bargaining over Babies.”
Both partners have to agree to have another child. And in survey data, women are more likely than men to be opposed to another child! Esp for 3rd+ kid.
faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~mdo738/resear…
Devon ☀️ @devonzuegel
The key long-term human trend may be the Demographic Transition: at a GDP/person of between $1.8k-$3k, mortality & fertility rates drop. Out of 186 countries:
🪦All started & 175 finished the mortality transition
👶All (but Chad) started & 80 finished the fertility transition
What an identification strategy.
WWII torpedos sometimes explode and sometimes they don’t, by chance. This affects promotions of submarine crews, and their life outcomes.
Brad DeLong 🖖 💉 @delong
Our research team (@MarkCurti, @DangGarrett, Kevin A. Roberts, @J_C_Suarez, and me) is excited to share our new working paper,
“Capital Investment and Labor Demand”
NBER link: nber.org/papers/w29485
Ungated: jcsuarez.com/Files/Bonus_RD…
Summary thread below.
As an Economics undergrad at @Cambridge_Uni 2010-13, I learned a lot about Alfred Marshall.
I never learned how he fiercely and actively opposed women's participation in academic life at Cambridge, including that of his wife, economist Mary Paley.
nber.org/papers/w29481
In our paper “Does Losing Lead to Winning? An Empirical Analysis for Four Sports”, which was accepted by Management Science last week, we attempt to replicate the finding that being slightly behind halfway through a competition increases the chance of winning. A thread below👇
A 2017 paper in Nature studies a police slowdown in NYC, and concludes that when the police pulled back, major crimes fell as a result. My co-authors, @dmitre88 & @MWillJr and I have re-analyzed the data and believe this result doesn't hold water. 👇
dropbox.com/s/yuk5pw69kpfo…
🏭+🎩=💵
@BPellegrino_UMD and I study the welfare costs & distributional effects of #CommonOwnership in the US economy.
TLDR:
We estimate that the deadweight loss of common ownership has increased dramatically to between 1.9% and 4.4% of total surplus.
florianederer.github.io/co_welfare.pdf
Interesting discussions
I met with some Ph.D. students tonight who asked me for job market advice (which was a very weird experience for me since I clearly have no idea what I'm doing).
One wrote me an email afterwards asking ''What does it take to be competitive for academic jobs?''
1/n
One thing I wish I'd known as a student: when advisors suggest you consider shelving a research project it is often a vote of confidence in your potential.
It is a signal about the quality of the project but also one about the value of your time... easy to not notice the latter.
