Bookmarks (515)

France is the only one of the 27 EU member states to have missed its objective for 2020, when renewable energy represented 19.1% of its consumption, below the 23% target. Sigh. Here is the full story, via Nicanor. The post Nuclear power doesn’t count as green in the EU appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to mikeInThe716. rench nuclear regulator ASN said...

1. Annie Ernaux, The Years.  The most famous book by the most recent Nobel Laureate in literature, and a good and stimulating read.  It takes about twenty pages before you figure out what is going on, so stick with it.  Nabeel was ahead of the curve with this one. 2. Maria Edgeworth, Ormond.  An Irish […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all of its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday. Four monks, including an abbot, at a temple in Phetchabun province’s Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP. […] The post Solve for the equilibrium appeared first...

Marginal Revolution University has partnered with a recent Emergent Ventures grantee to build ‘Duolingo for economics’. They’re building a mobile app to help you learn and think about economics more effectively (for free), starting with courses on the fundamentals. You can join the waitlist here. That is from Michael Slade of Dublin. The post MRU/Retainit sign-ups appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to...

1. Behavioral approaches to increasing savings seem to work in the U.S. military. 2. MIE: “A rare opportunity to purchase one to five adjoining stall seats in the world’s most prestigious concert hall.” 3. A typology of the New Right. 4. On the Diplomacy AI. 5. Are we seeing a global cognitive convergence? 6. Identical […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

“Get Down and Shruti” (how many of you get the musical reference?).  Here is an excerpt from the first post, “Why everyone should pay more attention to India”: Globally, one in five people below 25 is from India. 47% of Indians, about 650 million, are below the age of 25. This group of young Indians […] The post Shruti Rajagopalan has a new Substack...

We quantify firms’ compliance costs of regulation from 2002 to 2014 in terms of their labor input expenditure to comply with government rules, a primary component of regulatory compliance spending for large portions of the U.S. economy. Detailed establishment-level occupation data, in combination with occupation-specific task information, allow us to recover the share of an […] The post The cost of regulatory compliance in...

There is to date little or no evidence of beneficial effects of longer parental leave (or fathers’ quotas) on maternal participation and earnings. In most cases longer leave delays mothers’ return to work, without long-lasting consequences on their careers. More generous childcare funding instead encourages female participation whenever subsidized childcare replaces maternal childcare. That is […] The post Child care sentences to ponder appeared...

1. Scott Sumner on Robert Louis Stevenson. 2. A man won the legal right to not be ‘fun’ at work after refusing to embrace ‘excessive alcoholism’ and ‘promiscuity’ [France]. 3. Claims about GPT-4. 4. Canadian commercial for assisted suicide. 5. One take on the Stanford academic freedom conference. 6. New data on the exoplanet, through […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

Students in Beijiing protest via equations. Any mathematicians care to guess why? Answer in the comments. A hint. I would have gone with Mv=PY. Hat tip: Nathan Law. The post Protesting via Equation appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Nathan. So, in the proper context, even an ... by Bill BenzonMy word, your reflex anti-Americanism is something to behold., ... by...

From the preview I feared it might be unwatchable, but it far exceeded expectations.  This story of Spielberg’s own childhood life (a risky premise for a sentimentalist!) is one of the best Spielberg movies, one of the best movies about America “back then,” and one of the best movies about the power of cinema itself. […] The post *The Fabelmans* appeared first on Marginal...

We compare the online reviews of 221 “Questionable” Illinois and Indiana physicians with multiple paid medical malpractice claims and disciplinary sanctions with matched control physicians with clean records. Across five prominent online rating services, we find small, mostly insignificant differences in star ratings and written reviews for Questionable versus control physicians. Only one rating service […] The post How good are on-line reviews for...

1. U.S. restrictions on GPU sales to China. 2. Inside (one part of) the pro-natalist movement. 3. What is going on in Quebec’s health care system? 4. Annie Lowery on women in the economics profession. 5. Intentional, or was there a trickster (or Straussian) involved in this one? 6. Thread on the Chinese protests.  And […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

After Operation Warp Speed was disbanded by the Biden administration, vaccine development slowed from warp speed to impulse power. The rest of the world now has some innovative vaccines not yet available in the United States. China, for example, has an inhaled vaccine. We don’t yet know how good the vaccine is and China, of […] The post Speeding up Inhaled Vaccines appeared first...

I am listing only new releases: Bach, Johann Sebastian, complete Sonatas and Partitas for violin, Fabio Biondi.  Perhaps the only recording I like as much as the older (stereo) Milstein performance? Bach, Johann Sebastian, The Art of Life, Daniil Trifonov, The Art of the Fugue (favorite of Thomas Schelling!) is the main work here.  Schelling, […] The post What I listened to in 2022...

And that is bad!  (Never reason from an income inequality decline.)  Despite a recent rebound, equity prices are still down considerably from their peaks, and of course that in percentage terms is a larger loss for wealthier people.  Here is one part of my latest Bloomberg column: And it’s not as if people on the […] The post Wealth and income inequality have been...

Yes the expenditures had prior approval, but that does not always lead to productive results: Nine months ago, in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Olaf Scholz declared a Zeitenwende — a turning point — for Germany’s military and its place in the world. But since then, barely any of the €100bn in […] The post The polity that is German appeared...

1. Private market exchange putting Americans in touch with Ukrainians they wish to aid (WSJ). 2. Fabio Rojas is now on Substack. 3. Data on the sex lives on Cambridge (UK) students, including by major.  Selection bias, but still…and why aren’t there more philosophy majors? 4. Notes on Saudi Arabia. 5. Arnold Kling on feminization. The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on Marginal...

Perhaps much larger birth subsidies would help to raise birth rates.  But the world with much larger birth subsidies might also coincide with a world where the social pressures to have (more) children are higher than under the status quo.  Many women would be worse off with such pressures, or at least they feel they […] The post One reason why TFR problems are...

If the UK continues with the same level of growth it has seen for the last decade,” writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes, “Poland will be richer than Britain in about 12 years’ time”: It sounds like an absurd idea that in 2040 we might see complaints in the Polish press about a flood of British plumbers undercutting wages, or Brytyjski Skleps […] The post Poland projection of the day appeared...

1. Law in the Bahamas.  At least at times.  And impact of the FTX collapse on the Bahamas (FT).  And WSJ on the Bahamas. 2. How physics can improve the urinal. 3. “During the 1920s, the EBR [Eastern Bengal Railway] continued to grow by merger and amalgamation, and also began to convert sections of metre […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

Adrián Lucardi writes to me, addressing yesterday’s question of why more currencies are not nominally stronger than the USD: Short answer: costly to implement; few direct (political or macroeconomic) benefits if things go well; but politically costly if things turn sour. Long answer: Suppose you’re the dictator of a non-serious country who wants a “strong” local […] The post More on the nominal strength of...

Nat Friedman is seeking a full-time solo technical leader to go on a modern day Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt. You will be responsible for starting and running a crowdsourced effort to crack an archaeological puzzle of great historical significance. Success would be global news, could rewrite large chunks of history, and is guaranteed to be a […] The post Detective Wanted appeared first on Marginal...

Rob asks: I would love to see you write on how AI changes the value of language learning, at the margin. Two thoughts: The value of learning languages in order to “get” a culture more deeply probably doesn’t change much. On the other hand, international students probably have much less incentive to learn English — […] The post AI and language learning appeared first...

The currencies from Kuwait and Bahrain and Grand Cayman are more valuable than the U.S. dollar, the British pound, and the euro usually if not always as of late.  Why aren’t more currencies greater in nominal value? True, nominal variables should not matter past the short run, but that does not answer the question.  Why […] The post Why aren’t more currencies more valuable...

1. Does quantum entanglement enable mechanisms that guarantee PD cooperation? 2. Building the Empire State Building. 3. Enter Inspector Gadget, and Wilkie Collins. 4. FT dialogue with Brad DeLong. 5. The other AEA — Actors’ Equity Association — lifted mask mandates some while ago.  It is not too late for our AEA — American Economics […] The post Assorted links appeared first on Marginal...

Have you noticed that Brussel sprouts are enjoying a renaissance? Once scorned they are now showing up at top-notch restaurants. NPR: Foods go in and out of style. Few of them, though, have gone through as dramatic a renaissance in their reputation as Brussels sprouts. …Shannan Troncoso remembers hearing, about a decade ago, that celebrity […] The post Brussel Sprouts are Good appeared first...

Happy Thanksgiving! The painter’s name is…George Mason, further explanation here. The post *The Harvest Moon* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsHappy Thanksgiving to everyone! by JWattsIn reply to Andy. Well, all the pilgrims that started ... by JWattsHappy Thanksgiving to most Americans, except those that live in ... by Trump getting his Twitter back could get us all killed. You’d think he spent...

Lord Triesman:  I will tell the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, that at Cambridge University, after the faculty of economics was redecorated, I was inveigled into taking part in a debate as to the order in which the portraits of its Nobel prize winners should be rehung and whether it should be Marshall or Keynes in […] The post In the second chamber of the...

1. Happy to see that Alexa is losing money. 2. What does an inflation-proof Thanksgiving dinner look like? 3. Ross D. on indigenous America (NYT). 4. Asterisk, a new magazine. 5. Native Land, a service to help map indigenous ownership. 6. Fantasy League for economists? 7. Supreme Court agrees to hear Jack Daniel’s trademark case […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

Diplomacy is a 7-player game in which players must persuade, cajole, coordinate, strategize, bluff and lie to one another in order to take over the world. For the first time, an AI has achieved success in Diplomacy: Over 40 Diplomacy games with 82 human players involving 5,277 messages over 72 hours of gameplay, CICERO achieved […] The post AI Conquers Diplomacy appeared first on...

Behind the links are sometimes but not always my longer reviews.  The list is (mostly) in the order I read them.  Here goes: Markus Friedrich, The Jesuits: A History. Barbara Bloemink, Florine Stettheimer: A Biography. Anna Keay, The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown. Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. […] The post Best non-fiction books of 2022 appeared...

We introduce a model of the admissions process based upon standard agency theory and explore its implications with economics PhD admissions data from 2013-2019. We show that a subjective score that aggregates subjective ratings and recommendation letter features plays a more important role in determining admissions than an objective score based upon graduate record exam […] The post What determines graduate admissions for economics?...

1. SBF as lobbyist.  And William Hazlitt on Bentham. 2. The Index Shirt, the price is tied to the NASDAQ index. 3. Scott Aaronson on AI risk.  A good piece. 4. What happened with Sweden? (Bloomberg) 5. Okie-dokie.  And more detail here. 6. Talent makes the FT Best Business Books of the Year list. 7. […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

Except that the claim generates virtually no controversy.  I argue that moral comparisons are possible only within the “cone” of an episode of (potentially) sustainable economic growth.  So you can compare a growth-maximizing policy to a non-growth-maximizing policy, and judge the former to be superior, at least subject to human rights constraints.  It is within […] The post The most controversial claim in *Stubborn...

An MR reader request: You are appointed to the 24 DeSantis cabinet with the task of “fixing the administrative state”. Republicans have a very large Congressional majority. What do you try to do? I will outsource this one to James Broughel, who works with me at Mercatus: My main recommendation to a DeSantis cabinet would […] The post How to fix the administrative state...

1. T. Rex skeleton for sale.  No, wait…fossil plagiarism! (NYT) 2. Justin Fox on Jacob Soll (NYT, yikes). 3. Why are colleges and universities so encouraging on-line gambling? (NYT, yikes) 4. Sam Hammond on EA.  And a redux of the earlier link, now all the more appropriate, on Quakerism and Effective Altruism. 5. A road […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

Here is one answer (to a slightly different question) from Reddit: Asia Minor/Anatolia might be the region which have seen most empires. For example: Akkadians, Hittites, Persians, Alexander’s Empire, Seleucids, Roman Empire, Parthians, Byzantine Empire, Sassanids, Arabians, Seljuks, Mongols and Ottomans. I think first of Romania.  They have been part of the Roman empire, Kingdom […] The post Which country or region has been...

Here’s my high-level explanation of the FTX crash. Imagine that I own a house and I create a million coins representing the value of the house. I give half of the coins to my wife. I then sell one of my coins to my wife for $10. Now the house has a nominal value of […] The post The FTX Debacle ELI5 appeared first...

With translations from foreign fiction and also differing publication dates in the UK, it is hard to classify some of these.  But they are of recent vintage, I did read them in 2022, and I found them rewarding: Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob. Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These. Hervé LeTellier, The Anomaly: A […] The post Favorite fiction of 2022 appeared first...

Consider three major global equity markets: China, India, and the US. Of the three, would you believe India has been the second-best performer over the past 30 years, well ahead of China? It’s true. Here is the full link, via Bill Allen. The post India fact of the day appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Cooper. I don't disagree, but is...

I will be doing a Conversation with the author, not the actor: Thomas Holland FRSL (born 5 January 1968) is an English author who has published best-selling books on topics including classical and medieval history and the origins of Islam. He has worked with the BBC to create and host historical television documentaries, and presents […] The post What should I ask Tom Holland?...

1. “Ultimately, dogs understand us far better than we understand them, Dr. Johnston said. ” (NYT) 2. Once the world’s largest gas station. 3. 11-year-old Leeds schoolboy with a very high IQ. 4. Pop songs now have fewer key changes. 5. Benjamin Yeoh on one of my London talks. 6. Interesting review of Tár. The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION....

An interesting piece in The Guardian by Howard French on Africa’s megalopolis and the difficulties of pulling together five countries with very different governments and colonial histories: There is one place above all that should be seen as the centre of this urban transformation. It is a stretch of coastal west Africa that begins in […] The post Africa’s Megalopolis appeared first on Marginal...

Extreme numbers are getting some new names (there is no great stagnation): By the 2030s, the world will generate around a yottabyte of data per year — that’s 1024 bytes, or the amount that would fit on DVDs stacked all the way to Mars. Now, the booming growth of the data sphere has prompted the governors […] The post How many yottabytes in a quettabyte?...

European regions where the % of religious people is much higher than the rest of the country. pic.twitter.com/eHd14D2hAl — Xavi Ruiz (@xruiztru) November 18, 2022 Via Fergus. The post The religious belts in Europe appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Kaleberg. The romanian straight through serbia to ... by Equestrian“Much higher” what is this amateur hour by muchhigherIn reply to Kaleberg....

1. The future AI stack? 2. A defense of TikTok. 3. Qatar bans beer at the World Cup (NYT). 4. Paris is banning e-scooters?  Would the FDA approve them? 5. Future Fund and clawback issues with grants, noting that I see the risk of clawback as pretty low. 6. Podcast with John Ashmore about the […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

The digital alerts that debuted on Garden State highway signs last month may have displayed a bit too much Jersey attitude. As of Wednesday afternoon, messages such as “Get your head out of your apps” and “mash potatoes — not your head” are no longer visible on the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s network of […] The post The culture that is New Jersey...

That is the topic of my Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: To the extent crypto clearinghouses and exchanges have a future, they too will be regulated, and this is all the more certain after the FTX fiasco. Then the question becomes: How many of the (supposed) efficiencies of crypto would remain under such a […] The post Can AI make crypto safer? appeared...

It is striking to me that some of the biggest critics of FTX — “They stole people’s crypto!” — are exactly the same people who want to see crypto disappear, regulate it out of existence, or otherwise stunt it, in all cases lowering its value or driving that value to zero. “Crypto takings for me […] The post Who can take your crypto away...