Lant Pritchett — The Debate about RCTs in Development is over.
18 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of information, economics of regulation, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice
What Randomization Can and Cannot Do: The 2019 Nobel Prize
18 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
“A PhD student of ours on the market this year, Carlos Inoue, examined the effect of random allocation of a new coronary intervention in Brazilian hospitals. Following the arrival of this technology, good doctors moved to hospitals with the “randomized” technology. The estimated effect is therefore nothing like what would have been found had all hospitals adopted the intervention. This issue can be stated simply: randomizing treatment does not in practice hold all relevant covariates constant, and if your response is just “control for the covariates you worry about”, then we are back to the old setting of observational studies where we need a priori arguments about what these covariates are if we are to talk about the effects of a policy.”
It is Nobel Prize season once again, a grand opportunity to dive into some of our field’s most influential papers and to consider their legacy. This year’s prize was inevitable, an award to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for popularizing the hugely influential experimental approach to development. It is only fitting that my writeup this year has been delayed due to the anti-government road blockades here in Ecuador which delayed my return to the internet-enabled world – developing countries face many barriers to reaching prosperity, and rarely have I been so personally aware of the effects of place on productivity as I was this week!
The reason for the prize is straightforward: an entire branch of economics, development, looks absolutely different from what it looked like thirty years ago. Development economists used to be essentially a branch of economic growth. Researchers studied topics like the productivity of large…
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A Presidential Debate Can Make or Break a Campaign, Here’s How | @nytimes
18 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2020 presidential election
Video Clips of Economists Explaining for Intro Econ Classes
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
Superb Timothy Taylor on his super blog links to these intro econ videos:
I know a number of economics faculty who have been incorporating video clips into their classes. Sometimes it’s part of a lecture presentation. Sometimes it’s for students to watch before class. For intro students in particular, it can be a useful practice because it gives them a sense that they are being introduced to a universe of economists, not just to one professor and a textbook. The faculty member can also react to the video clip, and in this way offer students some encouragement to react and to comment as well–in a way that students might not feel comfortable reacting if they need to confront their own professor.
Amanda Bayer and Judy Chevalier have been compiling a list of video clips that may be useful for the standard intro econ class. It’s available at the Diversifying Economic…
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Anurag Deb: Identity: Northern Ireland’s Gordian Knot
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
On 14 October 2019, the Upper Tribunal (UT) handed down judgment in SSHD v De Souza, immediately dividing commentators both in and outside Northern Ireland. Briefly, the UT had heard the Home Secretary’s appeal against the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) decision which had declared that the American claimant (respondent in the UT) was entitled to apply to reside in Northern Ireland under the EU Citizen’s Directive because his wife was permitted to self-identify as an Irish national in accordance with the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). British nationality, the FTT declared, could not be “imposed” on her at birth, flying in the face of the British Nationality Act 1981 (BNA), section 1 of which, it was argued, does precisely that. The UT allowed the appeal and overturned the FTT judgment, revealing a tension which goes far beyond immigration law.
Constitutional
logic
The claimant’s case involved a…
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Sex by Deception? Perjury?
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
Sex by deception: Legal Case.
I was not intending to blog this case. I fear the bald facts lend themselves to a curiosity born out of prurience. I myself was intrigued so I am not in any position to judge. It is merely a natural reaction to the facts, as laid out in the case. Transcript
The bare facts of the case are:
On reflection, I decided to blog as it raises the issue of Sex By Deception, currently a criminal offence. There is talk about reviewing the law. Stonewall are one of the organisations lobbying for this:
Whilst there could be a progressive case for reviewing the law around sex by deception (I am thinking of Spy cops) it’s also fraught with risk. I am mainly thinking of #CottonCeiling here. The term #CottonCeiling was coined by a trans porn actor and activist, Drew DeVeux. It describes the “exclusionary”…
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Douglass North and Timur Kuran: Institutions and Economic Performance
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of regulation, economics of religion, financial economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: The Great Enrichment
The Facebook Dilemma: Brad Parscale – Trump’s digital guru
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of information, entrepreneurship, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election
How Crazed Parents Scammed Their Kids Into College
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics
The Invisible 310-Mile Barrier to a #Brexit Deal | @WSJ
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of crime, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, Public Choice Tags: Brexit, Ireland
Economic Reasoning Applied to Sociology – Becker and Posner
17 Oct 2019 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, Gary Becker, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics, law and economics, Public Choice, Richard Posner Tags: economics of AIDS
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