Best of #econtwitter - Week of September 26, 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, this week. Part two is here.

Paper summary threads

Alice Evans @_alice_evans

Herders' descendents tend to emphasise punishment in their folklore & have more more armed conflicts. Timely new paper by Yiming Cao, @BenjaminEnke @Armin_Falk, Paola Giuliano & @DrNathanNunn nber.org/papers/w29250

Jeffrey P. Clemens @jeffreypclemens

Over the last 4 years, @MichaelRStrain and I have tracked the effects of the last decade’s minimum wage changes using a pre-analysis plan. This thread describes the final results of our project. The associated paper is out this week through @nberpubs: nber.org/papers/w29264 1/15

nber.orgThe Heterogeneous Effects of Large and Small Minimum Wage Changes: Evidence over the Short and Medium Run Using a Pre-Analysis PlanFounded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

^separate thread explaining pre-analysis plan; Scott Cunningham comment; useful (critical) Reddit comment

Rachael Meager @economeager

The paper, joint with @MikeGechter, offers a new method to combine RCTs with observational studies in meta-analysis. We provide both nonparametric identification results and a parametric small-sample implementation for applications! personal.psu.edu/mdg5396/MGRM_C…

𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚝𝚝 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙 @swinshi

Really, really, really good and important paper on long-term mobility trends by @EconZach just out: nber.org/papers/w29256. He finds that over 140 years, intergenerational mobility (for men) has increased a lot.

nber.orgIntergenerational Mobility in American History: Accounting for Race and Measurement ErrorFounded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

^“Updated estimates imply that there is greater equality of opportunity today than in the past, mostly because opportunity was never that equal”

David Schindler @DSchindlerEcon

What happened after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting when firearm sales surged? States that implemented laws that delay gun purchases witnessed fewer gun sales and homicides. Thrilled that my job market paper is now forthcoming @restatjournal: doi.org/10.1162/rest_a… A 🧵:

doi.orgImpulse Purchases, Gun Ownership, and Homicides: Evidence from a Firearm Demand Shock | The Review of Economics and Statistics | MIT Press

Stefanie Stantcheva @S_Stantcheva

[1/20] Our new @nberpubs paper studies what Black & white Americans know about racial inequities, what they believe causes them & what, if anything, they think should be done to reduce them. Summary thread below. Paper w Alberto Alesina & @matteoferroni93: scholar.harvard.edu/files/stantche…

Ben Lester @benjamminlester

(1/N) *FINALLY A DRAFT* The scoop: referrals are ubiquitous in the hiring process. What do they do? How do they affect labor market outcomes (wages, turnover, inequality…)? Existing empirical evidence is mixed. Lots of different theories. We make progress using new data + model.

Michael Bauer @michaelbauer_hh

Paper on social discount rates now forthcoming at @restatjournal. The persistent decline in real rates (r*) lowers *all* discount rates and at least doubles the social cost of carbon, supporting more ambitious climate policy. #econtwitter #climatechange direct.mit.edu/rest/article/d…

Andrew Chen @achenfinance

My paper w/ @VelikovMihail on trading costs of the anomaly zoo is massively updated! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… We doubled the anomalies and cost-mitigations. We also combine anomalies. But we still find expected returns (net of costs, going forward) are close to zero. (1/5)

Public goods

Tatyana Deryugina @TDeryugina

Wish there was a wiki dedicated to academic research? Now there is: skaipedia.org And we need YOU to join our edit-a-thon on October 7 and help jump-start the wiki. Sign up here & spread the word:

forms.gleEdit-a-thon registration

scott cunningham @causalinf

Okay, please fill out this registration form if you are planning on running the #AEA5k. @dbergstresser and I want to start collecting information so that during December, we can email people. This'll be fun everyone!

docs.google.comRegistration for Fourth Annual #AEA5k 2022The fourth annual 2022 #AEA5k is ready for your participation! Our hope was that the race could be held at the ASSA meetings this year, but like last year, we will instead be doing a virtual race. The virtual race will have the same format as last year. Runners can run as many 5k distances as the…

Interesting discussions

Seema Jayachandran @seema_econ

Only 1/2 of respondents thought the revisions required to publish their paper improved it enough to justify the effort. We're all biased about our papers, but this is still depressing to me. Respondents were probably mostly economists; curious how views differ across disciplines.

Seema Jayachandran @seema_econ

For your most recent paper accepted for publication (a) do you think the accepted version was better than the submitted one and, if so, (b) was the improvement large enough to justify the time that the revisions required of you?

Phil Haile @PhilHaile

@yudapearl and I could not agree more on the critical role of a model in making sense of data and answering counterfactual questions. His questions below are worth answering. I’ll take a shot in this thread. 1/

Judea Pearl @yudapearl

If I were an econ PhD student I would ask: 1. The paper defines "demand" verbally as: "responses of quantities demanded to ceteris paribus changes in prices or other factors." But I do not see a formal definition of "ceteris paribus". Is there one? 2. Can such a definition 2/ https://t.co/ZGepBK7A3V