Best of #econtwitter - Week of October 4, 2020
Welcome readers old and new to this week’s edition of the Best of Econtwitter. Thanks to those sharing suggestions, over email or on Twitter @just_economics.
Paper summaries
David Cutler@Cutler_econ
Biggest findings: as a whole, health care has value above cost. This implies that medical care productivity is high, not the stagnant or falling productivity we are used to seeing. 7/10
11:41 PM · Sep 28, 2020
15 Reposts · 30 Likes
Robin Wigglesworth@RobinWigg
Fifty Shades of QE: When central banks a study the impact of QE they find a bigger effect than other researchers. Those that find particularly big effects enjoy faster career progression. 🧐 nber.org/papers/w27849?…
10:03 AM · Sep 28, 2020
165 Reposts · 377 Likes
^prompted a lot of discussion as one might imagine
Dean Eckles@deaneckles
🎲Noise-induced randomization in regression discontinuity designs📈
A new approach to inference that directly uses the "local randomization" — from measurement error or other noise — that is often used to informally justify RDDs
arxiv.org/abs/2004.09458
3:09 PM · Sep 30, 2020
47 Reposts · 131 Likes
Neoliberal 🌐@ne0liberal
"Socialism causes Fascism" has to be the most politically spicy NBER working paper I've ever seen.
I'm sure everyone will carefully read the paper before offering any hot takes on this idea.
nber.org/papers/w27854
1:08 PM · Sep 28, 2020
68 Reposts · 497 Likes
Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesias
If it’s true that social returns to investment in innovation are far larger than the private returns (seems plausible to me) this seems like a gigantic source of market failure and an argument for substantial public sector intervention.
James Pethokoukis @JimPethokoukis
"Overall, we find that the average social returns to innovation investments appear very large. If
formal R&D and new venture creation drive the bulk of productivity gains, then the social
returns to these investments appear enormous." 🚀
https://t.co/QAWsfLvYBA
🚀 https://t.co/OwKaTQt9zG
1:51 PM · Sep 28, 2020
41 Reposts · 194 Likes
Ben Moll@ben_moll
New paper "Present Bias Amplifies the Household Balance-Sheet Channels of Macroeconomic Policy" w Laibson & Maxted
benjaminmoll.com/PBMP/
Main results in title, though some more subtlety for monetary policy bc present-biased households procrastinate refinancing their mortgages
7:23 AM · Sep 29, 2020
23 Reposts · 115 Likes
Alice Evans@_alice_evans
Untouchability across India, district-level analysis
epw.in/journal/2020/2… a new article on how reported practices of untouchability vary by social networks, income, education, region, caste, & religion - by Amit Thorat & Omkar Joshi in @epw_in
12:28 PM · Sep 30, 2020
73 Reposts · 122 Likes
Germán Gieczewski@GGieczewski
Recently accepted in Econometrica: "Policy Persistence and Drift in Organizations"
Link: scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/…
The paper models dynamic policymaking in groups with endogenous membership. Here, a thread explaining the main results and some interpretations+applications (1/n)
10:53 PM · Oct 2, 2020
35 Reposts · 174 Likes
Barbara Boelmann@BarbaraBoelmann
4/ Decades after reunification, East Germans still return to work after a year, according to the institutional incentives in the former GDR. West Germans, on the other hand, often only return after 3 years when current job protection ends.
7:59 AM · Oct 2, 2020
1 Repost
Arpit Gupta@arpitrage
Interesting paper shows large gender gap in work commutes play a role in increasing wage disparities.
Working from home therefore has the promise of expanding work opportunities to broader set of workers than those who just live very near employment.
QJE @QJEHarvard
Recently accepted by #QJE, “Gender Differences in Job Search: Trading off Commute against Wage,” by Le Barbanchon (@tlebarbanchon), Rathelot (@rolandrathelot), and Roulet (@alexandraroulet): https://t.co/VTXKU0JDQd
9:59 PM · Sep 30, 2020
3 Reposts · 11 Likes
Peter Karadi@peterkaradi
Glad to share that our paper with @antonnakov on the 'Effectiveness and Addictiveness of Quantitative Easing' is forthcoming in the Journal of Monetary Economics. doi.org/10.1016/j.jmon… [Short thread]
2:54 PM · Oct 3, 2020
54 Reposts · 231 Likes
Tyler Ransom@tyleransom
Some interesting findings from the paper:
1. returns to schooling have gone up (between 79 and 97)
2. but sheepskin effects (returns to degree) have stayed steady
2:56 AM · Sep 29, 2020
2 Likes
Chris Blattman@cblatts
OK who wants a thread on why gangs rule? Not why gangs are great. I mean, when and how do they govern civilians.
Here we are meeting one gang leader who, besides running the drug trade, has built this crafts school behind him, a recycling center, and a community pool.
1:14 AM · Oct 1, 2020
384 Reposts · 1.22K Likes
Alexander Berger@albrgr
Wow crazy paper. I appreciate that they actually put the magnitudes in the abstract, that is weirdly too rare.
Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias
This’ll go in the second editition of ONE BILLION AMERICANS
https://t.co/SinzZToWpO
6:17 PM · Sep 30, 2020
43 Reposts · 204 Likes
Public goods
John N.Friedman@John_N_Friedman
Very happy to be part of the new PREDOC consortium, whose website just launched today
predoc.org
A great new resource for students interested in pathways to doctoral programs in Economics, and hopefully this is just the start
3:46 PM · Oct 2, 2020
66 Reposts · 179 Likes
Samuel Hartzmark@SamHartzmark
New Paper! Ever wanted to run an online survey or experiment, but didn't know where to start? The paper with @openwaterabby @AlexChinco @abbysussman lays out what you need to know to start collecting data in an afternoon!
papers.ssrn.com
Survey Curious? Start-Up Guide and Best Practices For Running Surveys and Experiments Online by Abigail Bergman, Alex Chinco, Samuel M. Hartzmark, Abigail B. Sussman :: SSRN
6:49 PM · Sep 30, 2020
32 Reposts · 88 Likes
Interesting discussions
Kirby Nielsen@KirbyKNielsen
I was trying to think of the jargony word(s) I use most often (or have to stop myself from using), in "normal" conversation.
Exogenous/endogenous?
Ex-ante/ex-post?
Marginal?
What about you?
11:23 PM · Oct 3, 2020
5 Reposts · 192 Likes
^navel-gazing but fun
Ben Moll@ben_moll
#EconTwitter hivemind: where can I find thoughtful discussions of "How do economists choose between different, perhaps competing models?"
Beginning of term here and one of my @LSEEcon MSc student asked this excellent questions. I obv have my views but references would be nice!
2:51 PM · Oct 2, 2020
15 Reposts · 96 Likes
scott cunningham@causalinf
First year PhD students in economics: first year is hard for many of us. You may be thinking about quitting. It’s your life, friend, but let me give you a few tips of advice. First, you should try to calculated expected utility from staying for four more years vs leaving. 1/n
12:37 PM · Oct 1, 2020
63 Reposts · 445 Likes
Melissa S. Kearney@kearney_melissa
I’m seeing lots of ads from faculty in top/rich Econ departments this week hiring full-time pre-docs. You sure you all can’t just admit these talented students into your PHD programs, let them train and coauthor with you, and get on with their adult/professional lives? 🤷♀️
3:42 AM · Oct 3, 2020
69 Reposts · 1.02K Likes
^provoked the usual drama/discussion on predocs, not recommended but included because the development itself is important
Mehmet Ismail@drmehmetismail
There is an amazing thread going on below, which touches upon Cournot, Bertrand, von Neumann, von Neumann & Morgenstern, and finally Nash. Having read these books/articles from the originals, I've got two comments on the strategic equilibrium before Nash 1/N #EconTwitter
Shengwu Li @ShengwuLi
Once you grasp certain new concepts, they can seem ex post obvious even as they totally reorganize your understanding. For example, try to imagine what it was like before we knew Nash equilibrium. What a mess! (1/3) https://t.co/RlRBzHJK71
8:18 PM · Sep 30, 2020
9 Reposts · 21 Likes
Wojtek Kopczuk@wwwojtekk
Interesting graphs, I wouldn't have guessed that it is such a strong gradient as you head up
John Cochrane @JohnHCochrane
The Grumpy Economist: Political diversity at the AEA https://t.co/B4IFD4VzfJ
3:04 PM · Oct 1, 2020
8 Reposts · 52 Likes