WSJ’s Jason Gay (a Wisconsin Badger fan) has written some of
the funniest pieces on College football (and other unrelated topics) in recent
years:
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Decision-Making Theory: New Research Findings
How we make decisions depends on how uncertain we
are
Flexible combination of reward information across
primates
Abstract
A fundamental but rarely contested assumption in
economics and neuroeconomics is that decision-makers compute subjective values
of risky options by multiplying functions of reward probability and magnitude.
By contrast, an additive strategy for valuation allows flexible combination of
reward information required in uncertain or changing environments. We
hypothesized that the level of uncertainty in the reward environment should
determine the strategy used for valuation and choice. To test this hypothesis,
we examined choice between risky options in humans and rhesus macaques across
three tasks with different levels of uncertainty. We found that whereas humans
and monkeys adopted a multiplicative strategy under risk when probabilities are
known, both species spontaneously adopted an additive strategy under
uncertainty when probabilities must be learned. Additionally, the level of
volatility influenced relative weighting of certain and uncertain reward
information, and this was reflected in the encoding of reward magnitude by
neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Economics, Technology and Politics
Why Andrew Yang Matters
“In the culture war that currently cleaves America,
there are three sides. There are progressives who believe that racism,
nativism, and misogyny powered Donald Trump’s rise and must be defeated. There
are conservatives who believe that Trump’s election was a response to
“political correctness”—the left’s effort to demonize as bigoted anyone who
defends the traditions that made America great. And there’s a third group that
thinks it’s all a dangerous distraction, a fight over where to place the chaise
longues on the Titanic. What’s killing America, this camp argues, is bad
economics; treat that and the identity hatreds will fade. Over the past quarter
century, two presidential candidates have mobilized these economics-first,
culture-war-indifferent voters into a potent force. The first was Ross Perot.
The second is Andrew Yang.”
Andrew Yang’s Quest to ‘Make America Think Harder’
Related:
Universal Basic Income – PODCAST
The important questions about universal basic
income haven’t been answered yet
Should the Government Give Everyone $1,000 a Month?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/opinion/yang-universal-basic-income.html
Silicon Valley Goes to Therapy
Latin America's Troubled Economies
Life is a struggle in Venezuela’s oil capital. So
is death.
Argentina Needs Intensive Care
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/argentina-election-and-reform-by-anne-krueger-2019-09Reigniting Growth in India
What the corporate tax cuts mean for India
Foreign Investors Say Tax Cuts Ease Concerns About
India Economy
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Supply-Demand Model of the Labor Market
The Debate Surrounding the Supply-Demand Model of
the Labor Market
Affiliation of Debate Participants:
Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He
is director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute [AEI leans to the political right]
Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant
professor of finance at Stony Brook University. [Smith
typically leans to the center-left of the political spectrum]
Further Readings on the Minimum Wage Debate:
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