site: marginalrevolution.com
Big Data+Small Bias
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/01/big-datasmall-bias.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2020-01-15 18:20
tags:
math
paper
Among experts it’s well understood that “big data” doesn’t solve problems of bias. But how much should one trust an estimate from a big but possibly biased data set compared to a much smaller random sample? In Statistical paradises and paradoxes in big data, Xiao-Li Meng provides some answers which are shocking, even to experts.
source: MR
Marty Weitzman’s Noah’s Ark Problem
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/marty-weitzmans-noahs-ark-problem.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2019-09-01 22:44
tags:
finance
math
paper
Marty Weitzman passed away suddenly yesterday. He was on many people’s shortlist for the Nobel. His work is marked by high-theory applied to practical problems. The theory is always worked out in great generality and is difficult even for most economists. Weitzman wanted to be understood by more than a handful of theorists, however, and so he also went to great lengths to look for special cases or revealing metaphors. Thus, the typical Weitzman paper has a dense middle section of math but an introduction and conclusion of sparkling prose that can be understood and appreciated by anyone for its insights.
The Noah’s Ark Problem illustrates the model and is my favorite Weitzman paper.
source: MR
Taipei notes
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/taipei-notes.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2019-07-09 20:35
tags:
travel
urban
My other visit here was thirty years ago, and most of all I am surprised by how little has changed. The architecture now looks all the more retro, the alleyways all the more noir, and the motorbikes have by no means vanished. Yes there are plenty of new stores, but overall it is recognizably the same city, something you could not say about Seoul.
source: MR
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things–Elon Musk and the Subways
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/11/cant-nice-things-elon-musk-edition.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-11-19 20:40
tags:
policy
transport
urban
Billionaires are undermining your home. And democracy! Grab your pitchforks! Yet dig a little deeper underneath the lurid headline and the actual complaints are–dare I say it–boring.
source: MR
Texas likely is removing Helen Keller from the curriculum
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/09/texas-removed-helen-keller-curriculum.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-09-20 18:21
tags:
academia
history
policy
The first linked article claims that cutting Keller from the curriculum will save forty minutes. Even if you don’t think Keller is worth exactly forty minutes, surely she is worth more than zero minutes, and besides the teacher simply can talk faster if need be (don’t most teachers talk too slowly?).
source: MR
Kolyma Stories, by Varlam Shalamov
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/07/kolyma-stories-varlam-shalamov.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-07-13 17:08
tags:
book
fiction
history
hoipolloi
That is not blurb inflation. Note that the book is long (734 pp. of stories), and the reading is slow, mostly because the narratives lack redundant information, not because they are clumsy or awkwardly written. It also takes perhaps a few stories to get into the swing of things and figure out how the fictional yet not fictional universe works here. But the content is entirely gripping, and full of social science.
Haven’t read it, but maybe some day.
source: MR
What is Skim Milk? The FDA versus Dairy Farmers
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/04/skim-milk-fda-versus-dairy-farmers.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-04-16 21:02
tags:
food
policy
The FDA, however, wants skim milk to contain as many vitamins as whole milk so they define skim milk as including vitamin A and D. If farmers want to sell skim milk and call it “skim milk” they have to add vitamins.
I suppose the question is whether consumers realize that skimming milk removes more than just fat.
source: MR
Lessons from “The Profit”
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/04/lessons-from-the-profit.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-04-13 16:28
tags:
business
tv
I’ve learned a lot about industrial organization watching The Profit, a reality-TV show on CNBC featuring businessman Marcus Lemonis. In each episode Lemonis buys into a failing small-to-medium-sized business and works to turn it around. Lemonis doesn’t invest in a random sample of businesses nor even in a random sample of failing businesses. Nevertheless, the lessons that The Profit teaches are consistent with the new literature on management which has increased my confidence both in the show and the literature.
source: MR
Is Los Angeles America’s most “right-wing” city?
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/02/los-angeles-americas-right-wing-city.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-02-22 17:58
tags:
hoipolloi
ideas
policy
urban
Sometimes I toy with a “portfolio” theory of politics, namely that if your city or region’s core sector is quite capitalistic, your city’s politics will be fairly left-wing as a kind of expressive recompense against daily life.
source: MR
Collective Action Kills Innovation
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/01/collection-action-kills-innovation.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2018-01-05 01:15
tags:
hoipolloi
policy
It’s easier to scare than to inform and we fear losses more than we desire gains so collective decision-making defaults toward stasis.
source: MR
A simple theory of Moore’s Law and social media
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/12/simple-theory-moores-law-social-media.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-12-06 00:54
tags:
hoipolloi
ideas
social
Sometimes hard to tell exactly what he means because it’s just bullet points.
source: MR
Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/11/troublemakers-silicon-valleys-coming-age.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-11-30 21:27
tags:
book
networking
retro
valley
That is the new and excellent history by Leslie Berlin, substantive throughout,
source: MR
The new world of monopoly? What about flying?
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/09/new-world-monopoly-flying.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-09-02 17:46
tags:
business
finance
flying
I frequently see airlines cited as an example where the American economy is obviously more monopolistic. By some metrics, yes, but what about the final deal?
source: MR
Where should you fear private internet censorship the most?
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/08/fear-private-internet-censorship.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-08-28 15:33
tags:
policy
social
web
That all said, I am happy when I see people complain about voluntary censorship, even when I disagree with the complaints, or think the complainer is being too pessimistic. Complaining > complacency. That said, here is my wee dose of complacency, in the form of a list across various parts of the internet:
source: MR
That was then, this is now — churchyard burial edition
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/08/now-churchyard-burial-edition.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-08-26 22:47
tags:
book
history
hoipolloi
Although all church fees were wrong, argued Francis Sadler in a much-reprinted 1738 tract, “selling” one part of the churchyard for three times the price of another “to keep Rich and Poor asunder as if there were a difference in their dust” was especially ridiculous.
source: MR
Informal dress and social mobility, a Sicilian perspective
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/05/informal-dress-social-mobility-sicilian-perspective.html [marginalrevolution.com]
2017-05-08 00:04
tags:
hoipolloi
life
I was worried this post overlooked the critical role of cargo shorts, but it’s saved by a comment.
source: MR