Category: Education

C. Kirabo Jackson has a new study and his conclusion is a qualified yes:

…the incentives produce meaningful increases in participation in the AP program and improvements in other critical education outcomes. Establishment of APIP results in a 30 percent increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or above 24 on the ACT, and an 8 percent increase in the number of students at a high school who enroll in a college or university in Texas. My evidence suggests that these outcomes are likely the result of stronger encouragement from teachers and guidance counselors to enroll in AP courses, better information provided to students, and changes in teacher and peer norms. The program is not associated with improved high school graduation rates or increases in the number of students taking college entrance exams, suggesting that the APIP improves the outcomes of high-achieving students rather than those students who may not have graduated from high school or even applied to college. Nonetheless, APIP may be an exceptionally good investment. The average per-student cost of the program, between
$100 and $300, is very small relative to reasonable estimates of the lifetime benefits of attending and succeeding in college.

Here is a recent article on the topic.  My intuition is that this works best for unmotivated students, where there is no intrinsic motivation to undermine.

Harvard University’s admission that it lost $8 billion from its $36 billion
endowment fund, as staggering as it sounds, may grossly underestimate the true magnitude of the
loss between from July 1 through Oct. 31 2008.  According to a source close the Harvard
Management Corporation (HMC), which runs the fund for Harvard, the  loss is closer to $18
billion if the losses on the fund’s illiquid investment are realistically appraised.

That’s Edward Jay Epstein, via Megan McArdle.  As Megan points out, no one should be surprised by this and in fact I would be surprised if that were the full extent of the damage.

What is your favourite form of procrastination ?
 

I’m unable to procrastinate. I’m unable to think about tomorrow.

That answer is from Amelie Nothomb.

As you go shopping for Christmas presents this holiday, bear in mind
that buying the wrong gift for a man could put your relationship with
him in jeopardy, whereas buying a bad gift for a woman is far less
dangerous.

Neither I nor Robin Hanson agree.  Here is the discussion.  The authors do present a rationale for their hypothesis:

The researchers think their findings are consistent with the tendency
for women to act as guardians of relationships, and that their positive
reaction to the receipt of a bad gift was a form of psychological
defence against the disappointment of receiving a dud present.

"That
is, in response to the relational threat posed by receiving a bad gift
from a partner, women may be more motivated than men to protect their
sense of similarity to the gift-giver," the researchers said, adding
that this reflects "the broader tendency for women – more than men – to
guard relationships against potential threats."

What do you all think?

In my experience, use of the word "classy" means the opposite of what the speaker intends.

The link is here.

Applications to take the GRE are down and that means the number of graduate students is unlikely to rise, in contrast to the traditional pattern of greater graduate school attendance during recessions.  Here are a few hypotheses:

Stewart has several theories about why declines may be taking place
this year, despite historic trends. She said it was possible, as ETS
officials suggested, that the credit crunch was making it more
difficult for students to borrow – or that hearing about the crunch
discouraged some from trying. In that same vein, she said that with
many colleges and universities announcing budget cuts, many departments
may not have the same levels of funds to offer in fellowship support.

In addition, she said that while economic uncertainty in the past
has prompted some people to decide to improve their skills so they can
seek better jobs, the turmoil is so great this year that “no one will
leave a job if they have a job – they think the risk is too much to
take.”

Stewart also stressed that just because the surge in interest in
graduate school has not happened this year doesn’t mean it won’t start.
Many people these days are experiencing “freezing behavior” where they
are so uncertain about their next move and the state of the economy
that they aren’t making any changes, she noted. “It could be that this
has created a temporary pause where we would have normally seen a flow
to graduate school. That the flow hasn’t started doesn’t mean it won’t.”

I opt for paragraph #2.  How about all of you?  Are you in this position yourselves?

The ratio is about 2-1.  And it’s not just because women are concentrated in the "study abroad intensive" humanities:

The National Science Foundation reports that men earn 80 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering. But women’s participation in a study abroad consortium for engineers, the Global Engineering Education Exchange, typically ranges from 30 to nearly 40 percent (39.3 percent this academic year) – far outstripping their 20 percent representation in the field.

Here is what the experts think:

Among the many conventional wisdom-type explanations pervading in the study abroad field: differing maturity and risk-taking levels among 18- to 21-year-old men and women; a sense that females, concerned about safety, are more inclined to attend a college-sanctioned study abroad program than travel on their own; and, again, varying study abroad participation rates in male versus female-dominated fields.

I favor a more Hansonian explanation, such as this:

“The three main factors I found were motherhood, age and safety,” said McKinney, associate director of the Center for Global Education at Butler University. “Essentially, my informants shared with me that they really hope someday to be mothers and they can’t imagine being able to travel abroad and also be a mom. So if they’re going to have an overseas experience, they’re going to do it before they become mothers,” she said, adding that her informants “really felt plagued by the age of 30. They have a very long to-do list.”

If that hypothesis is true, what are the other testable implications?  What other forms of intertemporal substitution should we observe?

…there are two ways to give directions. One is using a so-called "route
perspective", as in the example above. This adopts a first-person
spatial perspective and is characterised by references to turns and
landmarks. The other is a so-called "survey perspective", which gives
directions as if looking down upon a map. This type of direction giving
is characterised by references to cardinal directions (North, South,
East and West) and precise distances.

And which is better?

When Hund’s team used a fictitious model town made of plywood to test
the ability of undergraduates to follow directions, they uncovered a
curious anomaly. The students reported finding route perspective
directions easier to follow and yet they steered a toy car to a
destination more quickly and effectively when they were following
cardinal directions.

Here is further analysis.  I prefer the survey perspective.  Maybe it is a language issue, but I find it very difficult when most Europeans give directions.  Too often they cite concepts such as "up," "down," "over," "beyond," and the like.  Is it really necessary to say "hoch fahren"?  NESW, please.  Which method do you prefer or perhaps some other?

If your contribution as an economist is very fundamental, other people will use that contribution whether or not they were your students.  Lots of people use, or critique, the assumption of rational expectations.  So the inventors of RE don’t need students to propagate their fame.  Alfred Marshall’s fame today is mostly independent of the students he had (or did not have).

Having fundamental contributions is correlated with quality but within the top tier of quality there is considerable variation.  Arrow and Lucas had relatively fundamental contributions but in contrast Milton Friedman, Larry Summers, Robert Barro, and Olivier Blanchard are all more applied.  Their demand for students should be higher.  If you are an empirical economist, but invented an econometric technique which is fundamental, your demand for students should be relatively low.  Students might also prefer advisors who are less "fundamental," for fear of being overshadowed or from wanting to avoid the winner-take-all tier of the market.

Since at top schools the percentage of "fundamental" economists is declining over time, we would expect the distribution of doctoral students, across faculty, to become more even.

I thank Amanda Agan and some of her friends for a useful conversation on this topic.

We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people.  We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact.  This feeling is EVIL.  Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind.  Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin.

Here is the link.  I like that phrase, "rationality ruin."  I am, of course, more of a pragmatist and less of a Platonist than is Robin.  But still, Robin is the daily tonic I wish to take.

If there has been a conspiracy among liberal faculty members to
influence students, “they’ve done a pretty bad job,” said A. Lee
Fritschler, a professor of public policy at George Mason University and
an author of the new book “Closed Minds? Politics and Ideology in
American Universities” (Brookings Institution Press).

The
notion that students are induced to move leftward “is a fantasy,” said
Jeremy D. Mayer, another of the book’s authors. When it comes to
shaping a young person’s political views, “it is really hard to change
the mind of anyone over 15,” said Mr. Mayer, who did extensive research
on faculty and students.

Here is the story.

Ben Casnocha has some suggestions for making good personal and career contacts:

How to find a hidden gem? Hints from my post on de-emphasizing popular filters: seek out introverts. Seek out people under age 30. Seek out people who are bad at marketing.

Recognize and discount the celebrity effect. Spend time with
people who also have time to spend with you. My bet is you’ll have a
more rewarding relationship.

This is the same Ben who went to a talk of mine in Zurich and introduced himself to me.  I’m not under 30.  In any case, I agree with his bottom line:

The only reason to try to meet with Mr. Busy and Rich for 10 minutes is
if you have a very specific request or need. If you’re just trying to
"network" or build a relationship, don’t waste your time.

John Smith reports:

I am ready to move on – perhaps for a career where deadlines are
honored, ideas are exchanged and gimmicks and fads are routinely
avoided because they distract from advancing the mission of gaining and
sharing knowledge. Yes, it is time to find another line of work, where
I can enjoy the fruits of my labor, even if I realize that the grass is
grayer, if not greener, elsewhere.

John Smith is the pseudonym of a professor at a liberal arts
college. He asked to remain anonymous because he is continuing to teach
while he is job-hunting and doesn’t want his comments to reflect on his
institution.