Friday, July 18, 2014

Links of the Week 18.7.14

1. Head of White House “Nudge Unit” Maya Shankar Speaks about Newly Formed US Social and Behavioral Sciences Team

2. Dahlin et al (2014), Who are the Joneses?, CESR-Schaeffer Working Paper
Abstract: A burgeoning literature investigates the extent to which self-reported well-being (or happiness) or satisfaction with income is negatively related to the income of others. In many of the empirical studies, the assumption is that the incomes that matter are those of other individuals or households in the same geographical area.

In an experiment conducted in the American Life Panel, we elicit the strength of comparison with different groups, including neighbors, individuals of similar age and coworkers. Individuals are much more likely to compare their income to the incomes of their family and friends, their coworkers and people their age than to people living in the same street, town, in the US, or in the world. Using American Community Survey and Internal Revenue Service data, we find both at the zip code and at the PUMA geographic level that own income or rank in the local income distribution matter for happiness and satisfaction with income, but incomes in the same geographic region do not influence own happiness when controlling for own income. ...Overall, these results indicate that comparisons with neighbors may not be the most important channel through which perception of others’ income impacts one’s own well-being.

3. Impatient adolescents do worse later in life

4. On ‘randomistas’ and causal inference from randomization 

5. In search of search theory

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