Re: lotteries and elections
I don't have an answer for you, but it seems important to point out that not all lotteries have a negative expected payoff. Large, multi-state jackpots are often a fair bet, even after taxes. The best economic analyses I've seen are Charles T. Clotfelter and Philip J. Cook, Selling Hope: State Lotteries In America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), and Clotfelter, Charles T., and Philip J. Cook. 1990. On the Economics of State Lotteries. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4(4): 105-119. These are mostly concerned with the taxation aspect, but you might find something useful there. Dimitriy V. Masterov
Re: spamonomics
I guess the basic objection is that people will not talk about their sexual behavior honestly. The usual assumption is that men will exaggerate and women will understate their experiences. You can read Edward Laumann's book about how the surveys are conducted. They spent a lot of time designing the questionnaires and training the interviewers. It's too much to summarize and explain here. I am not sure that I am convinced entirely, but I think they reduced the bias significantly. The citation is: The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. (With John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael and Stuart Michaels.) His recent work on China is really interesting for economists in that as part of the survey they were able to get urine samples from most of the participants. They found exceptionally low rates of STDs everywhere in the population, except for businessmen, who had very high rates. It seem that these men frequent brothels during their travels and engage in unprotected sex. Laumann argues that this is very dangerous because the economic elite of China has a sexual Achilles's heel, and that it is only a matter of time before HIV becomes prevalent in this group. DVM On Wed, 21 Jan 2004, john hull wrote: I would. It happens all the time. So what are the methodologies of the auto-erotic reporting studies and how are they flawed? __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the Signing Bonus Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus ___ Dimitriy V. Masterov Work: Center for Social Program Evaluation 1155 East 60th St. Room 038 Chicago, IL 60637 Work: (773)256-6005 Fax: (773)256-6313 Home: 1312 East 53rd St., Apt.309 Chicago, IL 60615 Mobile: (773)220-2760
Re: spamonomics
I suspect the fact that many people use the internet to view pornography makes contemporaneous v!agra spam fairly effective. If consumer decisions are susceptible to situational cues and entrepreneurs exploit this feature of preferences, aroused people will purchase large quantities of v!agra. You might complain that porn is a substitute, and not a complement, to sexual activity, but I don't think this is the case. Survey microdata collected by Edward Laumann reveals that Americans do not use pornography to compensate for lack of sexual contact. In fact, autoerotic behavior (which lumps together everything from attending strip clubs to phone sex to masturbation) is associated with higher levels of partnered sexual activity. Both men and women who are highly autoerotic are more likely to have multiple sexual partners in a short period of time. Moreover, use of pornography is highly correlated with diversity of sexual practices. All this suggests that such consumers might actually require v!agra given their heightened sexual behavior. Dimitriy V. Masterov
Re: How do I convince New Agers that not everybody should get the same wage?
One line of reasoning is that people are simply different and these differences are important economically. Some people are simply better at doing certain things than others. For instance, Michael Jordan is a much better ball player than I am, and the public is willing to pay him a lot more than me to play ball. Michael Jordan is in some sense scarce, which is what makes his playing valuable in an economic sense. Not a lot of people have the ability to be excellent basketball players, but a lot of people have the ability to be excellent plumbers. This is also why diamonds cost more than pebbles. Note that this does not say anything about MJ's worth as person, or his equality before the law, and so on. The more important question, I think, is the source of the differences in people. To become a doctor, you need to spend a lot of time, money and effort. Most doctors I knew planned to be doctors when they were children, and they made many sacrifices to accomplish that goal. They spent Saturday nights studying when the rest of us were drinking beers. They were working at the lab while the rest of us were taking the literature class. Simply put, very few people would make the necessary investment to become doctors if they were not compensated for it at the end. In any case, even if the final wage-career distribution is mostly a matter of luck rather than deliberate choices about education, it is unclear whether equalizing wages is going to be a more fair arrangement. First, it's impossible to speak about fairness in a system when outcomes are determined by chance (at least as long as you admit that people have different abilities). It may be likely that the rich are paid more than they deserve and the poor less, but it is equally likely that the rich paid less than they deserve and the poor more. This is a more nuanced philosophical point, and much more open to debate. Finally, I am not sure why anyone would object to inequality it itself. Consider this scenario. You're at the bar with your buddies, and Bill Gates walks in through the door. Obviously the distribution of wealth has become more unequal. But do you really feel worse off? Dimitriy V. Masterov
Re: Levitt article
In an earlier message, William Sjostrom suggested that Levitt's research is typical of the economics field. I am very curious about this statement, because it is at odds with my casual empiricism, and I would like to see it backed by some concrete evidence. Perhaps this reflects my own ignorance of the literature, but I would like to know who does such clever, but careful empirical work. If this is true, I'd like to read it. Are there people out there that collect interesting data to approach previously intractable questions from a new direction? The best example of this that I can think of is a working paper that estimated the scope of corruption in Indonesia by looking at how the stock prices of companies that has close links to the Suharto government reacted to news about his health. I can't seem to find this paper to provide you with a citation. Dimitriy V. Masterov ___ Dimitriy V. Masterov Center for Social Program Evaluation 1155 East 60th St. Room 038 Chicago, IL 60637 Work: (773)256-6005 Fax: (773)256-6313
