~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (570)

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991 it pushed some 20 million tons of SO₂ into the stratosphere reducing global temperatures by ~0.5°C for two years. Make Sunsets is a startup that replicates this effort at small scale to reduce global warming. To be precise, Make Sunsets launches balloons that release SO₂ into the stratosphere, creating […] The post Make Sunsets: Geoengineering appeared first on...

Data collected by INRIX, a transportation analytics firm, found that travel times across the city and region had actually slowed overall at peak rush hours — by 3 percent in the morning and 4 percent in the evening — during the first two weeks of congestion pricing compared to a similar period last year. Travel […] The post Congestion pricing update appeared first on...

Noah Smith, and a few readers, have asked for a summary post about the errors of Michael Pettis.  Since Pettis is now an influential trade thinkers with many of the Trump people, I think it is worth repeating my previous points just a bit. Here are the errors, perhaps there are more: He talks about […] The post The mistakes of Michael Pettis appeared...

1. Cato ad for policy analyst in human progress and economics.  And for psychology. 2. Joe Boyd episode Spotify playlist, put together by a CWT listener. 3. Lots more black holes than we had thought? And more here. 4. DeepSeek okie-dokie: “All I know is we keep pushing forward to make open-source AGI a reality […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

This study quantifies the direct average net fiscal impact (ANFI) of migration in Germany, taking into account both indirect taxes and in-kind benefits such as health and education spending. Using a status quo approach with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for 2018 and microsimulation techniques to impute both indirect taxes and in-kind benefits, […] The post Do Migrants Pay Their Way? A...

Thoee two novels by Solvej Balle, a Danish author, are now available in English.  Conceptually, they are close to time travel novels (I should not tell you the actual nature of the twist), but with more literary value than you might be expecting. Every now and then a new book comes along that is conceptual, […] The post *On the Calculation of Volume, I...

That is the new James C. Scott book, from Yale University Press.  It focuses on Burma [sic], and I found this to be the most typical and illustrative sentence: Several of the commentators evaluating this book in manuscript noticed that the section of river spirits (nats) and the much larger section describing the eco zones, […] The post *In Praise of Floods*, James C....

1. Teen fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. 2. Does Chile have the fastest fertility collapse? 3. New book sorting algorithm almost reaches perfection. 4. How did the organization of DOGE end up? An important piece. As I have been predicting, DOGE will shrink government (slow its rate of growth?) by only a modest amount, if at […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

In our paper on online education, Tyler and I wrote: One model of a future course is a super-textbook: lectures, exercises, quizzes, and grading all available on a tablet with artificial intelligence routines guiding students to lectures and exercises designed to address that student’s deficits and with human intelligence—tutors—on call on an as-needed basis, possibly […] The post AI Improves Student Learning and Engagement...

Over the past half-century, the share of men enrolled in college has steadily declined relative to women. Today, 1.6 million more women than men attend four-year colleges in the U.S. This trend has not lowered marriage rates for college women, a substantial share of whom have historically married economically stable men without college degrees. Both […] The post Gender gaps in education and declining...

From Tom Forth: In at least six Conversations with Tyler, Tyler Cowen asks his interviewee why they think North England is poor. I don’t think he gets good enough answers, which is why I guess he keeps asking. So here is a better explanation of why North England is poor with a bonus explanation of […] The post Why northern England is poor appeared...

1. Stablecoins rising. 2. Sonoma State is eliminating economics (among other fields).  They did add ethnic studies a few years ago. 3. Rohit tries to measure what AGI would look like. 4. Why is homeowner’s insurance getting so expensive?, a very good post by Brian Potter. 5. Observations on R1 and O1. 6. UFO okie-dokie.  […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

…in an interview, he said the circumstances of his job changed so sharply in 2024 that he decided he had to quit. He had been writing two columns and a newsletter every week, until September, when, Krugman said, Healy told him the newsletter was being killed. “That was my Network moment,” Krugman said. “‘I’m mad as […] The post Why did Paul Krugman leave the...

A good summary from the excellent Jeffrey Miron on the effects of the Indian Chinese Exclusion Act (repeated here, no indent): A long-standing concern about immigration is that it might reduce job opportunities for native workers: In 1882, the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned laborers born in China from entering the […] The post Who Loses from Immigration Restrictions? appeared...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one part of the argument: Start with the distinction between trade in goods and trade in services. When a US manufacturer sells tractors overseas, that’s goods. When a US software firm creates an AI medical diagnostic tool and sells access via the internet to […] The post The slide toward growing protectionism? appeared...

Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer — who will perform live in Riyadh on Jan. 24 — is working on a new interpretation of Saudi Arabia’s national anthem, according Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority. Alalshikh revealed on X recently that he had also spoken with Zimmer about ideas for a new Riyadh Season […] The post Those new service sector jobs appeared...

As most of you already know, the Trump administration through Executive Orders has taken major steps against affirmative action and also DEI.  We will see how the details play out, but each of these developments seems highly significant and not just “expressive.” Those two individuals played a decisive role in what happened, in both cases […] The post Congratulations to Christopher Rufo and Richard...

I am pleased to have been given an early look at this new project, I think in less than a year’s time many of us will be using an updated version for many ordinary tasks: “Operator is one of our first agents, which are AIs capable of doing work for you independently—you give it a […] The post OpenAI Operator research preview is now...

1. Do growth rates have to decline for aging societies? 2. Conversations with Tyler Boston meet-up. 3. ChinaTalk is expanding into Chinese AI issues. 4. Nate Silver on the zigzag of American politics. 5. Dwarkesh podcast with Adam Brown: “Bubble Universes, Black Holes, & AdS/CFT.” 6. UFO okie-dokie. 7. The politics of LLM content?  Tweet […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

Reason: In a sweeping move to overhaul Argentina’s food trade policies, Javier Milei’s administration officially deregulated food imports and exports on Monday. The reform, outlined in Decree 35/2025, seeks to boost foreign trade, cut bureaucratic red tape, and lower consumer prices. Federico Sturzenegger, head of the Ministry of Deregulation and State Transformation, explained in a post on […] The post Milei Implements Peer Approval for Food...

The NIH’s own research indicates that Pioneer Award recipients seem to produce influential, highly cited research.  But despite efforts to help younger scientists, the share of basic NIH funding going to scientists under thirty-five continues to decline.  In the 2004 fiscal year, the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program allocated about $200 million to scientists, a moderate […] The post *Abundance*, by Ezra Klein and Derek...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Joe Boyd was there when Dylan went electric, when Pink Floyd was born, and when Paul Simon brought Graceland to the world. But far from being just another music industry insider, Boyd has spent decades exploring how the world’s musical traditions connect and […] The post My Conversation with the excellent Joe...

By Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato.  As you might expect, I am in synch with the basic message of this book. I received a review copy which on the front says “Tyler Cowen edition.”  There is a forward, made out to me personally and highly intelligent, relating the book to my own work.  There is […] The post *Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right...

1. Why is everyone suddenly reading Middlemarch? 2. Good thread on a great book: Revel’s Without Marx or Jesus. 3. Richard Hanania on the day one Executive Orders.  And Doug Irwin on tariffs (FT). 4. Ashley Mehra on Executive AI orders and the defense production act. 5. How many exceptional people are there? 6. The […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...