The Big Apple and The Island. And some good Econ research in Boston

Yes, I admit: my blog has been somewhat neglected recently... And unfortunately it will still be in that situation for a while, since I'm in the middle of some conferences and workshops in the US (plus it is summer and awfully hot here). Tomorrow I'll be presenting in the SED '08 conference at MIT (you can see the precise session and download the paper from here- comments are very welcome!) and next week I'll be attending the NBER Summer Institute Workshop on "Macro Perspectives", which will feature some very very interesting papers. Meanwhile, luckily enough (wouldn't be able to make it to Chicago as well!), my co-author, Marco, will present another of my joint papers in the GAMES '08 conference at Northwestern Univ., Chicago (session and paper available for download here).

But equally important, I've spent the last couple of days in NYC--where it is horribly warm currently, I have to repeat that-- and among many other things, I've managed to see for the first time something I wanted to catch for quite a while now: Alex Balanescu and Ada Milea's performance of "The Island" (written by Gellu Naum). I've enjoyed this performance at Joe's Pub, on the 5th of July and I'll say it was nothing short of amazing. Don't miss it if you have the slightest chance to catch it! A/the line to retain (for current and future reference): "Temptation's still alive, temptation's still alive...".

The fringe benefits of failure

Possibly the best short read of the week. In any case, surely the best speech for a class of university graduates I've ever happened onto. J.K. Rowling, the benefits of failure and, more than anything, the importance of imagination (You can also watch the video of the speech- if not loading, it is also on YouTube already, in several copies...).

(HT to Greg Mankiw).

And here's an advice from the the lecture above that my younger (and older...) friends would do well to retain (there are plenty others, so read the whole speech linked above very carefully); we'll have this one as quote of the week:

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

And I'll even add a second-best this week (though, ultimately, very likely my personal favourite from Rowling's speech)

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.

(New) Dutch architecture or urbanism in three dimensions

Here's an excellent article in NYTimes about MVRDV, nowadays the (no reservations) top Dutch architects (here's their website, describing their projects etc.; here's a brief slideshow presentation of some of their work, accompanying the article above). And a contender for best quote this week, from the same article:

"The Dutch population is essentially antiurban,” de Vries says. “Therefore as architects in Holland we have a special responsibility to make living in cities and under dense circumstances not just habitable but preferable.”

Culmea pateticului pe saptamana curenta

Domnul Daianu, fost economist..., "ataca" din nou (vezi si isprava precedenta, comentata)... Introducerea textului din Dilema Veche uita sa precizeze ca nici un economist serios nu se afla intre semnatarii 'scrisorii', cu toate ca politicienii respectivi (unii dintre ei economisti ratati sau/si politicieni frustrati, altii simpli naivi) "aparţin unor grupări politice diferite [...] depăşirea barierelor ideologice adăugînd un plus de importanţă documentului." (sic!). Revin cu comentarii detaliate pe text cand voi avea mai mult timp. Pana una alta, mirati-va si singuri :-).

Catalin, merci pentru link!

Econlinks for the weekend

• This erotic-stimuli-influencing-spending might be more serious than I thought (see my earlier short comment to Tyler Cowen's erotics of investing- 2nd bullet point). Although the researchers admit that all their conclusions rely on the men faced with a decision to be taken in a second or so... Yeah, then it could be very true :-). Some idea for smart business managers?...

• How to read a CV when the subject (considered for academic tenure) has about two top papers, but the second sort of refutes the first: interesting thoughts from Cowen on MR. Talking about that, here's somebody famous in that situation; Levitt likes her too (so better refute then remain silent...). And if you passed that tenure-track stage, here are some benefits of being a full professor. Not that in Economics anybody thinks it's a drama if you actually leave your department... or your profession altogether. Though, if you did stay for quite a while, you might want more incentives to publish high?...

• The new Dutch Me Judice partnering with VoxEu. Geen slecht idee, hoor!

• Investigating the root of biases and stereotypes (this is beyond scratching the surface and shifting all debate on political correctness: yes/no, as too often done nowadays). So far this is really not modelled thoroughly within Economics and much of this review of research within psychology is super interesting (though it is very mixed...). Here's an interesting quote, just to give you an idea what this is about: "To what degree are our decisions swayed by implicit social biases? How do those implicit biases interact with our more deliberate choices? A growing body of work indicates that implicit attitudes do, in fact, contaminate our behavior. Reflexive actions and snap judgments may be especially vulnerable to implicit associations." Link also to the 1st bullet point above.

• The new business gurus: I agree with Gardner and Hamel in top 5, but Thomas Friedman should be a very passing fad...

Balanescu Quartet's "The Model"

Although Kraftwerk's original version of "The Model" (lyrics in English or German) is very good as well, my take is that The Balanescu Quartet (finally they've got a nice website: congrats!) added that something extra to it. So I'd say I like their cover even better than the original (and this hasn't much to do with the fact that I've met Alex Balanescu twice at small concerts he gave in London when I was there etc, see also my previous posts mentioning the Balanescu Quartet e.g. here or here or here). Anyway, without further ado, here's the super nice rendition of "The Model", placing together David Byrne (of, e.g., Talking Heads fame) and The Balanescu Quartet.

Econlinks today

• The promise of prediction markets, as policy forum article in Science; many Econ Nobelists and future Nobelists on that list of authors... This is a follow up of a statement signed by equally prestigious researchers that I talked about a while ago. Since in the US there are a series of legal issues in this context, I think it is high time prediction markets received a lot of attention in Europe, for instance.

• User (err...drinker)-entered price for a pint. In Denmark, Aarhus is the most expensive: why am I not surprised by that... ?

• Further on drinks: Wine drinkers of the world, Unite! A good article by Christopher Hitchens, in Slate. He's clearly read my mind and probably every serious wine drinker's mind...

• Natural resource curse or blessing? Clearly more research is needed in this area, I'd say.

Gone southeastwards

...though only as far as Budapest, which I am enjoying (as always; I love this city!) since yesterday evening. Among other things, I'll be presenting two papers (one is here, the other one available only as abstract for now on this page or in this conference handbook) at the Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data (CAED) conference, cruise the Danube, drink top Tokaji wines and admire the beautiful Hungarian women around :-). This also means that I would be less active with blogging these days, but I'll catch up later.

Shatner's Rocket Man

The song of the weekend is John and Taupin's great "Rocket Man". And although I like a lot Kate Bush's version as well, nothing can ever compare to Bill Shatner's theatrical rendition of this masterpiece (superb youtube old videoclip, with an introduction by Bernie Taupin). Enjoy!

Quote of the week

Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Previous quote of the week.