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Economic Rockstar

Connecting Brilliant Minds in Economics and Finance

112: Stuti Khemani on Making Politics Work for Development and Using Creativity and the Arts to Make Better Policy Decisions

November 17, 2016 by Frank

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112: Stuti Khemani on Making Politics Work for Development and Using Creativity and the Arts to Make Better Policy Decisions

Stuti Khemani is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group of The World Bank. She joined through stuti-khemani-economic-rockstarthe Young Professionals Program after obtaining a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Khemani’s area of research is the political economy of public policy choices, and institutional reforms for development.

Her work is published in leading economics and political science journals, such as the American Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics and American Political Science Review.

Stuti has studied the impact of electoral politics on fiscal policy and intergovernmental fiscal relations; drawn policy implications for the design of institutions to promote fiscal responsibility; and analyzed political constraints to efficient allocation of resources for health and education services.

She is also the lead author of the forthcoming Policy Research Report ‘Making Politics Work for Development: Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement’.

Her research and advisory work spans a diverse range of countries, including Benin, China, India, the Philippines, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

More and more I’m fascinated by the world around me and with people currently living in the world.

In this episode you will learn:

  • why working in policy is important.
  • about the basic need for freedom and and the freedom to choose government.
  • about the Dictator’s Dilemma.
  • what makes a successful autocratic government.
  • whether culture plays a significant role in a successful government and economy.
  • how leader selection and sanction can create better government.
  • the importance of art and creativity in policy-making.
  • and much much more.

Papers:

Making politics work for development : harnessing transparency and citizen engagement.

The World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends

Making Autocracy Work by Timothy Besley and Masayuki Kudamatsu 

Writing Tips:

  • “Write short sentences. My natural instinct is write long convoluted sentence. Now I discipline myself to edit and re-write and to make every sentence as short as possible.”
  • “Write to intuition. Not to use mystifying language or jargon. I try to think through how I would say it to my brother who works at Google and knows nothing about economics and then write it.”

People Mentioned in this Episode:

  • Jane Austin 
  • Rabindranath Tagore 
  • Vikram Seth 
  • Shanta Deverajan
  • Morten Jerven

Books:

  • Middle March by George Elliot 
  • Three Chinese Poets by Vikram Seth
  • Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

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111: Greg Mankiw on Writing, Carbon Tax, Health Care and Education at the Economics Teaching Conference in Florida 2016

November 10, 2016 by Frank

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111: Greg Mankiw on Writing, Carbon Tax, Health Care and Education at the Economics Teaching Conference in Florida 2016

greg-mankiw-and-frank-conway-economic-rockstar-01

Greg Mankiw is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. His research includes work on price adjustment, consumer behavior, financial markets, monetary and fiscal policy, and economic growth.

He has written two popular textbooks—the intermediate-level textbook Macroeconomics and the introductory textbook Principles of Economics. Principles of Economics has sold over two million copies and has been translated into twenty languages.

In addition to his teaching, research, and writing, Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an adviser to the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York, and a member of the ETS test development committee for the advanced placement exam in economics. From 2003 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

I sometimes describe myself as a libertarian at the margin. When I take the libertarian party, they seem a little to extreme for me. But given where we’re starting today, I think a little bit more reliance on free markets, individual responsibility and personal liberty will be a good thing – Greg Mankiw.

Economics:

In this episode, Greg discusses and mentions: New Keynesian economics, micrcofoundations to macroeconomics, rational expectations, real business cycles, stochastic DSG models, Pigou Tax, carbon tax, externalities, refundable tax credits, subsidies, healthcare, inequality, unintended consequences, student debt and the Baumol disease.

Economists:

In this episode, Greg discusses and mentions: Richard Lispey, Peter Steiner, Harvey Rosen (Princeton), John Maynard Keynes, James Tobin, Stanley Fischer, Tom Sargeant, Robert Lucas, Alan Blinder, David Romer, Olivier Blanchard, Janet Yellen, Arthur Pigou, Karl Marx, Adam Smith and John Kenneth Galbraith

On Writing Books:

  • It does require a fair amount of discipline. That’s the hardest part. I have friends who try to write who have said ‘I’m behind schedule and I’m going to spend the weekend writing three chapters’. That’s a recipe for failure.
  • I try to be extremely disciplined about my writing. When I’m writing the books, I wake up and, after I send my kids off to school, it’s the first thing I do everyday.
  • I force myself to basically write two pages every day. Two pages is not that much. But if you write literally two pages every single day for a year – 365 days – that’d be a good-sized book at the end of the year. So that’s the hardest part – staying disciplined and keeping at it everyday.

On Pedagogy and Technology:

The technology has changed radically [since the first edition of Mankiw’s Intermediate Macro book]. The pedagogy is electronic where increasingly the number of people using online books has been rising. I’m actually kind of old-fashioned – a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these things but actually for the first time this year at Harvard we’re using the online book with the MindTap product.

Links:

  • Cengage Learning 
  • MindTap 
  • Pigou Club
  • Before the Flood (a movie about climate change) by Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax in Washington State

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110: Beatrice Cherrier on the Economics of ‘The Wire’ and the Beginning of Economics at MIT

November 4, 2016 by Frank

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economics-of-the-wire

110: Beatrice Cherrier on the Economics of ‘The Wire’ and the Beginning of Economics at MIT

Beatrice Cherrier is an assistant professor at the University of Caen, France.

Professor Cherrier’s research includes the history of postwar economics and how economists’ individual visions combine in collective “styles” of doing economics.

Her current research project is aimed at understanding the rise of applied economics from the mid-1960s onwards.

Beatrice is affiliated with CREM, the Centre for Research in Economics and Management, where she researches alongside social choice theorists.

She teaches in a urban studies department, and is experimenting on her students to figure out how to get non-economists interested in the “dismal” science.

Professor Cherrier blogs on her personal website beatricecherrier.wordpress.com as well as for the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

These students have to understand economics, but not in the way of how to use it. You have to understand why they get that course and how they approach social science. For example urban study students work on the field all of the time, so introducing them to economics with a load of statistics is not the right way. They just won’t get it. They want tools to go into the field and to make sense of social behaviour. The solution is to bring the field into the classroom. The Wire is a great way to analyse these social behaviours, particularly in the city – Professor Beatrice Cherrier.

Economics:

In this episode, Beatrice discusses and mentions: Supply and demand, game theory, cooperation, prisoners dilemma, rationality, experimental economics, sunspots, monetary policy, animal spirits and bibliometric analysis.

Economists:

In this episode, Beatrice discusses and mentions: Kevin Hoover, Berger, Robert Solow, Paul Samuelson, John Maynard Keynes, John Hicks, Edward Prescott, Hanson, F. A. Hayek, Angus Deaton, Arthur Charpentier, Vernon Smith, Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Paul Romer, Franco Modigliani and Herbert Simon.

In this episode you will learn:

  • how to teach economics to non-economic students.
  • how to model the drug market using ‘The Wire‘ as a social analysis.
  • using The Wire as a tool to teach economics.
  • where is the rationality in gang warfare.
  • the benefits of using pop culture to teach economics.
  • the beginning of economics at MIT.
  • whether Samuelson and Solow ‘invented’ the economics we know today through their mathematics?
  • on the computerisation of economics using big data.
  • the evolution of economics.
  • the history of experimental economics.
  • and much much more.

Writing Tips:

  • “Writing has never been my strength. It’s the part of my job I don’t like.”
  • Do it. To force yourself to do it you have to do it publicly.
  • Write in a smaller format to try to put your ideas together and be convincing.
  • Blog.
  • Do not write for a public audience but rather write in public. If you put this stuff that you’re thinking online, you have to be better at organising your ideas even if you don’t like that.
  • “My tip is really for people who don’t like writing. Write on a blog because you can write small, it’s not consequential. Maybe people will read you and give you tips and you’re going to improve yourself.”

Links:

  • Introductory Economics for the Real World: Lessons from Teaching with “The Wire” TV Show by Beatrice Cherrier
  • The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority by N. N. Taleb on Medium
  • The Wire
  • Breaking Bad
  • The Walking Dead
  • Russell-Sage Foundation
  • Freakonomics
  • Freakonometrics

Recommended Books:

  • Toward a History of Game Theory by E. Roy Weintraub

toward-a-history-of-game-theory-economic-rockstar

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109: Julia Norgaard on the Online Black Market for Drugs and Why Detection Rates are Low

October 27, 2016 by Frank

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109: Julia Norgaard on the Online Black Market for Drugs and Why Detection Rates are Low

Julia Norgaard is a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at George Mason University. Version 5

Julia is also a Ph.D. Fellow at the Mercatus Center and a Graduate Lecturer at George Mason University. 

Her interests include development and institutional economics as well as public choice.

Julia’s teaching include Managerial Economics, Public Choice Economics, Economic Development of Developing Nations and Economies in Transition.

She received her Masters degree in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in 2015.  Julia graduated with a B.A. in economics with a minor in mathematics from The University of San Diego in 2012. 

In this episode you will learn:

  • about the online black market for drugs.
  • how the anonymity of the deep web creates the a market for illegal drugs.
  • whether prices for drugs are different if bought online or on the ground.
  • how the online drugs market is pretty much like shopping an Amazon, where drugs are packaged extremely well and, of course, you can leave positive and negative reviews for the buyers based.
  • why online sites selling cannabis are being shut down by the regulators even though they offer more an efficient and knowledgeable market.
  • the low detection and seizure rates of dugs packages.
  • the black market exchange rate and the determination of inflation rates.
  • the economics of the Jungle Book.
  • why concert ticket sellers don’t price discrimination and the growth of ticket scalping online.

Writing Tips:

  • Write every single day – James Stacey Taylor
  • Economics is everywhere. If you’re out and you think about something, email it to yourself through your phone and place it in a folder such as ‘Research Ideas’.

Links:

  • ‘Hamilton’ Broadway, NY
  • James Stacey Taylor

Where to Find Julia:

  • juliarnorgaard.com
  • organiceconomics.wordpress.com

Books:

  • Free To Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman
  • Economics Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell
  • The Calculus of Consent by James Buchanan (free ebook)
  • Lawlessness and Economics by Avinash Dixit (free ebook)
  • Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate by Diego Gambetta
  • Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life by Edward Peter Stringham

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108: Steve Horwitz on Spontaneous Order, the Microfoundations of Macroeconomics and Three Economic Myths

October 20, 2016 by Frank

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108: Steve Horwitz on Spontaneous Order, the Microfoundations of Macroeconomics and Three Economic Myths

steve-horwitz-rush-economic-rockstar

Steven Horwitz is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY and is currently Visiting Scholar at Ball State University, Indiana.

Professor Horwitz is also an Affiliated Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center Virgina, a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute in Canada, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education.

Steve is the author of three books, Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order, Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective, and Hayek’s Modern Family:  Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions.

He has written extensively on Austrian economics, Hayekian political economy, monetary theory and history, and American economic history.

Steve has a series of popular YouTube videos for the Learn Liberty series from the Institute for Humane Studies and blogs at Bleeding Heart Libertarians and writes regularly for FEE.org.

A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he has a PhD in Economics from George Mason University and an AB in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Michigan.

Economics:

In this episode, Steve discusses and mentions: Austrian economics, spontaneous order, microeconomics, macroeconomics, free markets, capital markets and government.

Economists:

In this episode, Steve discusses and mentions: Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, Karl Menger and Ludwig von Mises.

In this Episode, you will learn:

  • whether macro problems are the result of micro problems or is there a reverse causality.
  • Menger: the link between Adam Smith and F. A. Hayek.
  • the micro foundations of Adam Smith’s ‘Spontaneous Order’.
  • how the private sector responded better than government to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Is this a case for free market economics?
  • the three economic myths, including the gender wage gap and the rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer according to Professor Horwitz.
  • and much much more.

Where to Find Professor Horwitz:

  • bleedingheartlibertarians.com
  • www.fee.org
  • www.montpelerin.org

Links:

  • A Hayekian Theory of Parental Rights by Steve Horwitz
  • Capitalism and the Humanization of the Family by Steve Horwitz
  • Ayn Rand
  • Rush 
  • Neil Peart 
  • Hold Your Fire by Rush

Writing Tips:

  1. Write something everyday. Be in the habit of writing. Don’t feel like you’ have to edit everything as you go along.
  2. If you have writer’s block, just push through. Just start writing. There’s an old aphorism among writers: “How can I know what I think ’til I see what I say”.

Pedagogy:

Think about teaching as coaching. Like a coach, help students develop a skill. In this case the skill is the economic way of thinking – Steve Horwitz.

Books:

  • The Pure Theory of Capital by F. A.  Hayek
  • Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank
  • The Global Great Depression and the Coming of World War Two by John Moser
  • Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions by Steve Horwitz

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107: Jaclyn Lindo on Hawaii Land-Based Learning as a Method for Teaching Economics and a Flipped Classroom in Practice

October 13, 2016 by Frank

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107: Jaclyn Lindo on Hawaii Land-Based Learning as a Method for Teaching Economics and a Flipped Classroom in Practice

Dr. Jaclyn Lindo is an economics instructor at the University of Hawaii’s Kapiolani Community College where shejaclyn-lindo-economic-rockstar teaches principles-level courses and advise the Economics and Business Club.

Dr. Lindo flipped all of her courses using a combination of publisher-produced videos and her own problem-based, collaborative in-class assignments. She strives to make her course material as relevant to students’ experiences and interests by using pop culture as well as integrating local issues.

Jaclyn will be part of the first cohort of faculty to integrate land-based learning into their pedagogy with the aim of promoting learning that is rooted in Native Hawaiin values, place-based research, and community engagement to understand community needs.

Jaclyn previously lectured on health economics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, continuing with her expertise as the senior health economist at Hawaii Health Information Corporation. While there, Jaclyn researched healthcare policy and outcomes at the national and local levels.

Jaclyn completed her PhD at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2011.

Show Notes Coming Soon!

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106: Michael Kofoed on the Effectiveness of an Economics Major in the Military and How the Pomegranate Defunded the Taliban

October 6, 2016 by Frank

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106: Michael Kofoed on the Effectiveness of an Economics Major in the Military and How the Pomegranate Defunded the Taliban

Michael Kofoed is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the United States Military Academy at West Point, michael-kofoed-economic-rockstarNew York.

Professor Kofoed’s research focuses on the economics of higher education including the effects of financial aid on student outcomes, pricing behavior of for-profit universities, and measuring the effects of randomly assigned peers and mentors.

Michael has numerous published and forthcoming papers and his book chapter “Price Discrimination”, co-authored with David Mustard, features in Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance.

Michael received his PhD from the University of Georgia with the PhD title Essays on the Economics of Student Financial Aid and a BS in Quantitaive Economics from Weber State University.

A good economist is not someone who sits around and reads econ books for a long time but someone who just reads. Gets out of their comfort zone. Reads about something that might be different than what they normally read but engages the economic mind while reading through that. – Michael Kofoed

Economics:

In this episode, Michael discusses and mentions: rationality, opportunity costs, scarce resources, pay-offs, marginal benefit, labor market, equality, GDP, free trade and perfect competition. 

Economists: 

In this episode, Michael discusses and mentions: Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, Gary Becker, Paul Romer and Greg Mankiw.

In this episode you will learn:

  • how students lose out on college financial aid up to the value of $2,000.
  • the effect of same-gender and same-race role models on occupation choice.
  • about US college financial aid and its business cycle.
  • how a position in a US military academy can present opportunities to all including minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • how useful an economics major would be on the battlefield.
  • what do you do with an economics degree after five years in the army and you realise the army is not for you.
  • about national security through the lens of economics.
  • about opportunity costs and the allocation of scarce resources.
  • how the pomegranate defunded the Taliban.
  • the conflict between economic logic, rationality and theory with reality.
  • writing tips.
  • and much more.

Writing Tips:

  1. Find something that you’re excited about. If you’re a grad student, it shouldn’t be about what your professor wants. It should be about what you want or else it’s just not going to be fun.
  2. Once you’ve found what makes you excited, ask yourself ‘Does anyone care?’. Is anyone going to read my stuff?’  If the answer is ‘Yes’ then you’ve hit a sweet spot because you care and other people care.
  3. The great secret of economics is that co-authorship is equally valued. Then go find co-authors that are smarter than you, because when they challenge and push you, they make you a better researcher.
  4. You need to get your writing out there. You don’t want to be Golum in The Lord of the Rings that sits there and strokes the precious and does’t let anyone else see the precious. You need to get other people to read it for you. You need to get it out in the conference circuit because when you have more eyes on it it will make you a better writer.
  5. Real research isn’t done in a closet somewhere. It’s done with other people. It’s a team effort.

Links:

  • Planet Money: Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding
  • WSJ: Replacing Afghan Poppies With Pomegranates

Publications:

  • The Effect of the Business Cycle on Freshman Financial Aid (with Elizabeth Clelan) Contemporary Economic Policy.
  • To Apply or Not to Apply: FAFSA Completion and Financial Aid Gaps. Research in Higher Education.
  • Estimating the Effect of Work Time on Extracurricular Time for High School Students by Household Income (with Laura Crispin). Revise and Resubmit. Education Finance and Policy.

Book Chapters

  • Price Discrimination with David B. Mustard. In Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance, eds. Dominic J. Brewer and Lawrence O. Picus. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Books:

  • Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert Gates
  • Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Free to Choose by Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman
  • Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
  • The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
  • Seneca: Letters from a Stoic

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105: Jana Gallus on the Economics of Non-Financial Awards and How Editor Retention on Wikipedia Can Be Maintained

September 29, 2016 by Frank

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105: Jana Gallus on the Economics of Non-Financial Awards and How Editor Retention on Wikipedia Can Be Maintained

Jana Gallus is an assistant professor in the strategy group at UCLA Anderson.jana-gallus-economic-rockstar

Professor Gallus’s research interests lie in behavioral economics and strategy, with a focus on non-financial incentives and their effects on decision-making.

Jana investigates how incentive schemes can be designed to enhance employee motivation and organizational performance in the private and nonprofit sectors.

Jana joined UCLA Anderson from Harvard, where she was a postdoctoral fellow. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Zurich, with the distinction summa cum laude, and holds two master’s degrees, from Sciences Po Paris in France and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Jana describes herself as an economist with a keen interest in studying and designing incentives to motivate human behaviour.

Her research and teaching lie at the intersection of strategy, economics and psychology.

Economists:

In this episode, Jana discusses and mentions: Adam Smith, Bruno Frey, John Bates Clark, Bengt Holmström

Economics:

In this episode, Jana discusses and mentions: incentives, awards, field experiments, utility, happiness, motivation and social signals.

The Salient Features of Wikipedia from a Economists Perspective When Studying the Motivation for Non-Financial Awards:

In a study by Professor Jana Gallus, the future behaviour of editors on Wikipedia were analysed from a purely non-financial awards perspective. A digital award was given to some newcomers who displayed it on their Wikipedia profile page. This group were compared to another group of newcomers who did not receive the digital award. Professor Gallus identified that non-financial awards are a motivating factor to determine future and continued behavior.

  1. The use of pseudonyms. This makes it possible to study purely symbolic awards without any material or career-related benefits. Normally when we study awards in the field of economics, it is difficult to argue that any motivational effect that you might find was due to the honour and the recognition rather than to the pecuniary benefit that comes along with most awards. Using pseudonyms on Wikipedia, nobody in the real world knows who it is, and  this allows a study of purely symbolic honors.
  1. The ability to randomize. This allows you to cleanly identify the effects of receiving an award on future behavior. Filtering out newcomers and ‘vandals’, allows the handing out of a ‘Newcomer Award’. The future behavior of those who receive the award, the treatment group, are compared to a control group (also newcomers who were not given an award). The only difference between both groups is the receipt of the ‘Newcomer Award’ which was given out by chance. So no other variables or characteristics were identified to discriminate or favor the newcomers.

The digital award for newcomers, a purely symbolic award, increases the retention rate of newcomers by 20% in the following month. This result was evident even in ‘high-powered’ editors and any minor editing activity was removed from the study, allowing for a more robust finding. The effect of this reward persists for a year and only then does the effect become insignificant.

Writing Tips:

  1. You must be motivated, love what you’re doing and be intrigued to know more about what you’re doing.
  2. Make sure to reserve time for active thinking. This seems so trivial but in today’s day and age of podcasting, you need to be optimizing all the time. Whether you’re cooking or exercising, every second can be optimized. It requires self-discipline to reserve some time for active thinking.
  3. Get a ‘birds-eye view’ of the research that you are doing by having amazing discussions with other researchers in your field of study. Discussions should not be on the nitty-gritty focused on the detail but more on the general phenomenon and why it is of interest.
  4. Always carry around a small booklet to keep notes.
  5. At the weekends, work from coffee houses and have lively discussions with others on topics that may not of interest immediately but may form the basis of your next research paper.
  6. Read books. By spending time reading a book, you are devoting more time on the subject matter than you would otherwise by reading an article or paper. You therefore deal with something more on a fundamental level and your thoughts keep coming back to this for a longer period of time than would be possible when you just read articles.

Papers:

  • The power of awards (with Bruno S. Frey). The Economists’ Voice, 2014, 11(1): 1–5.
  • Open issues in happiness research (with Bruno S. Frey and Lasse Steiner). International Review of Economics, 2014, 61(2): 115–125.
  • Other publications by Professor Gallus can be found here.

Where to Find Professor Gallus:

  • Website: www.janagallus.com
  • UCLA Anderson: www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/strategy/faculty/gallus

Links:

  • Wikipedia
  • Duolingo
  • Stack Exchange
  • Stack Overflow

Books:

  • Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity by Dean Keith Simonton
  • The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Control System by William J. Goode
  • Models of the Man: Essays in Memory of Herbert Simon edited by Mie Augier and James G. March
  • What Works: Gender Equality By Design by Iris Bohnet
  • Arts and Economics: Analysis and Cultural Policy by Bruno S. Frey
  • Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation by Bruno S. Frey
  • Happiness: A Revolution in Economics by Bruno S. Frey

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104: Russ Roberts on How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life and the Theory of Moral Sentiments

September 19, 2016 by Frank

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104: Russ Roberts on How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life and the Theory of Moral Sentiments

Russ Roberts is Associate Editor, founder and host of the popular and much loved podcast EconTalk, russ-roberts-economic-rockstarand founding advisory board member of the Library of Economics and Liberty.

Russ is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

His two rap videos on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek, created with filmmaker John Papola, have had more than eight million views on YouTube.

Russ’ latest book How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness takes the lessons from Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and applies them to modern life.

Russ is also the author of three economic novels teaching economic lessons and ideas through fiction. The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity, The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance and The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism.

Russ blogs at CafeHayek.com and archives his work at russroberts.info.

A three-time teacher of the year, Russ has taught at George Mason University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, and the University of California.

He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Economists:

In this episode, Russ discusses and mentions: Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, David Hume, Vernon Smith, Milton Friedman and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Economics:

In this episode, Russ discusses and mentions: Austrian economics, classical economics, spontaneous order, pricing, supply, demand, surge pricing, unintended consequences, price controls, taxes and subsidies.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • about Adam Smith and how the application of Smith’s philosophical and economic thinking can change your life.
  • what the market forces are and the positive and negative examples of the spontaneous order.
  • the invisible hand and prices.
  • what surging prices are.
  • what Smith describes as the impartial spectator and the power of our conscience.
  • Adam Smith’s advice on how to be happy.
  • two ways to get people to pay attention to you and what Smith believed is the most ethical way.
  • what Smith believed was the cultural norm to accept behaviors.

Two Ways to Get People to Pay Attention to You:

Be rich, famous and powerful. It works. But don’t be fooled. You have a natural tendency to pursue money, fame and power because it will get you attention, respect and love. But that’s the wrong way to get there.

The right way to get there is through wisdom and virtue. Understand the world and treat people well. If you do that, you’re also going to be loved, respected and praised. But you won’t be doing the things along the way that people do when they want to become rich, powerful and famous that are not so good for you that cold lead to regret, shame and misbehavior. The temptation to do the unethical thing to pursue fame, power and money is always there.

Writing Tips:

  • Write everyday.
  • The trick to being a good writer is being a good editor.

Where to Find Russ Roberts:

  • Website: russroberts.info
  • Website: econtalk.org
  • Twitter: @EconTalker
  • Medium: medium.com/@russroberts

Recommended Books:

  • How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts
  • The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity by Russ Roberts
  • The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance by Russ Roberts
  • The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism by Russ Roberts
  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
  • The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) by F. A. Hayek
  • Individualism and Economic Order by F. A. Hayek
  • Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto) by Nassim Taleb

c

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103: Brian Mills on the Labor Market in Baseball, the Umpire Strikes Back and R

September 15, 2016 by Frank

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103: Brian Mills on the Labor Market in Baseball, the Umpire Strikes Back and R

Brian Mills is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida within the Department of Tourism, brian-mills-economic-rockstarRecreation, and Sport Management specializing in Managerial Sports Economics.

Professor Mills is also Associate Research Faculty within the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI).

Brian’s research interests encompass topics such as the sports labor market, industrial organization and sports league policy, public policy and economic development related to sport, and advanced analytics in the sports business. He is especially interested in applying economic lessons and quantitative analysis to problems that sport managers face in their everyday decision making.

Dr. Mills has also worked on consulting projects for professional sports teams and municipalities both in the U.S. and Canada.

Before arriving at Florida, Brian received his PhD and MA in Sport Management from the University of Michigan.  During that time, he also completed MA degrees in Statistics and in Applied Economics.  Brian earned his BA in Psychology in 2006 from St. Mary’s College of Maryland where he played NCAA Division III baseball.

Brian’s work and research interests can be found at brianmmills.com and at princeofslides.blogspot

Brian is now offering a new course called Exploring Pitch Data with R over at www.datacamp.com.

Check it out. You’ll have lots of fun learning basic data manipulation, summarization, and visualization in R using Statcast data.

Economics:

In this episode, Brian discusses and mentions: sports economics, labor market, externalities, incentives, wages, allocation of time, R, population, GDP and incomes.

Economists:

In this episode, Brian discusses and mentions: Rodney Fort, Stefan Szymanski, Lawrence Kahn and Bill Gerrard.

Links:

  • 090: Stefan Szymanski on Soccernomics and How Sabermetrics, Inequality and Finance Rules the Sport
  • 096: Cameron Murray on the Robinson Crusoe Economy and Blogging toward your PhD
  • 099: Rodney Fort on Sport Economics, Big Data in Baseball and the Value of Hosting an Olympic Games
  • Freakonomics
  • Fastball Movie
  • Trackman Baseball
  • Trackman Golf

Brian Mills’ Writing Tips:

  1. Always be reading and writing.
  2. Give or receive feedback and re-write.
  3. Develop a habit of note-taking.
  4. Turn your idea into a good story.

Resources:

  • Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball
  • Data Camp
  • Exploring Pitch Data with R
  • A Guide to Sabermetric Research: How to Find Raw Data by the Society for American Baseball Research
  • Number Munchers game

Artilces:

Scoring in Baseball Is Down. Blame the Umpires: A Study Found That Umpires Have Expanded Their Strike Zone in Recent Years in The Wall Street Journal

Books:

  • Pay Dirt by Rodeny Fort
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