Economists Do It With Models

By econgirl - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Business & Investing

Thursday, May 28, 2009

My Research Might Be More Relevant Than I Thought...

Tyler Cowen, of Marginal Revolution fame, asks the following in his latest "Assorted Links" post: "Rewards for weight loss don't work; would penalties for failure do better?" Tyler is referencing an NBER Working Paper with the following abstract: Obesity rates in the U.S. have doubled since 1980.... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

T-Mobile Nicely Illustrates My Life's Work...

I think I might be the only person to use my Tivo for the express purpose of watching commercials rather than skipping them. It's my version of stopping to smell the roses, really...and if I hadn't stopped, I wouldn't have stumbled upon the following advertisement from T-Mobile, which really did... Sign in to see full entry.

Wow, Patience Really Is A Virtue...

I was recently reminded of the marshmallow experiment during a conversation with a friend of mine, and I figured it was interesting enough to share with you. The link above is a little sensationalized, but gets across the main idea of the study as follows: "Stanford University psychology researcher... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I'm Guessing Rush Limbaugh Didn't Move To Maryland...

From the "I Told You So" department... You may remember an old post entitled "See, Even Rush Limbaugh Understands Incentives" where Rush was complaining about how he didn't like the tax increases that he was facing as a New Yorker. To refresh your memory: “Personal income taxes for the uhh…upper... Sign in to see full entry.

Confirmation Bias (And Stereotypes) In Action...

Sometimes the posts write themselves, really. From a Facebook reader: "I was totally surprised to see a girl pic when I got to this page! I came across your writing today for the first time and after a few articles I imagined a dude writing them... I guess that just shows how some people (maybe the... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Economics And Word Play In One, Double Bonus...

From a new Facebook friend...thought you would enjoy this while I spend my morning, um, kayaking. What on earth does one wear to go kayaking? Anyway: Hee...get it? "Interest" rate? (Yes, econgirl, that is the joke...) Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

On The Importance Of Being Likable...

(For the record, I might have had to look up how to spell likable...even dictionary.com wasn't clear on the matter, but, since for "likeable" it just said "see likable", I went with the latter.) So we all probably remember how Larry Summers got himself in trouble at Harvard for reporting on academic... Sign in to see full entry.

The Economics Of Spare Change...

Hm...I suppose that title should read "The Economics Of Spare Change ", as I am referring to the newspaper and not to the stuff you find in your couch cushions. Anyhoo... For those of you that don't know, which I would imagine is most of you, Spare Change is, according to Wikipedia, "a street... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Women In Science: I Am Doing My Part, Apparently...

A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper: Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap "Why aren’t there more women in science? Female college students are currently 37 percent less likely than males to obtain a bachelor’s degree in science, technology,... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 15, 2009

No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, Sports Edition...

Preface: I am cranky. I had my Boston Sports Mania Thursday all planned out, complete with game 7 Bruins tickets and everything. And while there was a sweep involved for Boston, it was in the wrong direction. (Also, I would argue that there are few things as soul-crushing as a sudden death overtime... Sign in to see full entry.

About this Blog

I think a quote from a conversation I had with a friend says it best: Peter: So, you want to combine urbane cultural discourse with economics and social criticism in a witty, mature, interesting way that people will read and pay you for? Jodi: Correct. (You can tell which of us here is actually trained in writing. I will also admit that not all of my jokes are of the mature variety.) Because hey, who doesn’t want to do it with models? Seriously though…my original blog grew out of a need to address student questions that were of economic relevance but somewhat outside the scope of an “Economics 101″ type course. Since then, my postings have gotten more broad and less technical in order to appeal to a wider audience.