If you want to know how people around the country are shopping, just ask the retailers and banks and credit card companies who collect reams of data on consumer buying patterns.
East St. Louis, faced with budget shortfalls, will lay off 30% of its police force (19 of its 62 officers) after negotiations with the union failed. City residents and police officers worry the move will lead to a significant increase in crime.
Zachary Meisel and Jesse Pines examine the issue of hospital “bouncebacks” — patients who return to the hospital shortly after discharge: “[B]ouncebacks are massively expensive-a recent study of Medicare patients found that one in five admissions results in a bounceback within 30 days of discharge, costing the federal government an estimated $17.4 billion per year.”
“[T]he best ‘poker face’ for bluffing may not be a neutral face, but rather a face that contains emotional correlates of trustworthiness.”
A new report, based on the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy’s Individual Giving Model (IGM), estimates that individual charitable giving was down 4.9% percent in 2009.
A recent trip to Madrid included a lecture at the Universidad Europea de Madrid (which features, among other things, a dentistry school, at right). The best part was a short film that had been made before my arrival: a spoof in which an economics class at the university is taught freakonomics instead of economics (sorry, no translation available).
The BPS Research Digest reports that “[a] simple perceptual bias could influence football referees’ judgments about whether a foul occurred or not.”
Kathryn Schulz, the author of Being Wrong, has been guest-blogging for us about being wrong – and admitting our mistakes. Her latest post examines the historical culture of error in the United States.
Has modern medicine failed people at the end of their lives?
Where the money comes from.
We’re happier when busy, but inclined to laziness.
Forbes profiles Al Roth.
The rational optimist’s TED talk.
A forum at The Economist.
Hunger and risk aversion.
Combine with a charity appeal.
The economics of high-tech medicine.
Volcker thinks “[w]e could have done better” on the reform bill.
There’s still a need for human translators.
It’s more common among children of wealthier parents.
Iran’s market for kidneys.
Income inequality throughout the 20th century.
A year without lying followed by a year without unhappiness.
An odd car pairing.
People with something to gain.
Thieves are less likely to target brightly colored cars.
Cutting new infections.
A drop in women’s sports coverage.
Voters “misperceive where they lie on the ideological spectrum.”
There are striking similarities…
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