Best of #econtwitter - Week of September 27, 2020
Welcome readers old and new to this week’s edition of the Best of Econtwitter. Recommendations always welcome over email or on Twitter @just_economics.
Paper summaries
Ömer Özak@OmerOzakEcon
Happy to share our new WP that uses data on 60K Facebook interests of 2 billion people to propose new measures of cultural distances between populations (nber.org/papers/w27827.… and doi.org/10.31235/osf.i…) with @klausvanieper @acrumin @rcuevasrumin @iyadrahwan @EdmondAwad
5:28 PM · Sep 21, 2020
110 Reposts · 372 Likes
Lionel Page@page_eco
How efficient markets are vs how efficient economists believe they are: our paper looking at more than 600 experimental markets is just accepted at @RevOfFinStudies!
We found economists likely believe markets are much more efficients than they are! 1/n
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
2:26 PM · Sep 21, 2020
117 Reposts · 367 Likes
Simon Jäger@simon_jaeger
Super cool paper by three junior economists, @LukasMergele @CESifoGroup, @AAoritz and @MoritzLubczyk @ZEW, who study one of the most interesting episodes of economic history in post-war Germany: "The Big Sell: Privatizing East
Germany’s Economy" cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_…
9:13 PM · Sep 23, 2020
32 Reposts · 127 Likes
Gertjan Verdickt@GertjanV_
🚨 Working Paper 🚨: “Did the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic kill the US Life Insurance Industry?", together with @CortesGustavoS.
Short answer: "No"
Medium answer: A video 👇
Long answer: papers.ssrn.com/abstract=36978…
(Unlike @arpitrage, we can't create an on-location video. We tried!)
11:53 AM · Sep 24, 2020
10 Reposts · 51 Likes
John B. Holbein@JohnHolbein1
What happens when women in introductory economics courses are (randomly) assigned to study groups in which they are in the minority?
They are a full 10 percentage points more likely to drop the course.
dropbox.com/s/inf6epcepg3w…
12:39 PM · Sep 26, 2020
247 Reposts · 752 Likes
Sharat Ganapati@sharatganapati
This paper is fantastic. My summary: Technology has been killing the mom and pop store for a century. Transport technologies facilitate scale, effectively aiding big business.
The death of small business is mechanically the outcome of human preferences and technology.
AEA Journals @AEAjournals
Forthcoming in AEJ: Applied Economics: "The Economics of Speed: The Electrification of the Streetcar System and the Decline of Mom-and-Pop Stores in Boston, 1885-1905" by Wei You. https://t.co/H59dv9O08c
3:07 PM · Sep 24, 2020
27 Reposts · 139 Likes
Brian Hamel@hamelpolisci
Excited to share my job market paper! I ask: Do voters respond to economic policies, outcomes, or both in the ballot box? Using county-level data on New Deal spending, I show robust effects of economic policy on voting. bit.ly/32Yuomh
6:50 PM · Sep 23, 2020
47 Reposts · 200 Likes
Tommaso Valletti@TomValletti
Does antitrust matter? Read this!
New paper from Tim Besley, Nicola Fontana and Nicola Limodio forthcoming in AER: Insights @AEAjournals
Firm-level data from 10 million firms, 90 countries, over 10 years. They look at profit margins, and concentration.
Results:
1/2
5:15 PM · Sep 21, 2020
71 Reposts · 216 Likes
Gabriele Gratton@grattonecon
📣📣LIBERTY, SECURITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY📣📣
---------The Rise and Fall of Illiberal Democracies---------
With @bartonelee2
Still hot from the oven!
Thread: 👇👇👇 (1/11)
gratton.org/papers/Liberty…
8:42 AM · Sep 26, 2020
13 Reposts · 34 Likes
RichMurphy@RichMurphy_Econ
My solo paper on why trade unions can survive in markets where labor can free ride on traditional benefits, finally came out in JOLE! journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.108…
I propose and test a model where union membership acts as legal insurance against allegations. 1/6
8:48 PM · Sep 23, 2020
8 Reposts · 64 Likes
Dina D. Pomeranz@DinaPomeranz
Since I just presented part of our @AnnualReviews paper on "Taking State-Capacity Research to the Field: Insights from Collaborations with Tax Authorities" at the #AFE2020, I'm taking this opportunity to finally tweet a summary of this paper (joint with @josevilabelda):
1/n
7:55 PM · Sep 23, 2020
33 Reposts · 112 Likes
Public goods/advice
Lukas Freund@_LukasFreund_
Valuable info for Econ PhDs planning to go on the job market in 2020/2021. 🙏for this public service.
▶️Supply side ~stable.
▶️Higher-ed employers expect to contract their demand by >= 50% in median scenario.
▶️Non-ed employer expect to make ~ as many offers as last year.
Ben Golub @ben_golub
As part of a big team, and with the help of several institutions, I've been involved in running a small survey on the state of the upcoming job market for new PhD economists.
A preliminary report of our measurements can be found here
https://t.co/o5jy2xssFZ
8:34 AM · Sep 22, 2020
3 Reposts · 14 Likes
Ludovica Gazzè@LudoGazze
I read great applied JMPs on interesting & timely topics.
Here's some writing advice from better scholars/writers than me. Advice I still struggle to follow.
Once you have a draft, you've done the hard work: data collection & careful analysis.
Now, get your message across!🧵1/n
6:04 PM · Sep 27, 2020
51 Reposts · 176 Likes
Chris Blattman@cblatts
As the school year kicks off & grad students start signing up to see profs, here are some thoughts about planning your research.
To me, the 2 questions PhD students ought to ask themselves:
1. How will this research change people's beliefs?
2. Who are those people?
9:34 PM · Sep 24, 2020
79 Reposts · 363 Likes
Michelle Nguyen@MN_Econ
Hi Econ friends😊
If you are applying for masters or doctoral programs in Economics, please feel free to message me!
I will make a group so we can connect: share our questions, insights, events, etc.
6:32 PM · Sep 21, 2020
74 Reposts · 380 Likes
Erin Troland@erintroland
What it’s like doing research in government jobs? Check out my short article @AEACSWEP + some info applies beyond govt. Other early career info @MelanieKhamis Susan Vroman @kmpjones Linda Hooks, co-editor @SarahJacobsonEc aeaweb.org/content/file?i… #EconTwitter #econjobmarket 1/N
aeaweb.org
2:20 PM · Sep 22, 2020
15 Reposts · 24 Likes
Good discussion
Arin Dube@arindube
There are many problems with Difference-in differences design, but many of them can be addressed (or evaluated more clearly) If you follow a rule of 1) stack by event date, 2) insist on "clean controls."
12:36 AM · Sep 23, 2020
92 Reposts · 327 Likes
Tommaso Porzio@PorzioTommaso
A trivial proposal for improving the refereeing/editorial process:
- we run experiments on literally everything (even water supply!), but not on ourselves
- shouldn't we run some controlled experiment to test whether our reviewing/publishing process can be improved?
1/n
3:51 PM · Sep 25, 2020
12 Reposts · 70 Likes
Lukas Freund@_LukasFreund_
👇 Valuable summary thread by @KathAStapleton -- thank you! -- covering papers presented at day 1 of the @nberpubs Economics of AI conference.
For day 2, see her separate thread here:
Katherine Stapleton @KathAStapleton
A really fun & thought-provoking past 2 days at the @nberpubs Economics of AI conference
Kudos to @avicgoldfarb @joshgans @professor_ajay & @ce_tucker for designing such an innovative virtual conference - it was *almost* as if it wasn't virtual
Some key learnings from Day 1:
7:51 PM · Sep 27, 2020
1 Like
Sascha O. Becker@essobecker
Top 10 most powerful Economics departments measured by editorial roles at high ranking Econ journals.
The Geographic Diversity Project @geo_diverse
A descriptive analysis of the representation and geographic diversity of editors at prestigious economics journals.
The current draft of the working paper: https://t.co/6eoXn3yoyO
Github Repository: https://t.co/S37KSGEJls
4:51 AM · Sep 26, 2020
230 Reposts · 686 Likes
Lionel Page@page_eco
The global distribution of editorial power in economics.
“Any one of the states of California, Massachusetts and Illinois has more power than the four continents of Asia, South America, Africa and Australasia combined." (top 49 journals)
ht @essobecker
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
2:16 PM · Sep 26, 2020
11 Reposts · 34 Likes