William Dickens:
Anyone have any idea why the norm in economics allows referees so much
time to do a report? Why its so different from other fields? Is this one
of those soft vs. hard field things? Its my impression that the
physical science journals all want fast turn around on their referee
Asa Janney:
It appears to me that price rationing is not allowed, unless the
situation becomes permanent. Why is this?
It is a matter of a moment for a city council, or governor, to declare
that rationing is over. Changing the price is likely to take much
longer -- or never happen.
Eric Crampton:
The break-up value shouldn't be less than the value of the assets in
the country
Only if the New Institutionlaists are all wet about asset specificity.
Me, I think that the value of individual assets is _embedded_ in
specific locations, relations, uses, contracts, plans, etc.
fabio guillermo rojas:
Similarly, I find that these articles that trash economics because it
is psuedoscientific do the same - they obsess over the wording (the
use of math) rather than think real hard about the intuitions behind
things. Of course, there is always bad research hiding behind
Bryan Caplan:
If a majority of NYers seriously wanted free entry in cabs, wouldn't it
happen regardless of the opinions of cab companies?
Sure it would -- if your definition of seriously includes are willing
and able to put enough pressure on the relevant city officials to both
persuade them and
Chris MACRAE:
Whilst this fundamental contextual bias in what corporate performance
is defined to be rules, the chances of markets being efficient dwindles
absolutely below zero.
I used to do criminal defense work, so I have some experience with
people whose time horizon is very, very short, and
Subject: The Public Believes in Mean Reversion
Gee, so do I. The question, as Mr. Dumpty might have put it, is to
which mean are we reverting? Makes a couple of hundred (or more)
points' -- and a direction - difference.
Michael
Alex Tabarrok:
Yes, this is precisely my point.
It is not a pleasant experience to genuinely consider the possibility
that the reason one is not persuasive is that one is mistaken.
I try to limit my doing so to only two or three times a year, or I'd
never get anything done.
g
Michael
Michael
--- Alex wrote:
Yes, I believe that the majority of the American public supports
farm subsidies.
to which Fred Foldvary replied:
Why do corporations, lawyers, unions, and other interests provide
candidates and elected representatives with millions of dollars of funds
and favors if they
Alex Tabarrok:
The evidence is even stronger in other fields that information per-se
often does not change people's minds. . . .
If information doesn't change people's minds - what does?
You do notice, I trust, that just as there are those, including some who
appear to be well-educated and
Fred Foldvary:
Does the typical American agree, for example, that it is good policy to
spend billions on farm subsidies, or are they just ignorant and
apathetic?
But that is not an example of anything that happens in the real world.
In the real world we have almost 600 in Congress, dealing
http://www.satirewire.com/news/june02/worldcom.shtml
Michael E. Etchison
Texas Wholesale Power Report
MLE Consulting
www.mleconsulting.com
1423 Jackson Road
Kerrville, TX 78028
(830) 895-4005
Robin Hanson:
Michael E. Etchison wrote:
an industry (academic journals) where . . . entry is cheap
As a non-academic, I have to wonder -- if getting in is so cheap, why
is getting a copy so expensive?
Standard armchair econ question, really.
Yes, I know, and I know what we'd suspect. I
John Hull:
Of course Michael Etchison may be right as well (if I read him
correctly), in that firms engage in hueristic pricing and just toss
bathroom maintenance into the mix.
What firms think they do, and what they actually do, are neither
identical nor even coextensive, of course. A firm may
(Yes, I know, the Austrians on the list would kill me for assuming cost
dictates price, rather than the other way around. But it's just awkward
to state it the right way. :) )
This Austrian has no difficulty with that way of putting it _in the
context of this discussion_. What we are talking
William Sjostrom
Not at all obvious. Two goods, A and B, with marginal cost CA and CB,
Within what may be a narrow range, the approximate marginal cost of two
goods may actually be knowable by an experienced person of good
judgment.
and independent marginal value VA and VB
Neither we nor the
John Perich:
why do some public restrooms in . . . bookstores require either coins
OR free tokens to use?
Starting with the observation that bookstore customers can be very odd
indeed, and adding in what appears to be an observed propensity no less
than average to do weird things in
john hull:
Serious question: If the firm is already charging a profit maximizing
price, how can it pass the cost of bathroom maintenance to customers as
a whole?
1. There is no a priori reason to think that either
* he is in fact charging a profit-maximizing price, or
* he believes that he is
Christopher Auld:
I can state for the record that correlation does not imply causation
is far too advanced a concept for most reporters, even those who are
supposed to have a technical bent.
That may well be so, but the story you pointed us to does not support it
(speaking of unwarranted
Fred Foldvary:
Economic rationality consists of just two things:
1. Economizing: minimize costs and maximize benefits.
2. Consistency: if A is preferred to B and B to C, then A is preferred
to C. This transitivity applies only at a moment in time.
Economic rationality does not judge ends. It
Gustavo Lacerda:
You would think that smart employers would know to rate a B+ student
from a tough-grading school more favorably than an A- student from an
easy-grading school. But there are too many schools, and most employers
aren't using a national database of with statistics about each
This is very ominous news indeed:
fabio guillermo rojas:
A consistent findng in the college major selection literature is that
family background has a positive effect on choosing usless majors like
philosophy or history, controlling for ability and vocational
orientation. Thus, as we become
The (stock) market might, at least as a matter of initial heuristics, be
assumed to be efficient. But only insofar as _risk_ is concerned.
One can imagine, that is, that the price of a share of GM not only has
in mind all the known data about GM -- including what to make of all
the
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