Data Links

Some data related stories in the news recently:

Central Statistics Office investigates early release of data on Twitter

Opening our processes of democracy to scrutiny

Hugh Linehan argues for greater transparency with data that is currently subject to Freedom of Information requests. He mentions the website http://thestory.ie/ which is “… dedicated to sharing documents, combing and combining data and promoting transparency in public life: An experiment in journalism and crowdsourcing hoping to shed light on the government. If you’re spending the Irish taxpayers’ money, you’re on the radar.”

On his website Harvard economist Raj Chetty links to “An Open Letter on Expanding Access to Administrative Data for Research in the United States.” It goes without saying that we have a lot of catching up to do in this regard in Ireland.

Mindfulness, meditation and mental health

Some researchers have advocated the use of mindfulness based techniques to deal with affective disorders, for example there is an RCT that finds it effective against depression for women with fibromyalgia and also evidence of how meditation can help anxiety, stress or agoraphobia.
Closer to home, the Northern Ireland Health Service has brought in a Buddhist monk to provide mindfulness based "happiness classes". I don't know how accurate a description that is but Sammy Wilson MP is not a happy bunny.

Economic Journal: New Empirical Analysis in the Economics of Education

This month’s Economic Journal features a series of articles on the economics of education, including:

The Impact of Diagnostic Feedback to Teachers on Student Learning: Experimental Evidence from India*
Karthik Muralidharan Venkatesh Sundararaman

Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?*
Eric Bettinger Michael Kremer Juan E. Saavedra

'Every Catholic Child in a Catholic School': Historical Resistance to State Schooling, Contemporary Private Competition and Student Achievement across Countries*
Martin R. West Ludger Woessmann

You Get What You Pay For: Incentives and Selection in the Education System*
Thomas Dohmen Armin Falk

Ethnicity and Educational Achievement in Compulsory Schooling*
Christian Dustmann Stephen Machin Uta Schönberg

From an Irish perspective, the article on the effects of private schooling which uses historical prevalence of Catholicism as an instrument is particularly interesting. There is also a book review of Akerlof and Shiller’s `Animal Spirits’. Link.

Policy Options for Student Loans in the USA

A recent study from the United States Congressional Budget Office, Costs and Policy Options for Federal Student Loan Programs (March 2010), "compares the budgetary and fair-value costs of the (exisiting) federal student loan programs. It also looks at several options for modifying those programs, including eliminating the guaranteed loan program after July 1, 2010, and expanding direct lending." (In keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide objective and impartial analysis, this report makes no recommendations).

R&D Links: 3rd August 2010

1. The mission of the Science Coalition is to expand and strengthen the (U.S.) federal government’s investment in university-based scientific, medical, engineering and agricultural research. Their latest report, Sparking Economic Growth, examines how federally funded research has led to the creation of new companies and jobs.

2. SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex) is a research centre focused on science, technology, and innovation policy, including innovation management in firms, technological competition in industries, societal impacts of technologies and their regulation, and the positive contributions of innovation to solving societal and economic policy problems.

3. The (U.S.) Congressional Budget Office Microeconomic Studies Division conducts applied research in a number of areas, including Labor, Welfare, Healthcare, Stimulus and Science and R&D. Research output in the area of Science and R&D includes a 2007 publication on Federal Support for Research and Development.

4. In the book, The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World, Amar Bhide argues that "know-how developed abroad enhances--not diminishes--prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the U.S. lead by subsidizing more research or training more scientists will do more harm than good."

5. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976 with a broad mandate to advise the President and others within the Executive Office of the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs."

6. The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is a nonprofit, professional association. It was founded in 1975 and now has an international membership of over 1200.

7. Technopolis (2009): Bridging Research and Policy through Outcome Evaluation: U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Research Report WR0808.

8. The Integrated Information System on European Researchers (IISER) project is undertaken in cooperation and with the support of Directorate General for Research. It aims at setting up a sustainable European-wide information system to provide a dynamic overview of researchers' stocks, flows, mobility career development and motivations.

9. Science and Engineering Indicators, published by the (U.S.) National Science Board, provides a broad base of quantitative information on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise.

10. Sourafel Girma, Holger Görg and Aoife Hanley: R&D and Exporting: A Comparison of British and Irish Firms, Review of World Economics, Volume 144, Number 4 / December, 2008.

Generic drugs, the placebo effect and the White Stripes

The placebo effect has been well documented in medicine. It takes various forms, in Italy (home of the Azzuri) blue pills are particularly effective. In randomized controls trials the efficacy of drugs are often measured relative to that of placebos. Sham pills, sham surgery and sham acupuncture seem to be quite effective at times and may explain the success of alternative treatments like homeopathy which is based on psuedo-science. Similarly, branded drugs have been reported to be more effective than generics. What people expect or have faith in, is important.
The most entertaining, if not the most erudite, discussion of this phenomenon is the White Stripes' "Girl you Have no Faith in Medicine" from their album Elephant. For example:
Is there a way to find the cure for this
Implanted in a pill?
Is it just the name upon the bottle
That determines if it will?

Is the problem you're allergic
To a well familiar name?
Do you have a problem with this one
If the results are the same?