Occupying me on the plane rides to and from Denver was the new book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. Part memoir, part sociology, it is a fun read.Monday, January 10, 2011
What I've Been Reading
Occupying me on the plane rides to and from Denver was the new book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. Part memoir, part sociology, it is a fun read.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Say Hi in Denver
I will be leaving for the Denver ASSA meetings shortly. If you are a regular blog reader and happen to see me there over the next few days, don't hesitate to introduce yourself and say hello.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Another Cost of Hyperinflation
Teachers reported the printing of bank notes from millions to billions and then trillions skewed their pupils' sense of numeracy, making them fail to grasp the realities of numbers. On one geography field trip, students scoffed at being told granite rocks swept over Zimbabwe by ancient glaciers were 700 million years old. That time frame seemed insignificant. Back then in 2008, 700 million Zimbabwe dollars bought a loaf of bread.
Commanding Attention
One of the things I have learned over my career is that I am very bad at predicting how much attention something I write will get.
Among my academic writings, my most cited paper is an article coauthored with David Romer and David Weil on the empirics of economic growth. It has more than six times as many cites in google-scholar as my second most cited paper, an article coauthored with Ricardo Reis proposing the sticky-information Phillips curve. When I was writing the paper with Romer and Weil, I had no idea it would get so much attention.
Similarly, when I write a column for the New York Times, I am not good at predicting how much it will get people talking. As a result, I monitor the subsequent blogosphere commentary to judge if the article is a snore (like most things that get published) or if it is commanding attention. At the very least, I expect my articles to be noteworthy enough that within a few days Brad DeLong will call me a moronic hypocrite. I hope my articles incite some wider commentary as well, but I never know in advance.
A case in point. According to the Times ranking, my most recent column is the 4th most blogged-about article that the Times has published in the past week. I did not expect such as reaction, as the point of the column--an explanation of Republican economic philosophy--did not strike me as particularly novel or controversial. The lesson, I suppose, is to keep writing what I think needs to be said, without trying to forecast public reaction.
Among my academic writings, my most cited paper is an article coauthored with David Romer and David Weil on the empirics of economic growth. It has more than six times as many cites in google-scholar as my second most cited paper, an article coauthored with Ricardo Reis proposing the sticky-information Phillips curve. When I was writing the paper with Romer and Weil, I had no idea it would get so much attention.
Similarly, when I write a column for the New York Times, I am not good at predicting how much it will get people talking. As a result, I monitor the subsequent blogosphere commentary to judge if the article is a snore (like most things that get published) or if it is commanding attention. At the very least, I expect my articles to be noteworthy enough that within a few days Brad DeLong will call me a moronic hypocrite. I hope my articles incite some wider commentary as well, but I never know in advance.
A case in point. According to the Times ranking, my most recent column is the 4th most blogged-about article that the Times has published in the past week. I did not expect such as reaction, as the point of the column--an explanation of Republican economic philosophy--did not strike me as particularly novel or controversial. The lesson, I suppose, is to keep writing what I think needs to be said, without trying to forecast public reaction.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Natural Resources and the Limits to Growth
The economic growth chapter of my favorite textbook (that is, Chapter 25) has a case study on whether natural resources provide a limit to growth. Instructors might find this article by John Tierney of interest when teaching that chapter.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
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