Category: Data Source

“In the unlikely event of a water landing…”

by  Tyler Cowen in

One might also call this "Airline Fact of the Day":

My friend Peter Thompson did some research on this. At least going back to 1970, which by my estimation encompasses over 150 million commercial airline flights, there has not been a single water landing! (Some planes explode and fall into the water, but he couldn’t find anything resembling a water landing where any of those instructions might help you.) So perhaps 15 billion customer trips have heard that 10-15 second set of instructions without it ever being useful to anyone.

That is from Steve Levitt.  Here is the official site of Unlikely.  Here are unlikely stories.

Addendum: Do read the comments, the "fact" appears to be wrong…

The changing allocation of time

by  Tyler Cowen in

…70 percent of the decline in hours worked [in the 20th century] has been offset by an increase in hours spent in school.

Here is the paper, which includes new and controversial claims about the evolution of leisure time, most notably that leisure time has not gone up since 1900 and that time spent in household production has increased slightly. 

Note two things.  First, many of the results stem from including the hours of children and the elderly in the calculations, contrary to standard practice.  (For instance, fewer children per family will raise the per capita leisure of adults, while total per capita leisure could fall, since children do not work much.)  Second, an hour is not always an hour; putting clothes into the washer is more fun than doing the entire laundry by hand. 

This is interesting work, but it should not be understood to buttress the popular claims that capitalism works people into the ground or that modernity is overrated.  Let’s start with the "quality" variable and ask whether the 20th century has put people on a higher indifference curve with respect to labor-leisure trade-offs.  The answer should be obvious.

India fact of the day

by  Tyler Cowen in

…a large part of that [Indian fiscal] deficit goes to financing the losses of the electric companies. Two and a half percent of GNP goes into power subsidies [emphasis added]; only half the electricity that’s generated actually gets paid for. Some of the other half goes in unfortunate (we economists think) programs to give free power to the farmers. Unfortunately, the farmers who qualify for free power are the ones who are rich enough to be able to afford power in the first place. But having gotten free power, they let their neighbors tap into it. That’s another portion of the power goes that way. Then there are those who tap the lines. It’s dangerous, but people know how to do it. So half the power doesn’t get paid for even while there’s a big increase in the fiscal deficit, while one has very expensive power for those who do pay, which includes large industry. What do you do if you’re an industrialist with power that costs more to buy than you can generate it for? You buy a generator, which is socially wasteful. A lot of the investment in India is wasted by companies’ generating their own power so as to bypass the power system. So while there have been some attempts at privatizing the power sector and at imposing a regulatory system, there are still big problems at the moment.

Here is the longer article.

Myths about France

by  Tyler Cowen in

1. The French are extreme cultural protectionists.  Not true.  The French do spend large amounts of money pretending they are cultural protectionists and making noise in various international arenas.  And the language restrictions are binding on audiovisual media.  But for the most part France is quite open to foreign cultures.  Just trying seeing a foreign film in Paris, you’ll hardly find a better place. 

2. French labor productivity is about as high as that of the United States.  Call this one a half-truth.  The measured average productivity is close, in part because French labor law discourages low-wage, low-productivity jobs.  A better test is if a French-English bilingual person moves from one country to the other, where is productivity higher?  I’ll put my money on the United States. 

3. Within fifty years, France will be half Islamic.  Very unlikely, read this sober assessment of the demographics.

4. Frenchmen hate the United States.  Personally I’ve never found this to be true.  I’ve spent maybe three months of my life in this country, and I can’t recall one time that anyone was ever rude to me.  Can I say that about any other country?  Remember that many peoples distinguish between citizenries and governments more than Americans do.  In this regard the French are more libertarian then we Americans are.  Here is one look at the poll evidence on whether the French hate Americans.

5. French culture dried up after World War II.  OK, French painting has not been impressive, though I am fond of Yves Klein.  But try Georges Perec, Robert Bresson, or Olivier Messiaen, or Yves Nat for some brighter moments.  Let’s not forget the key role of Paris in supporting music from Africa and the Arabic world.  (America isn’t the only country which should get credit for the culture of its immigrants.)  Nor is French rap a total wasteland.

The bottom line: France, like the United States, is very good at confounding our expectations.

Jobs in everything — Smithian theme of the day

by  Tyler Cowen in

We profiled chemist Jesse Keifer, who works as a gumologist at Cadbury
Schweppes, a multi-billion dollar corporation and one of the world’s
largest confectioners. And while you can find lots of Trident at any
local store, you’d be hard-pressed to find another gumologist. In fact
a Google search returned a handful of links, most leading to Jesse.

Others, like James Niehues, find unusual ways to make a living with
their artistic talent by illustrating ski resorts. Still, others make a
living preserving the fountain pen, a writing tool that dates back many
centuries. And another who takes pride in restoring the nostalgic
kiddie ride.

Here is more information.  Click on the "Photo Gallery" for the material.  My favorite is the Movie Prop Replicator.  What was that old saying about the division of labor?

Which Mexicans end up coming here?

by  Tyler Cowen in

Here is a long and valuable paper on the topic.  From the abstract:

Consistent with positive selection of emigrants in terms of observable skill, emigration rates appear to be highest among individuals with earnings in the top half of the wage distribution.

There is much more along those lines.  To be frank, I know this paper will not convince most of the skeptics.  They will say, or perhaps think, "Yikes, what must the others be like?"  But at the very least evidence should improve a debate.  The next time you hear it argued that we receive "the dregs" of Mexico, send along this link.

The paper also finds that wages tend to rise in parts of Mexico where many people leave.  You could argue this one of two ways.  First, it might cause you to doubt David Card’s view that wage effects in the U.S. are small (although the U.S. is a much bigger economy and thus the labor shift should have a smaller impact here).  Second, it raises our estimate of how much Mexico benefits from emigration.

Thanks to Eric Husman for the pointer.  Here is another relevant paper on Mexican emigration, forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Literature.  Full of facts, as they say.

Luxury markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Some khaki pants are now selling for as much as $1055; $400 and $500 khaki pants are becoming common.

See The Wall Street Journal, May 13-14, p.P7.  Makes you want to sign up with Peter Singer, doesn’t it?

One Saks Fifth Avenue fashion director noted: "For some of these brands, that’s a lot of money."

If you know of other absurd luxury markets, please mention them in the comments.