~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (569)

I said that to Ezra Klein about the current rightward vibes shift.  What are some of the scenarios I had in mind?: 1. If the Republicans regulate social media companies to discriminate less against “the Right,” those regulations may someday be used against them. 2. Personal presidential issuance of crypto assets is not always (ever?) […] The post “Be careful what you wish for,...

1. “AIs exceed humans on every major creativity test we give them, like the Torrence Test, but it isn’t clear what exactly that means.”  And in Turing tests, GPT-4 is judged more human than the humans. 2. Inference Magazine, a new magazine about AI progress. 3. Determinism continues to look more plausible. 4. NYT interviews […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

In July of 2024, Tyler Cowen, the economist and cultural commentator, wrote a blog post that proved to be among the election’s most prescient. It was titled “The change in vibes — why did they happen?” Cowen’s argument was that mass culture was moving in a Trumpian direction. Among the tributaries flowing into the general shift: the […] The post Ezra Klein on the vibe shift...

The results of the randomized evaluation, soon to be published, reveal overwhelmingly positive effects on learning outcomes. After the six-week intervention between June and July 2024, students took a pen-and-paper test to assess their performance in three key areas: English language—the primary focus of the pilot—AI knowledge, and digital skills. Students who were randomly assigned […] The post More on the AI virtual tutor...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: Another reason to write for the LLMs is to convince them that you are important. Admittedly this is conjecture, but it might make them more likely to convey your ideas in the future. Think of how this works with humans. If you […] The post Should you be writing for the...

Here is some video. The post The second attempted coup d’etat was partially successful appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsFor the past four years the US government was, well, self ... by DismalistThis is misleading. Biden did not pause the exports, he paused ... by Newt EcherHi this is Tyler Cowen, I am pleased to announce that Naveen ... by Tyler CowenRelated StoriesThinking...

1. Is it bureaucratically hard to give away the Chagos Islands? 2. New Bloomberg results on NYC congestion. 3. George Eliot and tech. 4. Samuel Butler’s Erewhon: “The writer went on to say that he anticipated a time when it would be possible, by examining a single hair with a powerful microscope, to know whether […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

A new paper in the QJE, The Global Race for Talent: Brain Drain, Knowledge Transfer, and Growth, by Marta Prato uses extensive data on inventors and their migration to make the following points. (i) gross migration is asymmetric, with brain drain (net emigration) from the EU to the United States; (ii) migrants increase their patenting […] The post A Galt’s Gulch for Talent appeared...

I really enjoyed your piece on USPS privatization. I recently wrote about the subject too. Even in the absence of privatization, relaxing the mail monopoly and allowing competition would make for better, more reliable mail services. This is true even in countries with a “national champion”-style carrier subject to a universal service obligation. It appears that, over […] The post Ross Marchand on postal service privatization...

Timur Kuran is right, they have no business doing this.  Furthermore the quality of the work is not befitting an AEA journal.  Demonstrated preference is not stressed, for instance that even survey respondents are about 10x more likely to be reading Twitter than BlueSky.  Maybe it is all a network effect and they would prefer […] The post The AEA is making social media...

In your recent conversation with Misha Saul, you and Misha discussed your joint dislike for Leviticus. I can’t say that I find Leviticus a page-turner, but the book that’s done the most to help me understand why it’s important and what role it plays in the movement of the narrative is L Michael Morales’s book Who […] The post Corin Wagen defends Leviticus (from my...

1. The sad beige aesthetic. 2. More on AI boyfriends and girlfriends (NYT). 3. “…free dog-sitting services now offered at major cultural landmarks, including Rome’s MAXXI Museum and Florence’s Uffizi, art lovers no longer have to choose between culture and their canine companions.” TNSSJ. 4. “New randomized, controlled trial of students using GPT-4 as a tutor […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

Do minimum wage changes affect workplace health and safety? Using the universe of workers’ compensation claims in California over 2000-2019, we estimate whether minimum wage shocks affect the rate of workplace injuries. Our identification exploits both geographic variation in state-and city-level minimum wages and local occupation-level variation in exposure to minimum wage changes. We find […] The post Gordon Tullock was right appeared first...

I wrote this paper several years ago when preparing for my CWT with Emily Wilson.  It is now being published by Liberty Fund, in parts.  Here is part I.  Here is an excerpt from the introduction: In this series, I will use an economic approach to better understand the implicit politics and economics in The Odyssey. […] The post An Economic Approach to Homer’s Odyssey:...

That is the topic of a recent Bloomberg column.  Here is the opening bit: One of the longest, most technical and, as it turns out, most inconsequential public-policy debates of the 21st century was about net neutrality. Now that a federal appeals court has effectively ended the debate by striking down the FCC’s net neutrality rules, it’s worth asking what […] The post Net neutrality, we hardly knew ye...

1. “We show that same-sex couples experience lower gains from live-in relationships, a “same-sex penalty”. Absent this penalty, the share of same-sex couples in the U.S. would increase by about 50% (from 1.36% to 2.05% of all couples).”  Link here. 2. Vatsal reviews Stubborn Attachments. 3. Share repurchases do not hurt labor’s share of income. […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix) is one of the best and best-crafted documentaries that I have ever seen. It tells the story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian boy living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As the disease relentlessly robs him of mobility, Mats turns to the online world, spending much of his time immersed in […] The post The Remarkable Life of Ibelin appeared...

One More Hospitality Restaurants The New York company will refund $9 to diners driving into the city for meals at four of its Greenwich Village restaurants. That includes Italian restaurant Osteria 57, Italian seafood restaurant Alice, Italian cafe Travelers Poets & Friends, and also-Italian seafood restaurant Alaluna. Osteria: 57 West 10th Street near Sixth Avenue; Alice: 126 West 13th Street […] The post Tax incidence theory and congestion tolls...

Well one thing that comes up is the Diego Garcia problem. It appears that Downing Street opted to relinquish sovereignty of an isolated territory remote from major population centers for reasons of domestic politics and perhaps international popularity. As long as we might (continue to) see a major gulf between American and European norms regarding […] The post Thinking about Greenland critically (from the...

That is the new Agnes Callard book, very good, self-recommending. I would say my views on some of these issues are different.  In my vision, Socrates is a weak interlocutor and Plato is the real genius.  Plato also does not identify with Socrates per se, but rather is teaching us how to deal with a […] The post *Open Socrates: The Case for a...

Yes I will be doing a Conversation with him.  He is a famous brain surgeon and author of the recent and excellent book Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery. Here is his Wikipedia page, and an opening excerpt: Theodore H. Schwartz (born May 13, 1965) is an American medical scientist, academic physician and neurosurgeon. Schwartz specializes in surgery for brain tumors, pituitary […] The post What should I ask Theodore H....

1. Scenario for an independent Greenland. 2. Gender gaps in the Federal Reserve System. 3. Zvi on congestion pricing in NYC. 4. A short (pronunciation) saga from Kearny, NJ, the place of my birth. 5. Milei is artificially slowing the devaluation of the peso (FT). 6. Henry Farrell on America’s plan to control global AI […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

There is a new paper by Florian Ederer, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Kyle Jensen.  It concerns what happens on EJMR, and abusive rhetoric in on line economic discourse.  I have not yet read it, but very likely it is of interest.  Here is the direct paper link. The post Anonymous Attention and Abuse appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Florian Ederer. Thank...

I do not myself have a position on this issue, but I found this analysis by Ken Opalo interesting: The main argument below is that while the people of Somaliland deserve and have a strong case for international recognition, such a development at this time would very likely take away the very incentives that have set them […] The post Should the U.S. recognize Somaliland? appeared...