Tuesday assorted links

1. “Using the Current Population Survey (CPS), we find strong evidence that higher minimum wages lead to a greater prevalence of subminimum wage payment.

2. Senators are not good at stock picking, even when related to their committee assignments.

3. Economic analysis of optimal lockdown.  I definitely think this exercise is worth doing, but the researchers, as economists, ignore most of the critical public choice and sustainability issues, much as other researchers do.

4. What makes Ringo a great drummer (video).  And is music getting better or worse? (data from streaming)

5. “The village on Java island has deployed a cast of “ghosts” to patrol the streets, hoping that age-old superstition will keep people indoors and safely away from the coronavirus.

6. How testing works, or doesn’t work, in New Jersey.

7. An epidemiologist addresses my questions (something Twitter was unable to do), bravo to him.

8. Apichatpong Weerasethakul plum tree update.  And ““This is the first transnational geopolitical Twitter war Thais have engaged in,” said Prajak Kongkirati of Bangkok’s Thammasat University.” (NYT)

9. Markets in everything: “Hamas Willing to Trade Information on Israelis Held in Gaza for Ventilators.”

10. Reopening guidelines from John Cochrane.

11. Sarah Constantin on variolation.

12. David Henderson argues for liberation from lockdown.  Not my view, but I think his strongest argument is that greater freedom will induce us to rush with innovation in test and trace, masks, etc.

13. How soon does it end?  Preliminary results, but very important.  There is so much interesting in that link, including the possibility that California needs to worry more than does New York.  Recommended.  I’ll be saying more about these issues soon and of course waiting for the final results.

14. Why serology is more difficult than it looks.  And look at these pictures.

15. “We estimate that 4-14% (1.5%-10%) of actual infections had been reported in US up to March 16, accounting for an assumed reporting lag of 8 (5) days.

16. Superspreaders (NYT): ““The MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea was driven primarily by three infected individuals, and approximately 75 percent of cases can be traced back to three superspreaders who have each infected a disproportionately high number of contacts,” wrote George F. Gao, an immunologist and virologist at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, in a recent paper.

17. The Wolfram Physics Project, lots there.

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