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Search Results for: "marginal revolution"

Ed Glaeser Argues Against Food Stamps

…and creates perverse incentives to earn less and save little,” he writes. “The problem with food stamps isn’t that we are giving too much to the poor.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



One Step Closer to a Cashless Future

…in shadow economy activities,” says Friedrich Schneider, an economics professor at Johannes Kepler University in Austria. Opponents cite concerns over credit card transaction fees, privacy, and cybercrimes. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



How to Crowd-Fund an Economics Book

…to be helpful to the public at large, so one part of our Kickstarter campaign is to ask people: which interventions would you like to see featured?” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Time for a "Brave New Math"?

…the emergence of so-called wellbeing indexes as a positive development; and he suggests replacing our focus on GDP with an emphasis on the development of human capital. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Which Way Does Your Blog Lean?

…noting that this research predates the Tea Party movement; it will be interesting to see if their findings on blogs as “platforms for mobilization” still hold true. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Stand-Up Gamblers

…more natural light into poker machine areas and bans on food and drink in all gaming areas.” Freakonomics readers, what do you think? Will these nudges work? (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Is Eyeglass Recycling a Waste of Money?

…standard powers (like my drugstore readers, but for myopia as well),” writes Postrel. “The authors find that recycled glasses cost nearly twice as much per usable pair.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



How to Cheat in Online Courses

…and the director of the school’s Center for Educational Testing Evaluation. “It’s important that the research community improve perhaps as quickly as the cheating community is improving.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Making Prison Schoolwork Pay

…joined-up writing,” said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette. If Brazil is bribing its prisoners to do schoolwork, can bribing students be far behind? (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



How to Make a Better Athlete

…saw a sled. Amazingly, she had completed only 220 runs before qualifying. (A typical US skeleton racer makes upwards of 2,000 runs before appearing in the Olympics.) (HT: Marginal Revolution)…




Inequality Across U.S. States

…that used to exist for the whole country is still true if you focus just on the areas that haven’t had as large an increase in regulation.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Will Amazon's Same-Day Delivery Model Hurt Newspapers?

…few markets initially, will have to compete with Amazon-forced marketplace change. Doctor also considers the implications of the move for Google, cityscapes and shopping centers, and employment. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Penicillin as an Aphrodisiac?

…rate. Together, the findings supported the notion that the discovery of penicillin decreased the cost of syphilis and thereby played an important role in shaping modern sexuality. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



What's Wrong With Punishing Bad Predictions?

…wrong in thinking this is a big, big story? FWIW, we did another podcast about how hard it is to predict earthquakes. (HT: inter alia, Steven Merahn and Marginal Revolution)…



Is Tuition by Major a Good Idea?

A Florida state task force on education has just released a recommendation to adjust tuition, by major. “Tuition would be lower for students pursuing degrees most needed for Florida’s job…



Parsing the Times Paywall

…paywall bolstered their support, while explanations emphasizing financial stability did not. The authors conclude that “content providers could benefit from more thorough attempts to justify price structures.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



How to Get More Out of College

…a problem for the middle-class parents, who worked hard to pay the college costs, used up their retirement funds and are out of money by graduation time.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



One University That Isn't Cutting Costs

…than $1 billion in net assets for the first time, counting cash, property, investments and other holdings. That is 10 times what the school had in 2006.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



The Cost of Hunting Witches

…to think this is a real test of witchcraft. The tribal judges, who are pawns of the Mwami, are bribed to hand out false verdicts,” he says. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Should We All Just Give Cash Directly to the Poor?

…had positive impacts on nutrition, education, land, and livestock — and haven’t increased alcohol consumption. The charity is also No. 2 on Givewell’s list of recommended charities. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



How Do Real Prisoners Play Prisoner's Dilemma?

…not for inmates. Students and inmates behave identically as second movers. Hence, we find a similar and significant fraction of inmates and students to hold social preferences. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Selling Thigh Space

…to put an advertisement, as this is what guys are eager to look at and girls are eager to expose,” Hidenori Atsumi, the agency’s CEO, told ITN. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



3D Printers for Everyone?

…continue to decline in cost and both the number and assumed utility of open-source designs continues growing exponentially, open-source 3-D printers will become a mass-market mechatronic device. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



FREAK-est Links

…black-market drug prices. How techies process census data. Chess champions: skill or luck? (HT: Marginal Revolution) Pokerbot: a poker robot that plays Texas Hold ‘Em trains itself to play aggressively….



Pirate Economics, Somali Edition

…legitimate Somali importers willing to use a financier’s foreign money to pay for their shipments and reimburse him at home in cash once the goods are sold. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



On Suicide and Guns

…at Marginal Revolution: Using a variety of techniques and data we estimate that a 1% increase in the household gun ownership rate leads to a .5 to .9% increase in…



Religion, Labor Supply, and Happiness

…results indicate that religious practices can affect labor supply choices in ways that have negative implications for economic performance, but that nevertheless increase subjective well-being among followers. (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



The Hitmen

…but after chatting to her decided he could not do it,” writes Townsend. “The judge in Wright’s trial described him as a ‘hitman who lost his nerve’.” (HT: Marginal Revolution)…



Sure-Fire Baby Names

…Okay, that’s all well and good, but if parents really want to show their gun bona fides, how about going all-out and naming your kid Colt .45? (HT: Marginal Revolution)…