Category: Education
New Videos at MRU
Lots of new material at MRU this week. In earlier videos we look at the relatively direct effect of geography on development, e.g. factors such as malaria and access to the coast. In videos released today we look at how geography can influence growth indirectly through the choice of institutions. We also provide background material on measuring GDP and PPP, using the Rule of 70, and we prepare the way for next week’s more technical videos on the Solow model with a brief, non-technical review of the Solow model.
A Macro Homework Question: Answer in the Style of…
I just returned from a trip to South Korea. Today, to prepare for the next trip, I took my jacket to the dry cleaners. Turning the pockets out, I discovered a substantial number of South Korean won. The transaction costs of exchanging the won for dollars are now very high. I will keep the won as souvenirs.
Question: What are the consequences of my decision for the South Korean economy? Answer in the style of a well-known economist. What would Scott Sumner say? (almost too easy!) What about Keynes? Krugman? Cowen? Prescott?
Can you raise your kid as a conservative or liberal?
Here is a new study (caveat emptor all the way):
This new study, by a team led by psychologist R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, begins with new mothers describing their intentions and approach in 1991, and ends with a survey of their children 18 years later. In between, it features an assessment of the child’s temperament at age 4.
…“Parents who endorsed more authoritarian parenting attitudes when their children were one month old were more likely to have children who were conservative in their ideologies at age 18,” the researchers report. “Parents who endorsed more egalitarian parenting attitudes were more likely to have children who were liberal.”
Obviously genes are an alternative channel of influence. And this is a stunner:
Also, the Illinois researchers did not gauge the parents’ political beliefs.
So I don’t believe the interpretations at all. Still, it is interesting to see the extent of attitudinal persistence, and furthermore “…our results also showed that early childhood temperament predicted variation in conservative versus liberal ideologies.” I suspect, however, that politics would turn out to be less susceptible to parental shaping than, say, religion or general temperamental approach to religion.
I consider this study radically incomplete, but still it is interesting to see the question tackled with a twenty-year time window and some ex ante planning.
For the pointer I thank www.artsjournal.com.
In which the Minnesotans call off the paddy wagon and leave us free
Pogemiller, according to the e-mail, said a 20-year-old statute requiring institutional registration clearly did not envision free online, not-for-credit offerings.
“When the legislature convenes in January, my intent is to work with the Governor and Legislature to appropriately update the statute to meet modern-day circumstances,” said Pogemiller. “Until that time, I see no reason for our office to require registration of free, not-for-credit offerings.”
Of course pursuing such an issue was not a political winner in the first place.
The link is here, and for the pointer I thank M.
Water Economics
The next set of lessons in MRUniversity’s development economics course is on water economics. Water is one of the most important issues in developing countries for many reasons, including agriculture, health, and wealth. Every year, millions of people die because of lack of access to clean and safe water. It is estimated that over 1 billion people in the world don’t have adequate access to such an essential resource, and the poor pay the biggest price.
In this section, we cover:
- The effects water monopolies can have on consumers
- The pros and cons of water privatization in developing nations, including major examples from Buenos Aires, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen
- Why it’s so hard to regulate private water companies effectively
- What can happen to the price of water when it is interfered with through subsidies and price controls
- The tragedy of the commons in water economics
- How water ethics influences the actual supply of water
- And finally, what happens when countries engage in trading water commodities
Crack cocaine and education
From William N. Evans, Craig Garthwaite, Timothy J. Moore:
We propose the rise of crack cocaine markets as an explanation for the end to the convergence in black-white educational outcomes beginning in the mid-1980s. After constructing a measure to date the arrival of crack markets in cities and states, we show large increases in murder and incarceration rates after these dates. Black high school graduation rates also decline, and we estimate that crack markets accounts for between 40 and 73 percent of the fall in black male high school graduation rates. We argue that the primary mechanism is reduced educational investments in response to decreased returns to schooling.
The ungated version is here.
Reason TV Interviews Alex on MRU
Huffington Post covers Marginal Revolution University
The very good article is here, excerpt:
Cowen said the Internet has changed so many aspects of our lives, so “Why should education stay behind?
“Education is changing rapidly and we want to go to our graves feeling we were on the right side of history, so-to-speak,” he said.
Our food and agriculture videos are up at MRU
Here is the description from the site:
The Food and Agriculture Productivity section of the Development Economics course is now available.
Early economics was largely the economics of agriculture, and these days food supply remains a critically important topic in development economics, especially in the poorer countries. Take India for instance — currently about half of the Indian labor force works in agriculture.
We cover some of the most fundamental questions about food supply and offer some optional videos on food as well. It’s not just about fighting hunger and starvation — agricultural surpluses are part of the path toward industrialization.
Particular topics include micronutrients, GMOs, the recent rice price spikes, garlic, watermelon, and “Yams, a Man’s Crop,” among others.
A German icon moves on
After 63 semesters spanning nearly 40 years of studying, German engineer Werner Kahmann finally managed to get his university diploma. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung he explained why it took him so long.
Here is one part of the story:
The first time Kahmann put his diploma on hold, he broke his leg playing football. The second time, it was 1984 and his daughter was born so he took time out to help raise her. “Then in 2004 when student fees were introduced, I de-matriculated again.”
In 2011, the fee system changed and Kahmann found himself with his nose in a book one again. But this time, it was for real – he earned his diploma a year later, even though the university did not even run the course anymore.
There would be downsides to being a graduate though, he said. “Paying for public transport and not getting reduced tickets for the zoo,” being two of Kahmann’s complaints.
For the pointer I thank Chris Reicher.
Can mobile phones boost educational outcomes?
From Jenny C. Aker, Christopher Ksoll, and Travis J. Lybbert:
The returns to educational investments hinge on whether such investments can improve the quality and persistence of educational gains. We report the results from a randomized evaluation of an adult education program in Niger, in which some students learned how to use simple mobile phones (Project ABC). Students in ABC villages achieved test scores that were 0.19–0.26 standard deviations higher than those in standard adult education classes, and standardized math test scores remained higher seven months after the end of classes. These results suggest that simple information technology can be harnessed to improve educational outcomes among rural populations.
An ungated copy is here.
Looking at pictures of cute animals makes you work more carefully and deliberately
A new study by Japanese researchers now shows there are more benefits to looking at pictures of these universal delights than just getting a case of the warm and fuzzies. Afterwards, we concentrate better.
Such is the “Power of Kawaii”, as a paper documenting the research is appropriately titled. The Japanese word “kawaii” means cute. The paper was published in the online edition of the U.S. journal Plos One on Thursday. Through three separate experiments a team of scientists from Hiroshima University showed that people showed higher levels of concentration after looking at pictures of puppies or kittens.
For the pointer I thank Mark Thorson.
Emails I receive (the consumer surplus of the internet)
…the origins of your name, off by a letter.
RL
> Put the following text into google: freemason Cowan Tyler What is the result?
Interesting. “Tyler” is the title of an officer in the Masonic hierarchy, while a “cowan” is a stonemason who is not a member of the Freemasons guild. This from “Freemasonry for Dummies”:
The Tyler’s job is to keep off all “cowans and eavesdroppers” (for more on the Tyler, see Chapter 5). The term cowan is unusual and its origin is probably from a very old Anglo-Saxon word meaning “dog.” Cowan came to be a Scottish word used as a putdown to describe stonemasons who did not join the Freemasons guild, while the English used it to describe Masons who built rough stone walls without mortar and did not know the true secrets of Freemasonry.
Questions that are rarely asked
It is estimated that less than $1B is spent in the U.S. each year on education research, with the federal government spending about $700M and universities, foundations and the private sector spending about $300M. That may sound like a lot, but it’s not. Consider that medicine and education should be two sides of the same coin. Both are services that developed democracies have decided all citizens are entitled to regardless of birth, station or resources. Medicine advances human health and happiness. Education advances economic productivity and happiness. Then consider that $140B is spent in the U.S. each year on medical research.
How to explain the 140:1 ratio?
Here is more.
Baumol’s new book on the cost disease
It is self-recommending, here are a few points of relevance:
1. There has been a clear cost disease in most kinds of education and many kinds of medicine, but I blame institutions and laws as much as the intrinsic nature of the product.
2. I do not see the arts as subject to the cost disease very much at all. As for the “live performing arts,” the disease seems to afflict the older and less innovative sectors, such as opera and the symphony. There is plenty of live music these days, it is offered in innovative ways, and much of it is free.
3. Even “the live performing arts” can be broken down into underlying characteristics, many of which show a great deal of recent innovation. For instance the supply of “musical immediacy” has been non-stagnant through YouTube, which often gives you a better glimpse of the performer than you get through nosebleed seats and giant screens. YouTube isn’t “live,” but there is no particular reason to break down the analysis at that level and certainly it is not a sacred category for consumers.
4. In many sectors of the arts, especially music, consumers demand constant turnover of product. Old music becomes “obsolete” — for whatever sociological reasons — and in this sense the sector is creating lots of new value every year. From an “objectivist” point of view they are still strumming guitars with the same speed, but from a subjectivist point of view — the relevant one for the economist – they are remarkably innovative all the time in the battle against obsolescence. A lot of the cost disease argument is actually an aesthetic objection that the art forms which have already peaked — such as Mozart — sometimes have a hard time holding their ground in terms of cost and innovation.
5. In general “cost disease” sectors do not remain constant over time. Agriculture has been unusually stagnant for the last twenty or so years, but it is hardly obvious that this trend will continue for the next century to come and it certainly was not the case for the period 1948-1990, quite the contrary.
6. The stagnancy of one sector may depend on the stagnancy of other sectors in non-transparent ways. “Live music” may seem like it doesn’t change much, but lifting the embargo on Cuba would boost the quantity and quality of my consumption of spectacular concert experiences, as would a non-stop flight to Haiti.
You can buy the book here.
Addendum: Matt Yglesias comments.