Econlinks

• A summary of the debate "What's wrong with macroeconomics?" The debate goes on.

• Terry Tao's presentation of Perelman's solution to Poincaré's conjecture. There are chances you still won't understand much, but this is way better than attempting to directly digest Perelman's original articles :-).

• Here's Paul Graham's rule of thumb for recognizing (publishing) winners and losers: "When you see something that's taking advantage of new technology to give people something they want that they couldn't have before, you're probably looking at a winner. And when you see something that's merely reacting to new technology in an attempt to preserve some existing source of revenue, you're probably looking at a loser" . He's also got an entertaining piece on the cheeseburger of essay forms.

• "So long as you use a knife there's some love left" or a(nother) glimpse at Norman Mailer's life & oeuvre. Controversy might be his nickname, but Mailer is one embarassing omission of the Literature Nobel Prize Commitee.

• The Chess Dreamteam?

• "The paradox is this: it's best to engage with your opponents' strongest arguments--but your view of what their strongest arguments are is not necessarily their view." This quote (valuable on its own) is from a must-read post of Gelman on (strategic) citation practices.

Klausenburg, anno 1865

WHEN you leave Szamos Ujvár, the road passes straight over a plain, with little or nothing to relieve the monotony. A Hungarian village or two, a nobleman's mansion with the surrounding farm-buildings,-that is all, until the tall spire and the various towers of Klausenburg rise before you. The town takes you by surprise, entering it from the north; the main street is broad, with many stately buildings in it, and the square with the Catholic church in the centre, seems to belong to a larger town than Klausenburg really is. Though it has but 25,000 inhabitants, which is less than the population of Kronstadt, its general appearance makes it seem the more considerable town of the two. The capital of the Barzenland is neat and compact, the houses are none of them high; and owing to its position among the hills, which gives it such enviable beauty, there is no possibility of broad streets and an open square in the centre of the town, as is the case in Klausenburg. Here there is plenty of room and to spare, and it would seem as if the Saxon founders-liking spacious dwellings, and needing them probably for their families and servants--had determined to make use of it.

All the old buildings are essentially German in their architecture and arrangements. The ironwork before the windows, the balconies, railings, the spouts for the water running from the gutters of the roof,-each bears its own unmistakable impress; the hand and skill of the German handicraftsman is everywhere to be recognized. Those first settlers were evidently well to do in the world,-comfortable citizens, who, if they did not care for luxury, valued at its full a good substantial dwelling, giving evidence that its possessor was also a man of substance.

The above is a fragment from Chapter XXVII of Charles Boner's "Transylvania. Its Products and Its People", published in London, in 1865. The whole book is available online, part of a very welcome research project at DXARTS/CARTAH, University of Washington-- which collects, inter alia, a bunch of other, old(er), books/translations about Romania et al, in digital format.

Weekend econlinks

• The other side of scientific publishing: the Editor's perspective. In this case nothing to complain about (au contraire: e.g., see earlier): if only most editors (cross-disciplinary) would follow on McAfee's steps... unfortunately, plenty of counterexamples around, such as the editors involved here

• Steven Shreve on working with models in the finance world. Shreve on a similar topic, earlier.

• Troubles in the adult entertainment industry...

• Econblogs doing great.

• One of the few things Romanians could/should copy from their Moldavian neighbours

• Bill Easterly reminding us about the gains from specialization.

• They might be having a slow, if any, economic recovery, but the Japanese are way ahead than anybody else technology-wise: Isaac Asimov would have loved this restaurant in Nagoya, Japan. Related, earlier.

• The hot waitress economic index.

• The Google Translate service: not a bad job (though things can be improved: e.g. "how are you, friend?" is translated in Danish "how are you, ven?" and in Hungarian "how are you, barátom?"; in most other languages I can check it seems to work fine :-)). See also a Google Research Blog recent article on the theme.


• The race to hire economists. Or statisticians. Or their combination?

• A new business hype (?): Investing in lawsuits.

Back from Catalunya

My Iberian experience (previous episodes here, here and here, some still incomplete) continued with 10 great (although unbearably hot...) end August days in Barcelona, around the EEA-ESEM conference this year, excellently hosted by the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, in its two campuses at Autònoma and Pompeu Fabra. Keeping it very brief, my (very selective) highlights:

• conference-wise, I have seen several excellent paper presentations and invited talks, but ultimately enjoyed most Pinelopi Goldberg's Marshall lecture on the effects of global patent agreements for pharmaceutical companies, talk partially based on this paper. The results were quite surprising (at least given my priors...): this is definitely worth reading/considering very carefully.
• I had to check out some of Barcelona's famous restaurants; hence, I shall warmly recommend to anybody, foodie or not: i) pretty much any of the tapas dishes (perhaps a random selection would be best for your first visit!), accompanied, for instance (their wine list is not very large, but counts some excellent wines), by an unforgettable Santiago Ruiz Blanco, at Paco Meralgo -- without exaggeration one of the best tapas places I have ever tried; ii) Sagardi Euskal Taberna (in the beautiful Barrio Gótico) is obviously not Catalan-cuisine..., but I've found beyond delicious their baby squid in ink sauce, accompanied by the perfect Basque Country cider (guess which side of Spain I must visit next...); iii) I would not really compare, overall, this restaurant to the first two mentioned above, but if you try the monkfish at Can Ramonet (ask for the 'monkfish in Can Ramonet sauce', obviously), and accompany that with their superb Gramona Sauvignon Blanc, that'll surely make a perfect evening. The only regret is that I did not have time to try all the places on my list; inter alia El Bulli will have to remain for some future time... and some future budget :-).
• if you thought I ignored all that, not a chance: Barcelona is, perhaps first of all, Antoni Gaudí's city. Obviously you should find plenty of documentation (and/or impressions) about Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, Casa Milà or the Parc Güell (the latter my favourite Gaudí-related spot in Barcelona), so I'll just say that you will be forever impressed, even if Art Nouveau is not necessarily your favourite architectural bite-- Gaudí's style is unique (delayed confession: I guess I am totally into Bauhaus, especially after admiring Walter Gropius's amazing 1938 house in Lincoln, with the occasion of my earlier visit this year to Boston)
• last, but never least: essential for my Barcelona visit, my good old friend Joop is to be thanked for being a great host, guide, and... cook! That fresh monkfish ceviche was truly fabulous-- I think I just chose it one of my very favourite dishes, though for now I hesitate attempting to prepare it myself (even considering solved the problem of finding very fresh el rape) :-).

Publishing Scientific Comments: The Pain, the Horror, the Frustration

This is absolutely amazing. I mean, of course it is absolutely awful for the researcher in question, but great that he took the pain to write it down: should be recommended reading for any (aspiring) scientist.

Via Andrew Gelman, who adds some of his own scietific 'commenting' sagas.

PS1. At step number 50 the journal editor involved here should have been guillotined without further delay, though I wouldn't be surprised if most of you will feel this ought to have been done even earlier in the story.

PS2. Applauses to Rick Trebino for keeping the ironic and funny tone throughout: most of us would have deeply failed at that, faced with such a situation.

Bracara Augusta et al

After a few days of touring Transylvania---inter alia, fighting bears & beers in the Carpathians-Bucegi mountains---, followed by a most interesting microeconometrics workshop in Copenhagen (blended with excellent July jazz evenings), I've been enjoying the latest week in wonderful Braga, Portugal. Main purpose: visiting the Department of Economics at Minho University, giving an invited seminar, and working hard on exciting research projects with my co-author and terrific host, Miguel. A short detour to Porto was also very much appreciated; given time constraints however, for now I had to roughly settle for the 6-bridges-Douro river cruise and a taste of exquisite Sandeman port wines (ex post though, if they are to choose one of their vintage ports for tasting, I would prefer a 20+, rather than an 8 years old one... reason why I appreciated more their white port on offer), but I will surely go back in the near future and revisit. Meanwhile, a couple more days left for the city which some call the Portuguese Rome, and its surroundings. And--obviously-- for ever more bacalhau and vinhos verdes, all in fado rhythms. Saúde!

PS. This should also be read as an excuse for not having written much on the blog recently. But I'll be back online soon!

Econlinks

• Always wise thoughts from the one and only Kevin Murphy . If for some reason you haven't heard of him yet, all you need to know is that Murphy holds comparative advantage in all forms of production.

• A quite old, but still interesting and revealing article on Sergey Brin. I like this bit from Eric Schmidt: "Evil is whatever Sergey says is evil".

• Ambition-adjusted (Economics) journal ranking. Some (my) highlights: 1. No matter how you measure it, top 5 is top 5 and has been virtually the same over many years (and, caveat lector, it is certainly not a top 6... or more; in particular maybe somebody from the Finance group(s) at my former Tinbergen Institute reads this and eliminates the Journal of Finance from their current top "5+1": I think it is the only place in the world where they have recently altered the very top by adding this extra field journal, though they would be happy to confirm that their best papers are submitted always to one of the other top 5's...); 2. JEcGrowth, Review of Econ Dynamics and JEEA are the very strong newcomers and they continue to go up the rankings; 3. EJ is a champion of self-citations; 4. Some formerly very prestigious journals recently lost quite some ground, examples being JHumResources, Journal of Credit, Money and Banking, JDynControl etc.

• I concur: this would be by far the best way to organize poster sessions. Particularly if they are in Economics or Social Sciences in general...

• An interesting NewYorker article on Iran's trial-and-error Economics policies.

• Italy outsourcing peer-review to NIH: it could potentially be a solution also for other countries where finding decent referees for grant proposals etc. has been notoriously difficult (think Romania and the like). Via Liviu Giosan, on Ad Astra.

• Sardines (and Sardinistas). Try them grilled with garlic and parsley, indeed!

• The imp of the perverse (or How to Think, Say, or Do Precisely the Worst Thing for Any Occasion)

• "The secret to The Economist’s success is not its brilliance, or its hauteur, or its typeface. The writing in Time and Newsweek may be every bit as smart, as assured, as the writing in The Economist. But neither one feels like the only magazine you need to read. You may like the new Time and Newsweek. But you must—or at least, brilliant marketing has convinced you that you must—subscribe to The Economist. " More about the Economics of The Economist.

My whereabouts

After a full week in very beautiful (and very hot) Seville, where inter alia I presented a paper at this year's ESPE conference (I will dedicate of course a separate post to my Seville experience a.s.a.p, hence further details will be omitted here), followed by a short pit stop of a few hours back in Aarhus, I have just arrived in Os, very close to Bergen. I am staying at this sensationally picturesque place called Solstrand, truly a perfect combination of classic and modern, romantic and pragmatic (e.g., one might have have difficulties deciding which of the several swimming pools or saunas to try out, after having had a perfect walk--or swim!-- along the fjords... :-))..., where for the next couple of days I'll be listening to, discussing and presenting papers within the 2009 Nordic Summer Institute in Labour Economics. Be good, I'll be back!

PS. Some straightforward differences between Seville (or, attempting to generalize: Spain/ Iberia/ Southern Europe) and Bergen (Norway/ Scandinavia/ Northern Europe) really have to do with numbers, ie. temperature degree and, respectively, price differentials. You can most likely sign those differences yourselves :-).

(Many) Econlinks for the Weekend

• A nice, brief VoxEU note of Willem Buiter on negative nominal interest rates (and their potential desirability). Greg Mankiw also tackled the topic earlier.

• If you're at all into arithmetics (and not only) you might like this concise exposé on very big numbers (think Ackerman series, Busy Beavers and the like if you are dubious about what "very big" stands for in this context...). Inter alia, this reminds me that many many years ago :-), when I was starting highschool, one of my life goals was to prove the Goldbach conjecture. I guess meanwhile I started looking for easier life targets :-).

• We absolutely love Blonde Parades -- though I wouldn't necessarily ask a financial crisis as prerequisite :-).

• Harvard in BIG trouble?...

• Pacepa and the former Romanian car industry (that he does get at all WSJ editorial space I find rather amazing in the first place, that he uses it to give advice to the USA gov on the failed car companies is, well... just fantastic :-)...). Hmm, at least he's got an interesting "style", shifting the entire blame on his former superior(s)... There isn't much Economics in there of course, as he after all admits himself..., but I would have liked at least some more precision in the numbers (and no, "billions" in "The Oltcit project lost billions" is not what I would call a good approximation)

• This is the only bullet point connected to the "pathetic" label of this blogpost. Levitt oddly calls it "reasonably interesting" on Freakonomics (I also do not agree with all Levitt's further opinions on the apparent "macro problem", but well, I guess he is well versed in Macroeconomics to know it better :-)), but I find this Guardian editorial "interesting" only inasmuch it shows the difference in Economics education between the "Economics editor" (sic!) of The Guardian and other Economics editors at, say, WSJ, NYTimes, The Economist, or FT... Inter alia, I wouldn't pretend that everybody understands the work of Bonhomme and Robin forthcoming at the ReStud (or for that matter, any other work in a top 5 research journal within Economics, which perhaps is not aimed to really everybody?), but indeed from an "Economics editor" we would perhaps expect a little bit more that the appraisal "divorced from reality" (merely from reading the abstract and nothing further in the text, since else our author would have found plenty of "reality"...). But Economics à la The Guardian it is, now you know what to read :-).

• Who's a bigger villain for Development: Mugabe or Anopheles/ Sachs or Easterly...? I guess you ought to know by now what I think in this mater, but that should not stop you from making your own opinion :-).

• In a rather vague Reuters article Romania comes 3rd in a top of "new wine regions". A pity they do not mention any Romanian wine de facto in that top, since the variance in the quality of all wines produced in the above mentioned regions is... well, infinite.

• Interesting facts & thoughts by Dan Hamermesh on (incentive...) bonuses for papers with multiple co-authors. Should they be designed as function of 1/N or 1/SquareRoot(N), where N the number of co-authors etc.? Perhaps we should also know what other disciplines do, if anything, in this regard, in Economics indeed there seems to be a (very surprising) heterogeneity of such practices among various Departments/Institutes.

• It might be the first time ever..., but yes, the Historian won against the Economist (my good old friend Daniel, Harvard trained Historian of Science too, will surely be very pleased to hear this:-) ). I would never allow Paul Krugman in such competitions again, this is bad for the whole Econ field :-). The good thing though is that the Historian won with (the true) Economics arguments :-).

• Average citation rates by field (through Ad Astra). One trend not emphasized in the article's discussion following the table is that in some fields the citation impact is very low on the short run (1-3 years), but increases much faster over the the longer run (8-10 years). This is why for instance Economics gets a higher average citation impact than Mathematics or Computer Science overall, though in the short run (eg, the two years span that the Thomson ISI citation ranks are typically constructed on) is equally "de-cited". Consider switching to Molecular Biology if you're after citations :-).

My first (and last) public karaoke performance

...represents the validation of my long held opinion that I have no comparative advantage whatsoever in this area. My team partner for this impromptu exercise, Ian Walker, among other things the current editor-in-chief of Labour Economics, performed rather reasonably, but there was no chance to ultimately rank decently among the brave competitors-- my colleague economists from the Aarhus School of Business, some of them natural born karaoke stars-- precisely because of teaming up with yours truly. As a consequence (and I credit Ian Walker with the quote of the week), "[I] shall remain a referee for Labour Economics forever". Still, there could/would/should be some attenuating circumstances to consider: the event took place in an unlikely hotel restaurant room in Viborg with what looked like improvised (initially malfunctioning) equipment, the choices were from a limited set of (only) Abba songs and, crucially, I was forced in the show without being provided with sufficient wine beforehand... :-)

Anyway: though we butchered the song, we still ought to thank the true masters for the music!