If you look at the list of people who have won the Bates Clarke Medal in Economics, almost every name is recognisable and many won Nobel prizes e.g. Samuelson, Friedman, Heckman. However, you should look at the person who won the second Bates Clarke prize. Ive talked about him before but his range of interests and his work is clearly completely different from what one would expect. I include his Wiki entry below. The idea of "Psychic Capital" is very similar to some of the work being done at the moment. To be honest, i have rarely seen him referenced in mainstream economics and if i hadnt known he had won the Bates Clarke and was at one stage President of the AEA i would have assumed him to be a marginal (though very brilliant and creative) thinker in terms of mainstream economics. Interesting either way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_E._Boulding
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Truman Bewley on Interviews in Economics
One way of trying to ground economics in real-world context is to out and interview people. Truman Bewley has done some very well-known working using interviews. He explains this approach below in a Journal of Socio-Economics article (may not be accessible off-campus)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6W5H-46SFD55-5-1&_cdi=6571&_user=483692&_orig=browse&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2002&_sk=999689995&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkWW&md5=030a550d5a1acc4c334674b723a7e241&ie=/sdarticle.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6W5H-46SFD55-5-1&_cdi=6571&_user=483692&_orig=browse&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2002&_sk=999689995&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkWW&md5=030a550d5a1acc4c334674b723a7e241&ie=/sdarticle.pdf
Friday, June 01, 2007
Some recent papers
the following is a list of relatively random papers that are worthwhile to some of the various projects.
Martin and I have been scouring the literatures for evidence on effectiveness of different programmes implemented in third-level institutions. its amazing (or at least if you are not familiar with evaluation of interventions more generally) how many interventions do not have positive effects despite being part of the lexicon. below is a working paper that shows almost no effects (perhaps even negative) of remedial initiatives at third level. its worth placing the caveat again that this is a working paper and results might change
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/newsevents/seminars/mcfarlin_remediation_v2.pdf
Paul Devereux had a paper a couple of years back on the importance of starting salary. Another recent paper has looked at this
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~lisakahn/papers/Kahn9_06.pdf
A recent Princeton paper examines intra-monthly consumption and self-control
http://www.princeton.edu/~ceps/workingpapers/137mastrobuoni.pdf
Another Princeton paper looks at mismatch in Law Schools
http://www.princeton.edu/~ceps/workingpapers/123rothstein.pdf
One of the top 10 downloaded papers on the SSRN - i thought someone was having a laugh but its actually a full paper!
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896790
A really interesting paper on financial decision making over the life-cycle
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=973790
Martin and I have been scouring the literatures for evidence on effectiveness of different programmes implemented in third-level institutions. its amazing (or at least if you are not familiar with evaluation of interventions more generally) how many interventions do not have positive effects despite being part of the lexicon. below is a working paper that shows almost no effects (perhaps even negative) of remedial initiatives at third level. its worth placing the caveat again that this is a working paper and results might change
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/newsevents/seminars/mcfarlin_remediation_v2.pdf
Paul Devereux had a paper a couple of years back on the importance of starting salary. Another recent paper has looked at this
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~lisakahn/papers/Kahn9_06.pdf
A recent Princeton paper examines intra-monthly consumption and self-control
http://www.princeton.edu/~ceps/workingpapers/137mastrobuoni.pdf
Another Princeton paper looks at mismatch in Law Schools
http://www.princeton.edu/~ceps/workingpapers/123rothstein.pdf
One of the top 10 downloaded papers on the SSRN - i thought someone was having a laugh but its actually a full paper!
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896790
A really interesting paper on financial decision making over the life-cycle
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=973790
Harvard Business School Paper on Scientific Openness
The paper below examines problem solving. The conclusion is one that anecdotally rings a lot of bells, namely that people tend to solve problems well at the boundaries of their discipline. this is a very cool paper!
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-050.pdf
Abstract: Openness and free information sharing amongst scientists are supposed to be core normsof the scientific community. However, many studies have shown that these norms are notuniversally followed. Lack of openness and transparency means that scientific problemsolving is constrained to a few scientists who work in secret and who typically fail toleverage the entire accumulation of scientific knowledge available. We present evidence of the efficacy of problem solving when disclosing problem information. The method’s application to 166 discrete scientific problems from the research laboratories of 26 firms is illustrated. Problems were disclosed to over 80,000 independent scientists from over 150 countries.We show that disclosure of problem information to a large group of outside solvers is an effective means of solving scientific problems. The approach solved one-third of a sample of problems that large and well-known R & D-intensive firms had been unsuccessful in solving internally. Problem-solving success was found to be associated with the ability to attract specialized solvers with range of diverse scientific interests. Furthermore, successful solvers solved problems at the boundary or outside of their fields of expertise, indicating a transfer of knowledge from one field to others.
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-050.pdf
Abstract: Openness and free information sharing amongst scientists are supposed to be core normsof the scientific community. However, many studies have shown that these norms are notuniversally followed. Lack of openness and transparency means that scientific problemsolving is constrained to a few scientists who work in secret and who typically fail toleverage the entire accumulation of scientific knowledge available. We present evidence of the efficacy of problem solving when disclosing problem information. The method’s application to 166 discrete scientific problems from the research laboratories of 26 firms is illustrated. Problems were disclosed to over 80,000 independent scientists from over 150 countries.We show that disclosure of problem information to a large group of outside solvers is an effective means of solving scientific problems. The approach solved one-third of a sample of problems that large and well-known R & D-intensive firms had been unsuccessful in solving internally. Problem-solving success was found to be associated with the ability to attract specialized solvers with range of diverse scientific interests. Furthermore, successful solvers solved problems at the boundary or outside of their fields of expertise, indicating a transfer of knowledge from one field to others.
simplify financial aid packages for students
Two huge themes that emerge from behavioural economics are (i) people are ruled by inertia so policies should try to make the "good" choice the path of least resistance and (ii) complexity is a huge factor in determining whether people will do something. The literature on pensions is now overwhelmingly in favour of simplifying pensions as a way of promoting participation. We have been talking about this in here for lots of different things. Below is a recent Kennedy School Working paper proposing a simplification of the student financial aid system. This is something we absolutely should look at in Ireland and, at the very least, examine whether students are being dettered by not getting clear signals as to whether they are eligible or not.
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/research/wpaper.NSF/rwp/RWP07-014
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/research/wpaper.NSF/rwp/RWP07-014
finance and retirement
I was tempted to put this down as volume three of "why economics is great" but i went for the more direct title. This is a recent Wharton paper examining financial innovations for an ageing world. The Pensions Research Council at Wharton have some great working papers on their stie. Anyone looking at behavioural aspects of finance or ageing/pensions etc., should look through this.
here
http://www.pensionresearchcouncil.org/publications/papers.php
Also linked below is a recent working paper using the CenTER panel by Arie Kapteyn, Arthur van Soest and Julie Zissimopoulos on retirement preferences. Direct preference elicitation around these issues is going to be a growing area in terms of looking at retirement etc., http://ftp.iza.org/dp2785.pdf
here
http://www.pensionresearchcouncil.org/publications/papers.php
Also linked below is a recent working paper using the CenTER panel by Arie Kapteyn, Arthur van Soest and Julie Zissimopoulos on retirement preferences. Direct preference elicitation around these issues is going to be a growing area in terms of looking at retirement etc., http://ftp.iza.org/dp2785.pdf
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