Economics

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Bright young Economists

January 21, 2009 in Economics - General | No comments

The Economist magazine has a listing of the eight up-and-coming economists.  Below is a list of their names and some commentary if applicable.

  • Amy Finkelstein.  Dr. Finkelstein researches in the public and health economics fields.  I have featured here work multiple times on this blog (see here, here, here, here and here).
  • Jesse Shapiro.  I met Dr. Shapiro at an IHS conference last spring and have been very impressed with his work.  Some of Dr. Shapiro’s research findings include: harsher jail conditions do nothing to deter prisoners from reoffending and that preschoolers who watch television do better academically than children who don’t.
  • Esther Duflo.  Dr. Duflo is a well known development economist whose work involves randomized interventions. For instance, she found that giving away 1 kg of daal (lentils) when parents take their kids to be immunized greatly improved immunization rates compared to the control group not given the daal.
  • Roland Fryer – Social Economics, the Economics of Affirmative Action/Racism.
  • Raj Chetty – Public Economics, Taxation.
  • Iván Werning – Macroeconomics.
  • Xavier Gabaix – Behavioral Economics, Asset pricing.
  • Marc Melitz – Trade Economics.

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Economic Stimulus: Federal Block Grants

December 29, 2008 in Economics - General | No comments

Many pundits are calling for Barack Obama to fund massive infrastructure projects.  UC-San Diego economist Jim Hamilton of  believes that increased block grants to states will not only stimulate the economy, but also permit states the flexibility they need to spend these fund efficiently.

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Economic Stimulus and Universal Health Care

December 27, 2008 in Economics - General | No comments

To stimulate the economy, expand government health insurance.

To stimulate the economy, defeat government health insurance expansions.

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Offshorable Economists

October 20, 2008 in Economics - General, Labor Economics | Permalink

In recent years, economists have examined the phenomenon of offshoring.  Offshorable service jobs are characterized by a number of factors.   Jensen and Kletzer note that offshorable jobs have little face-to-face customer contact and work processes that can be monitored via the internet.  Thus, data entry is easily offshorable whereas barbershop services are not.

A paper by Alan Blinder reveals a troubling observation: economists are easily offshorable!  The occupation of “Economist” had an offshoreablitily index of 89%.  This ranks economists as the 37th most offshorable profession of the 291 occupations studied.  A presentation by Lori Kletzer at the UC Labor Economics workshop claimed that economists are the 15th most offshorable profession of the 457.

Why are economists so offshorable?  Economists write frequently, conduct data analysis and think a lot.  All of these tasks can be done anywhere in the world (assuming you have a laptop and an internet connection).  Looks like American economists aren’t indispensible after all.

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What to say in economics seminars

August 22, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

Justin Wolfers writes in the Freakonomics blog that economists should limit their objections during academic seminars to a list of comments to make discussions of research papers more efficient. Here are some of my favorite:

  • Adam Smith said that.
  • Unfortunately, there is an identification problem which is not dealt with adequately in the paper.
  • The residuals are clearly non-normal, and the specification of the model is incorrect.
  • Have you tried two-stage least squares?
  • The conclusions change if you introduce uncertainty.
  • I proved the main results in a paper published years ago.
  • The market cannot, of course, deal satisfactorily with that externality.
  • But what if transaction costs are not zero?
  • What empirical finding would contradict your theory?
  • What happens when you extend the analysis to the later (or earlier) period?
  • That is alright in theory, but it doesn’t work out in practice.
  • The problem cannot be dealt with by partial equilibrium methods; it requires a general equilibrium formulation.
  • Is there a weak instruments problem?
  • The conclusion rests on the assumption of fixed tastes, but (of course) tastes have surely changed.
  • The trouble with the present situation is that the property rights have not been fully assigned.
  • How did you handle endogeneity problem?

This list is likely only entertaining for academic economics. Wolfers wonders if the economics fields ability to characterize objections to research paper with such a list may suggest “…a methodological narrowness to neoclassical economics. But equally, it is the clarity of the framework that gives economic analysis its power.”

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Surprising insights from the social sciences

July 30, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

What have my fellow brethren of social scientists discovered lately? The Boston Globe summaries some interesting findings such as:

  • Women find men with stubble more attractive than those who are clean shaven or have significant amounts of facial hair. I guess women must think Brett Favre is a sexy dude…whether or not he is retired.
  • Evidence of the winner’s curse is found in major league baseball free agency.
  • Award-winning CEOs earn more money, but their companies preform worse. Is regression to the mean at work?

Hat tip: The Sports Economist.

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Explaining the Mortgage Meltdown

May 30, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

NPR’s This American Life has a great episode (“The Giant Pool of Money“) explaining in a non-technical, entertaining manner how the “credit crunch” came upon us. The episode looks at all the parts of the mortgage-backed securities chain: home owners and borrowers, brokers, banks, rating agencies, Wall Street, and foreign and domestic investors.

A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR news. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

This program even made the list of one of the top 10 pieces of journalism of the decade.

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Why Economists support Free Trade

May 28, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

Economist Greg Mankiw reveals the answer in the “Trade: why not?” post on The Free Exchange blog.

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Serious Economics

April 11, 2008 in Economics - General, Miscellaneous | Permalink

For all my economist peers who are sick and tired of monetary policy, financial option valuations, and esoteric econometric specifications, it may be time for a change. The American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) is holding their second annual conference August 14-16 in Portland, Oregon. The AAWE also publishes the Journal of Wine Economics.

I am sure the members of the AAWE do not mind conducting “research” as to which wines are the highest quality.

Who says economics is the dismal science?

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UCSD Economics Departmant Ranked #10

April 2, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

According to the U.S. News and World Report UC San Diego was ranked as the tenth best economics department in the U.S.

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