Best of #econtwitter - Week of September 18, 2022 [2/3]
Welcome readers old and new to this week’s edition of Best of Econtwitter. Please submit suggestions — very much including your own work! — over email or on Twitter @just_economics.
This is part two of three.
Paper summaries
Using data on midlife suicide,sleeping problems, alcohol dependence, concentration difficulties, memory problems, intense job strain, disabling headaches, suicidal feelings, and extreme depression, we document a longitudinal crisis of midlife among the inhabitants of rich nations
In our new paper, we quantify monopsony power for a uniquely long period (1845-1913), comparing the evolution of marginal revenue product of labor with actual wages (i.e. the ‘markdown’) paid to Belgian coal workers. (2/10)
No! Although some markdowns were imposed on workers, wages grew in close relation with the marginal product of labor during most of the 19th century. (5/10)
Hi everyone! @nunopgpalma and I have a new version of our paper—"The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal"—out.
Comments and feedback (+amplification) welcome.
warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/econom…
A project I’ve been working on for a while is out now as a CSAE working paper! It explores the relationship between droughts, irrigation, and insurgency in Southeastern Turkey. 1/11
ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f…
🔊What was the first regime in History able to deploy fiat standard as the sole legal tender?
✅It was the Yuan (1260–1368) dynasty in China!
The Mongols were not savages!
Find below all about it in our new paper! (joint with Hanhui Guan of Peking University & @MengWu_EcoHis)
Are women worse programmers?
Do employers believe they are?
Our new paper suggests the answers are
1)No
2)Yes (especially female employers!)
Silver lining: these false beliefs can be corrected with additional information.
#EconTwitter 🧵
New short paper with @ipogadog: We estimate that Covid-19 illnesses have reduced the US labor force by ~500,000 workers & provide the first representative estimates of Covid’s direct labor supply effects.
Paper: nber.org/papers/w30435
Our paper that proposes and tests a new method for designing survey modules — by combining qualitative interviews and machine learning — is now out in @WorldDevJournal.
The application: survey module for measuring women's agency in India. doi.org/10.1016/j.worl…
The whole sad story of audience capture in a paper. Someone who unexpectedly has a post go viral:
1. Starts to post more
2. Makes their future posts more like the post that went viral, in an attempt to recapture the glory
3. Attention usually fades rapidly ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWS…
Public goods
Slides/lecture material on economic theory and global prioritisation by (the great!) Phil Trammel docs.google.com/document/d/1df…
just found an incredible resource to understand what parts of the USA are friendly to development: @Wharton's Residential Land Use Regulatory Index
the raw data was a hard to navigate, so I put it in a spreadsheet & annotated it to make it easier:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
🚨🚨 @cp_roth and I have provided a resource collection for econ grad students: sites.google.com/view/econgrada… which we will keep updating and hope you find it helpful!
👉👉 Now we need your input: What other public good would be helpful? Please respond to tweet or DM!
Interesting discussions
Folks talking about the timing of the AEA meetings on #econtwitter: there's some fascinating historical trivia in this 2008 John Siegfried article on the history of the meetings. And some clues that maybe it's time to switch to a summer meeting...🧵
jstor.org/stable/2773974…
Prediction: <5% of academic institutions will hold in-person interviews at ASSAs. The vast majority will do so virtually, into the foreseeable future.
As a consequence, attendance at the ASSA/AEA will fall. Generally a bad time of year/place in country to host a conference.
Jake Vigdor @JakeVigdor