Best of #econtwitter - Week of September 20, 2020

Sep 22, 2020

Welcome readers old and new to this week’s (late!) edition of the Best of Econtwitter. Recommendations always welcome over email or on Twitter @just_economics.

New papers

Justin Sandefur@JustinSandefur

How the 'China shock' saved American universities -- and Trump's trade war may cost them $1B in tuition Paper: cgdev.org/sites/default/… Join via Zoom, 2pm on Tue, with @econgaurav and @BilgeErten: cgdev.org/event/trade-li…

6:10 PM · Sep 13, 2020

42 Reposts · 96 Likes

Justin Sandefur@JustinSandefur

New with @dev_a_patel: A “Rosetta Stone” for Comparing Test Scores Around the World (and Across the Global Income Distribution) Paper: cgdev.org/sites/default/… Blog: cgdev.org/blog/rosetta-s… 1/

4:53 PM · Sep 15, 2020

69 Reposts · 156 Likes

^US (and Russia?) look surprisingly good based on this?

Arun Advani@arunadvaniecon

So, what does all this mean for inequality? 85% of rise in the 1% share has gone to migrants. 2/3 to 1/2 of rise in top 0.1 and smaller shares. (UK is "importing" ineq) ⚠️this is NOT a claim that migrants *cause* inequality. just laying out where the money is going right now⚠️

8:43 AM · Sep 17, 2020

5 Reposts · 9 Likes

Peter Zorn@_peterzorn

Aggregate investment responds sluggishly to shocks or changes in policy. E.g., investment spending peaks with 8-quarter delay after Fed policy rate cut. Puzzling b/c returns higher at time of rate change. Why? My paper Investment under Rational Inattention offers an explanation

11:13 AM · Sep 19, 2020

11 Reposts · 60 Likes

Kirill Borusyak@borusyak

New WP: “Non-Random Exposure to Exogenous Shocks” (w/ @autoregress). Summary 🧵: Papers often estimate causal effects by leveraging exogenous shocks that affect many observations jointly, to different extents We show problems w/this & offer new solutions dropbox.com/s/brhuxe1b1k8x…

2:54 PM · Sep 16, 2020

85 Reposts · 323 Likes

Anna Stansbury@annastansbury

Drenik, @simon_jaeger, Plotkin and @Schoefer_B use Argentinian data to study the degree to which temp agency workers receive firm-specific pay premia. They find they receive on average *half* of the premia of full time/regular workers. [1/3]

Benjamin Schoefer @Schoefer_B

New version of "Paying Outsourced Labor:" Temp-agency workers' inherit ~50% of the pay premia (AKM firm FEs) of regular workers. That is, >0%, yet <100%. Key: Arg'n data shows temps' workplace (client firms). w/ Andres Drenik, @pascuel, @simon_jaeger PDF: https://t.co/8Fp4wpb90A https://t.co/Igob8svBEh

10:40 PM · Sep 19, 2020

12 Reposts · 38 Likes

Michael Ewens@startupecon

TL;DR: Control of the VC-backed startup board shifts from entrepreneur, to shared between VC and entrepreneur, to VC. VC control is sticky. The *independent director* plays a central role in this transition and acts as a mediator between the entrepreneur and VC. 2/13

8:05 PM · Sep 14, 2020

2 Likes

Other paper summaries

Anthony Lee Zhang@AnthonyLeeZhang

Suppose you are a robust decision maker. You care about the highest and lowest estimate of an effect, across different model specifications. The researcher has incentives to find an upper bound. The replicator, a lower bound. The real effect should be in between!

John B. Holbein @JohnHolbein1

Null hacking [v]: the process by which replicators seek to get a "failure to replicate" because they believe these types of replications are more likely to be published. How do we address incentives to null hack in observational work? 👇👇👇 https://t.co/R4LbSAzCFE https://t.co/LRkrPY9kx2

5:58 PM · Sep 16, 2020

7 Likes

John B. Holbein@JohnHolbein1

The minimum wage reduces racial income inequality. Important new work just out at @QJEHarvard. academic.oup.com/qje/advance-ar…

1:43 PM · Sep 15, 2020

167 Reposts · 408 Likes

Florian Scheuer@Florian_Scheuer

Happy to presenting today for the last time my paper "Signaling to Experts" with @KurlatPablo at this exciting new online seminar series in economic theory: (1/9)

sites.google.com

Seminars in Economic Theory

5:48 PM · Sep 16, 2020

2 Reposts · 17 Likes

Martin Fiszbein@MartinFiszbein

We are glad that our paper on Frontier Culture is receiving attention outside economics, but based on the comments here it is clear we need to make some clarifications. Thread [1/12]

econometrica @ecmaEditors

The American Frontier shaped a culture of rugged individualism. It attracted individualistic types and made settlers more individualistic over time; its effects persist today as more exposed counties show greater opposition to government https://t.co/jl9651Njs9 https://t.co/oYAk8YXVnT

9:03 PM · Sep 16, 2020

111 Reposts · 631 Likes

^history twitter got angsty

Public goods

Anthony Lee Zhang@AnthonyLeeZhang

(1/n) A few possibly useful public goods, available on my website

anthonyleezhang.github.io

Notes

1:14 AM · Sep 18, 2020

34 Reposts · 142 Likes

^recommended

Sam Carter@samicart

I recently put together a list of organizations where people interested in (non-academic) jobs in behavioral economics/applied microeconomics should look. I figured it would be worth sharing more broadly! (1/n)

12:46 PM · Sep 14, 2020

162 Reposts · 468 Likes

Coly Elhai@ColyElhai

🥕🥕Public resource announcement! 🥕🥕 With input from almost 40 folks in econ, @qlquanle, @mathematikai, @tsaocaro, and I have compiled a guide to econ RAships! raguide.github.io #econtwitter [1/5]

raguide.github.io

Econ RA Guide

12:46 PM · Sep 14, 2020

93 Reposts · 184 Likes

Antonin Bergeaud@a_bergeaud

Hi #EconTwitter, #InnovTwitter, #InnovEcon and other patent geeks. With @CyrilVerluise , we are thrilled to announce several new features regarding the #PatentCity project See patentcity.xyz and thread below ⬇️⬇️

Antonin Bergeaud @a_bergeaud

With @CyrilVerluise we are very excited to release the first version of #PatentCity, a new open source framework to geolocalize 🇺🇸 patents at the county level since 1836. See the Github of the project and thread below ⬇️ https://t.co/htWlpfvPXd

12:00 PM · Sep 16, 2020

9 Reposts · 21 Likes

Rebecca Wolfe@rebeccajwolfe

Decided to put down on paper some of my thoughts on non-academic careers for those with a PhD: medium.com/@rebeccajaynew…. I describe the two main paths I see, plus some suggestions of the transferrable skills you develop in a PhD program.

medium.com

Considering a Non-Academic Career: Some Musing from a Scholar-Practitioner