~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (545)

1. The changing federal pay scale.  I guess things must run much better now with all those experienced workers. 2. Do Anglo-Saxon directors raise debt levels? 3. When I first met Matt, the first thing I said was “Matt Levine, only you can do what you do!”  Here is Gwern. 4. Do dogs resemble their […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

Not just on the basis of what you publish, but on what you contribute to the major AI models.  So if you go to a major archive and, in some manner, turn it into AI-readable form, that should count for a good deal.  It is no worse than publishing a significant article, though of course […] The post How tenure should be granted, circa...

The author is Peter Kolchin, and the subtitle is The Abolition and Aftermath of American Slavery and Russian Serfdom.  Here is one interesting excerpt of many: Despite the surge in schools and teachers after 1880, Russian peasant children were considerably less likely to receive schooling than were African American children, especially if they were girls. As […] The post *Emancipation* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION....

1. Imports do not subtract from gdp. 2. A duet? 3. How to improve dynamic scoring for the budget. 4. Fresh Beeple. 5. CNN coverage of El Salvador shows the vibe shift. 6. Fresh Vitalik. 7. “A 25 year old woman’s type 2 diabetes was cured with stem cells taken from her own body.” 8. […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

Via @pmarca. The post USA vs. UK fact of the day appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to JWatts. It is at about 7 cents per kWh. by CrikeyIn reply to So what?. Is this intended to reflect badly on ... by bazzaIn reply to M. That said, having done some more research on ... by MIn reply to JWatts. I did...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, with a big assist from Doug Irwin.  Here is one excerpt: In 1971, President Richard Nixon imposed a 10% tax on foreign goods brought into the US, and kept it in place for four months. The best that can be said about this experience, well-documented by […] The post Nixon’s ten percent import duty appeared...

One of the most satisfying aspects of covering biotech as long as I have is the opportunity to report on the long arc of drug development, from start to finish. It’s not always pretty, and more often than not, it ends badly. But KarXT, now Cobenfy, is one of those drug stories with a happy […] The post A new schizophrenia drug appeared first...

A similar pattern emerged in my recent report on crime in Washington, D.C. There, too, there are signs that disorder has risen, relative to both the pandemic and pre-pandemic, as the police have attended to it less. Unsheltered homelessness, unsanitary conditions, shoplifting, farebeating—all seem to have become more common in D.C. And those problems have come as […] The post Crime vs. disorder appeared first on...

1. “men do okay, but women usually win…” 2. Ed Glaeser on the Jon Hartley podcast. 3. Is bad service the sign of a better world? 4. Bari Weiss media start-up valued at $100 million. 5. Malcolm Gladwell on his new book and his development (NYT). 6. Scott Sumner on artistic styles. 7. As the […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: As for consumer prices for the current obesity drugs, they are not as high as is often reported, once the various ways to get a discount are taken into account. Despite reports that the drugs cost $1,000 per month, the reality is more favorable. […] The post On the price of Ozempic appeared...

Increases in “deaths of despair” have been hypothesized to provide an important source of the adverse mortality experiences of some groups at the beginning of the 21st century. This study examines this possibility and uncovers the following primary findings. First, mental health deteriorated between 1993 and 2019 for all population subgroups examined. Second, these declines […] The post “Despair” and Death in the United...

That is quite a popular policy, including with libertarian open borders types, but it does not always work out well: This paper studies the effects of a large welfare benefit reduction on the children in the affected families. The welfare cut targeted adult refugees who received residency in Denmark, and it reduced their disposable income […] The post Cutting welfare for immigrants appeared first...

1. The new Mozart piece (to me not impressive) 2. How baseball line-ups are changing. 3. The new Meta glasses (to me impressive). 4. Are these the world’s coolest neighborhoods? 5. China or Russia?  What do you think? 6. Some killer apps for AR? The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Larry Siegel. Don't forget “agenda” —...

Recent social and economic trends in the United States, including increasing economic inequality, women’s growing educational advantage, and the rise of online dating, have ambiguous implications for patterns of educational homogamy. In this research note, we examine changes in educational assortative mating in the United States over the last eight decades (1940 to 2020) using […] The post Is assortative mating by education declining?...

Not so much, at least not yet: We study whether the sensitivity of economic, health, and livelihood outcomes to climate extremes has declined over the last half century, consistent with adaptation. Understanding whether such adaptation is already occurring is central to anticipating future climate damages, to calibrating the level of ambition needed for emissions mitigation […] The post Are We Adapting to Climate Change?...

Yes I will be doing another Conversation with him, in honor of his forthcoming book Polostan, which initiates a new series.  It is set in the 1930s, has some spies in it, and parts are set in the town of Magnetogorsk in the Ural mountains, as well as Montana and WDC in the U.S.  So […] The post What should I ask Neal Stephenson?...

1. How do Greenland sharks live for 400 years? (NYT) 2. John Cochrane on AI regulation.  Trenchant. 3. Uh-oh.  Which Commandment was broken here? 4. Have economists gone out of fashion in Washington? 5. Another look at Harriet Martineau. 6. Speed record smashed on the Appalachian trail. The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to H. Why is...

FarmProgress: With a closed herd and all his heifers artificially inseminated — no outside bulls needed — Nathan Brearley was confident his 500-cow dairy farm in Portland, Mich., would be spared from the avian flu strain that’s affecting dairies. He was wrong. Nearly six months later after an infection on his farm, milk production still […] The post Avian Flu is Bad for Cows...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: Then there is the money. European and South Korean infrastructure companies, for example, tend to be much less expensive than US firms. The Buy American Act often prevents them from bidding on US contracts. And when the federal government is spending more […] The post Why “Buy American” is not such...

We report a large-scale examination of behavioral attenuation: due to information-processing constraints, the elasticity of people’s decisions with respect to economic fundamentals is generally too small. We implement more than 30 experiments, 20 of which were crowd-sourced from leading experts. These experiments cover a broad range of economic decisions, from choice and valuation to belief […] The post Behavioral attenuation appeared first on Marginal...

1. “Estimates from that model imply that a targeted voucher program would have a marginal value of public funds (MVPF) of at least 3.” 2. Peter Jay, RIP (the avid reader will recall that Peter has a cameo appearance in GOAT). 3. Cosmos Ventures, a bit like EV but for AI. 4. Sam Altman on […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

Alex and I have started this, and today is the premiere of the first episode.  Here is the audio, video, and transcript, as with CWT (which by the way will continue as usual).  This episode covers the breakdown of monetary policy in the 1970s, and Alex and I have recorded a series of other episodes […] The post Marginal Revolution Podcast, my excellent conversations...

Courtesy of MRU here are two new econ-practice games on negative externalities and positive externalities. Great for students. But don’t forget that if you are not careful regulation can often lead to Unintended Consequences (a fun choose your adventure story!) All of these resources are free for any teacher of economics but, of course, they […] The post Unintended Consequences appeared first on Marginal...

A production efficiency perspective naturally leads to the prescription that more productive individuals should work more than less productive individuals. Yet, systematic differences in actual hours worked across high- and low-wage individuals are barely noticeable. We highlight that the insurance available to households is an important determinant behind this fact. Using a dynamic heterogeneous-agent model […] The post The value of better insurance appeared...