Assorted

Assorted at Economic Investigations

The Political Economy of Numbers: On the Application of Benford's Law to International Macroeconomic Statistics

Many U.S. Children are Left Behind by Design

Recruiting smell for the hard sell

Your brain on gambling;

Games of chance prey on this neural system. Consider, for example, the slot machine. You put in a coin and pull the lever. The reels start to whirr. Eventually, the machine settles on its verdict. Chances are you lost money.

But think about the slot machine from the perspective of your dopamine neurons. Whenever you win some money, the reward activates those brain cells intent on anticipating future rewards. These neurons want to predict the patterns inside the machine, to decode the logic of luck.

Yet here's the catch: slot machines can't be solved. They use random number generators to determine their payout. There are no patterns to decipher. There is only a little microchip, churning out arbitrary digits.

At this point, our dopamine neurons should just turn themselves off: the slot machine is a waste of mental energy. But this isn't what happens. Instead of getting bored by the haphazard payouts, our dopamine neurons become obsessed. The random rewards of gambling are much more seductive than a more predictable reward cycle. When we pull the lever and win some money, we experience a potent rush of pleasurable dopamine precisely because the reward was so unexpected. The clanging coins and flashing lights are like a surprising squirt of juice. The end result is that we are transfixed by the slot machine, riveted by the fickle nature of its payouts.

How to Build Courage

Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?

Federal Reserve Policy Actions in August 2007: Answers to More Questions

While the ECB ponders, the Fed moves, and cleverly at that

Correlation between insula activation and self-reported quality of orgasm in women

Shallow lesson of business books

The mistake both authors and publishers of business books make is to confuse a book about “what I did” with a book about “how to do it”. Whether you are successful because you are skilful or successful because you are lucky, you can easily, and mistakenly, convince yourself that your own experience shows that anyone can do it.

Slouching Towards Utopia? The Economic World of the Twentieth Century: Chapter 7.1: The World in 1900: The View from 1900

Slouching Towards Utopia? The Economic World of the Twentieth Century: Chapter 7.2: The World in 1900: Poverty

Department of "Huh?"

Proposed Reading Course: Topics in Economic History

A Fed Chairman's lot is not a happy one (happy one)

Hacking the New "Employment at Nine Months" Formula

IP: An Odd Monopoly

The Standard Economic Model of IP

On Poverty, Maybe We're All Wrong;

The best refutation of this argument that I've seen in a long time is contained in a new book, "The Persistence of Poverty," by a friend of mine, Charles "Buddy" Karelis, a professor at George Washington University. Karelis isn't an economist or social welfare expert but a philosopher by profession with wide-ranging curiosity, a dry wit and a weakness for unconventional wisdom. And after doing lots of reading and giving it extensive thought, Karelis concluded that the reason some people are perpetually poor is that they don't have enough money.

We Are Not Unbaised

The Trouble With Ranking Life-Expectancy Numbers

Calculating the Cost of Weddings

Counting the Nation’s Obese

Making History Available

Who's Counting: Alternative Voting Methods and Mitt Romney's Mathematical/Political Gaffes

Capitalism and Democracy

PREDICTION TOOLS


How To Save Africa;

Industrializing Africa is the only way to solve its poverty. The industrialization of coastal China — accompanied by declining public health provision, a neglect of agriculture, and environmental degradation — ultimately transformed the lives of the Chinese.

Before the Industrial Revolution all societies were caught in the same Malthusian Trap that imprisons Africa today. Living standards stagnated because any improvement caused births to exceed deaths. The resulting population growth, pressing on fixed land resources, inevitably pushed incomes back down to subsistence.

Upper-Class Living Standards in 1900

An Introduction to Abstract Math ;

Here is a fun problem from the book: Consider an NxN square grid made up of 1x1 unit squares. Now take away from this grid two corner squares from diagonally opposite corners. The resulting board, which is now a square with two notches, has NxN-2 unit squares. You are then given dominoes with dimensions of 2x1. For what N can you completely cover the board with these dominoes?

What to read after Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction

One way to arrive at the definition of continuous functions

A beginner's guide to countable ordinals

Two definitions of `definition'

What is `solved' when one solves an equation?

They started me out on SPSS . .

Are Health, Wealth and Happiness Linked Worldwide?

A Dilettante's Guide to Art

Another stupid ranking of economics blogs