Category: Economics

Graphing unemployment

Older data, but interesting nonetheless. Anybody want to update them? The first chart was called “The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever” Pct Job Losses In Post-WWII Recessions (Business Insider) December Employment Report: 155,000 Jobs, 7.8% Unemployment Rate (Calculated Risk) Planet Money…

Do our close relatives play similar games?

The literature is huge, but here are two recent results about primates. Do chimpanzees care about fairness? The jury’s out (Not Exactly Rocket Science from National Geographic) Bonobos Share with Strangers First (Scientific American’s 60-Second Science)

Doctors, we need more!

Some recent thinking on demand and supply in the physician labor market … Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? (Planet Money) … is reminiscent of another thoughtful piece on our non-human companions’ physicians. Veterinarian spending: Recession is killing America’s pet doctors (Slate)

British empire, diversity, empowerment

The diversity of outcomes in the British Empire, exports, and post-war economic sustainability: Which of the ruled appreciated the rulers and which did not? Book Review: Unfinished Empire (WSJ) This varied from locale to locale, a the author studies  “the ways…

Full access to Osborne & Rubinstein

What a find!  Osborne-Rubinstein books for economists and others who want to think carefully about modeling, rationality, and game theory. The web page and the topics covered there reminded me of the old Purdue slogan “Touching Tomorrow Today”.  That is, I…

Review of Nasar on Nash

It has been a long time since the book, the movie, and the prize.  Worth reminding oneself of what game theorists thought about it all back then.  Here’s one that I bumped into recently. Martin Osborn reviews “A Beautiful Mind”…

Mobility

A Mess on the Ladder of Success – Adam Davidson at the NYTimes Planet Money is a wonderful show, but the gang there (including Davidson) doesn’t always get it right.  There’s a good point to this article (be mobile!) but…

An Innovation pairing

Marketplace: Middle class struggles with changing job market. A History of the World in 100 objects: Ship’s chronometer from the HMS Beagle (and AHOW’s main page). Everybody see the connection?