Hi all,
First of all—a quick apology if today’s links are truncated: in the latest example of my capacity to make my tech work against me, I left my computer power cable at the office after working there this morning, leaving me with a rapidly dying laptop and trying to get these links out before it breathes its last. And secondly, a huge thank you to those of you who responded to my request for tips for traveling with small children: I’ve had a veritable flood of good advice, which I will anonymise and put on twitter (as I tried this morning before the computer ate my homework). These days a lot makes me feel old: my creaky knees after an hour of muay thai; the fact that events I could have sworn were just a couple of years ago are actually a decade old (I’m looking at you, Linsanity); my intense grumpiness at all technology. But the positive side of becoming a decrepit, nostalgic grump is that I’ve accumulated a lot of great friends and colleagues; thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your tips!
- I rarely link to whole papers these days, because there are so many good summary blogs, and so many good twitter discussions, but there are exceptions: everyone should read this short, brilliant, important paper on the state of migration economics by Michael Clemens. You don’t need a summary: it’s ten pages, excluding references and joyously easy to read. It’s also important: he tells us that the very foundations which theoretical economics bases its thinking on is rotten, and he demonstrates just how much by taking you on a whirlwind tour of the last fifteen years of migration economics. There is no better guide. And related: Dan Honig, another superb writer, has a new paper out (with Ranjit Lall and Brad Parks) which looks at when and why greater access to information policies improve bureaucratic performance, using his amazing database of aid projects and their performance. This time I’ll link the thread, too—it’s a great example of why thinking carefully about mechanisms matters to understand policy implication.
- I’m currently writing a paper about what research does (and should) teach us about scaling—something that John List has thought about a lot. Planet Money have a nice summary of his new book about scaling, The Voltage Effect, in their newsletter. Scroll down for the five things to watch out for when scaling.
- This is an amazing thread, though I would have liked the tweets to be reversed in order: visualisations of how global trade has changed over time. I wonder if the strongest Brexit zealots were pining for the world to look like that picture for 1970 more than anything else… but regardless of the EU it’s all changed beyond recognition and nothing will turn it back.
- Just a few minutes of battery time left, so accelerating a bit: Tim Harford’s take on how to manage email and fight against your bullying inbox seems like pretty good advice. My strategy is to put a flag on everything I think I should do something about and then forget about it until I’m reminded, and just work through my bottomless to-do list. It’s probably not very good, but I don’t think I have the energy for anything more activist.
- Two examples of the under-taught history of economic thought: first a wonderful long thread by Beatrice Cherrier on the history of quantitative economics; and a nice VoxEU piece on the intellectual misunderstandings of Schumpeter in modern economics.
- A very nice piece by Paddy Carter on attribution of outcomes from investment, and why they are not the same as impact.
- Lastly, something to make us sad, and something to cheer us up. Sad news first, for all of us who have lived in or visited Oxford: Blackwells, that institution into which I have thrown a substantial proportion of my lifetime earnings, is up for sale. And to cheer us up, The Economist take a quantitative look at the rise of non-English pop music in the English speaking world, with a truly fantastic interactive chart. I’m actually quite surprised by how little non-English music made a dent in the charts. I’d always assumed that everyone was listening to Aisha, Rock el Casbah, Latinoamerica (one of the all time great videos, too), Todii and Pachuco. Oh well, if you haven’t please check them out!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
R
