New Economist

Sumo wrestlers, Chicago school teachers, drug dealers who live with their mothers and even the humble bagel

All feature in the work of US economist Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics work. Today's Guardian has a feature by Gary Younge on him, Why bagels could hold the key to human behaviour, with some interesting quotes:

"I don't have strong political views," says Levitt. "I don't find the idea of politics itself very interesting. I try to ask questions that are of personal interest to me. Questions where conventional wisdom will probably be wrong and problems that are really easy but look really hard."

Levitt has a method, and a microeconomic framework, but no overarching theory:

Levitt, an economics lecturer at the University of Chicago, refers to himself as a data detective. "I'm not a great economist," he says. "I'm not an intellectual. But everybody has got their framework for the way they think about the world. Mine just happens to be a micro-economic framework. It's the story of how people respond to incentives. The scripts that run through my head tend to be those kinds of scripts."

...To the extent that Levitt has a method this is it - searching for numerical data that will answer questions and make or break connections that have become embedded "conventional wisdom". His work shows no overarching theme or underlying philosophy that draws it altogether.

His is a "just the facts, ma'm" approach:

Levitt just follows the facts, setting out with a question in mind rather than an answer and hoping the data will lead him there. If some holy cows get slaughtered in the process then so be it. "Facts are amoral," says Levitt. "I don't think we should shy away from facts that people don't want to hear."

An understandable approach. But 'facts' are rarely simple, or neutral. How they are defined, measured, and conceptualised of necessity embody a raft of assumptions and biases. Even humble fact grubbers may discover they have to grapple with messy methodological and epistemological issues every now and then.
 

Britblog Roundup #16

Tim Worstall's Britblog Roundup #16 is now online. The subjects are as wide ranging as ever, and the content gets better with each issue. Tim also highlights two newish UK-based multiblogs that are worth checking out: The Sharpener and Once More into the Breach.

Freakonomics on 'monkey business'

Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner of the Freakonomics book and weblog fame have written their first monthly column for The New York Times Magazine. Their chosen topic is Monkey Business: Can capuchins understand money? The surprising answer is yes, they can:

When taught to use money, a group of capuchin monkeys responded quite rationally to simple incentives; responded irrationally to risky gambles; failed to save; stole when they could; used money for food and, on occasion, sex. In other words, they behaved a good bit like the creature that most of Chen's more traditional colleagues study: Homo sapiens.

The story is based on the work of economist M. Keith Chen at the Yale School of Management. Bonus material, including pics and videos, has been posted on the Freakonomics weblog here. If you've never seen a capuchin monkey decide how to spend his budget of twelve coins, now's your chance!

Great insights from Bloomberg

Writing today for Bloomberg in a piece about current accounts and currencies, Greenspan or Buffett? Asia Mulls Who's Right, columnist William Pesek Jr. showed a keen grasp of foreign exchange markets:

It's widely expected that a yuan revaluation will result in a stronger Chinese currency.

So now you know.

UPDATE: Tim Worstall evidently liked my suggested title of the Bleedin' Obvious Award. If you see any other prize examples, please email them to me. Preferably economists and economic/financial  journalists - as politicians say the bleedin' obvious every day!

Carnival of the capitalists

This week's Carnival of the capitalists is up, hosted by Professor Gordon Smith and his University of Wisconsin Law School students Law & Entrepreneurship News blog.

Barry L. Ritholtz discusses (Why) You Suck at Investing. The Interested Participant writes about US Student Tutoring Outsourced to India  - and phone sex too! Warren Meyer's Case Studies on the Minimum Wage gets another plug - though I'd expect most readers of this blog will have already come across it by now.

Burning down the (opera) house

Composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who once advocated burning down the world's opera houses, turned 80 on March 26. A Sunday Times piece by Brian Appleyard on March 20 (link missing) quotes him as saying:

I have not mellowed, but I am less aggressive in a way. When you are young, you are like a dog barking outside the house to make people aware you are outside. Later, you don't need to bark because you are in the house.

Tyler Cowen links to comments and appreciations by other composers from The Guardian. And for those of you in London, there are still tickets left to see/hear Boulez conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Bartok on April 4 at Royal Festival Hall.

A can of worms?

Tim Worstall 's instigation of an irregular economic idiot award is something he will no doubt come to regret. But in the meantime, it's lots of fun.

BritBlog Roundup

BritBlog Roundup No. 5 is now up, on Tim Worstall's blog. Some very interesting posts, including a nice hatchet job on a recent piece by Timothy Garton-Ash. 

Apologies...

...for contributing to "a dangerous bubble" in economics blogs:

As of March 2005, Professor Bill Parke is tracking 72 economics blogs at his Economics Roundtable. So we seem to be adding around 34 new economics-related sites to the blogosphere every year. This is clearly unsustainable and conclusive proof of the irrationality of bloggers! Some economics bloggers are even purchasing Google ads in a desperate scramble for market share. 

Clearly government intervention is required to bring order to this sector of the blogosphere and prevent a blog boom-bust cycle from developing. As a solution, I propose the nationalisation of blogs, starting with John Quiggin, who can then educate us all on the merits of public ownership of the means of blogging.

Stephen Kirchner at his whimsical best.

Arthur Dent is back...

If the tongue-in-check 'exclusive online' trailer is any guide, the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie should be a hoot. Opens 29 April in the United States, and early May in the UK.