~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (551)

Since pioneering the first corporate purchase agreements for renewable electricity over a decade ago, Google has played a pivotal role in accelerating clean energy solutions, including the next generation of advanced clean technologies. Today, we’re building on these efforts by signing the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) […] The post Google signs contract for small modular...

We analyze 6,400 letters of recommendation for more than 2,200 economics and finance Ph.D. graduates from 2018 to 2021. Letter text varies significantly by field of interest, with significantly less positive and shorter letters for Macroeconomics and Finance candidates. Letters for female and Black or Hispanic job candidates are weaker in some dimensions, while letters […] The post Letters of recommendation appeared first on...

Running a haunted house can be a risky—if not scary—business. The barrier to entry is high, the overhead costs can be massive, and the attractions have just one very vulnerable month to earn their money. Like many other small businesses, 60% of them don’t make it past their third year, according to haunted-house review company […] The post The economics of haunted houses appeared...

A very good Columbus Day thread. The post Kevin Bryan on the contributions of AJR appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Dismalist. Why ignore the City's take of world ... by rsmIn reply to Does he deserve a Nobel ?. What is a Nobel other ... by rsmIn reply to Acemoglu is no ace !. Why no mention of military ......

The Nobel prize goes to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their work on institutions, prosperity, and economic growth. Here is a key piece summarizing their work: Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth. This paper develops the empirical and theoretical case that differences in economic institutions are the fundamental cause of […] The post Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson Win Nobel...

Here is my earlier CWT with Acemoglu, and with Simon Johnson. We’ll have to try to get to James Robinson.  Congratulations to the winners! The post Conversations with the new Laureates appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Johnny. The Swedes and not the Norwegians choose ... by RicardoLinks to the MR comments on these conversations: ... by Joe In MorgantownThe amusing...

1. Drones over U.S. military bases (WSJ). 2. Eric Topol podcast with the excellent Patrick Hsu. 3. Matt Clancy on AI progress.  Excellent thread. The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Ricardo. When the US hit the Houthis on January ... by chaos in the hubIn reply to Sparky. @Lord Action Suez Canal cargo volume is ......

What has surprised you the most this year? The development of decentralized training for AI models, from DiLoCo and DiPaCo from Google DeepMind to Distro coming up from Nous Research. It completely changes the game in terms of how we ought to think about large models and what we can do to train them. This means pure compute thresholds are not […] The post What surprised you the most this...

Alas, I am at a day-long event tomorrow, and from an unfavorable time zone, so probably won’t have much to say about the new Nobel pick.  Alex will be here, however.  Apologies to you all! Here is my earlier economics Nobel podcast with Alex, maybe for this year I will predict Susan Athey for machine […] The post Tomorrow’s Nobel appeared first on Marginal...

1. Dresden orchestra conducted by three-armed robot. 2. How advanced was construction technology in the Stone Age? 3. New England liberal arts college for sale for $5.5 million. 4. How Avital uses Claude. 5. Tanner Greer on Dario Amodei.  A very good sequence. The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments> 1. Dresden orchestra conducted by three-armed robot. I ......

Elon Musk’s tweets about the presidential election and spreading falsehoods about Hurricane Helene are endangering his ability to launch rockets off California’s central coast. The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected the Air Force’s plan to give SpaceX permission to launch up to 50 rockets a year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara […] The post “California officials cite Elon Musk’s politics...

One of the most amazing facts to come out of the dockworker strike (now resolved, it seems): WSJ: Start with the astounding fact that there were 50,000 or so ILA strikers but only 25,000 or so port jobs. That’s right, only about half of the union’s members are obliged to show up to work each […] The post The Missing Dockworkers appeared first on...

One alternative approach, I’ve argued, would be to establish a framework to enable individuals and groups to acquire time-limited conditional legal property rights to plots of spaceland, on a Georgist-inspired market system (Lowe, 2022a, 2022b). On my approach, competitors would keep the full profit they made from the permissible use of their plots but competition […] The post How to allocate space rights? appeared...

We use an advanced model of the global economy to consider a set of scenarios consistent with the proposal to impose a minimum 60% tariff against Chinese imports and blanket minimum 10% tariff against all other US imports. The model’s structure, which includes imperfect competition in increasing-returns industries, is documented in Balistreri, Böhringer, and Rutherford […] The post The costs of U.S: tariff imposition...

Oil companies are conveying an unlikely message to the GOP and its presidential candidate: Spare President Biden’s signature climate law. At least the parts that benefit the oil industry. In discussions with former President Trump’s campaign and his allies in Congress, oil giants including Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, and Occidental Petroleum have extolled the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act. Many in […] The post That was then, this is now…...

1. Ross Douthat on late term abortion (NYT). 2. That’s a lot of AI subscriptions.  Somehow I found that link hilarous. 3. Centre Pompidou outpost in…New Jersey? 4. Poland to suspend asylum rights temporarily. 5. Michael Pettis profile (WSJ…p.s. prices are flexible in the medium-term). 6. Another case of qualified scientists getting actual public policy […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

Here is a longish essay, here is one excerpt: Economists often talk about “factors of production”: things like labor, land, and capital. The phrase “marginal returns to labor/land/capital” captures the idea that in a given situation, a given factor may or may not be the limiting one – for example, an air force needs both […] The post Dario Amodei on AI and the...

…it’s notable that if you look at the major deregulator measures of the past four years, it mostly happened under Jimmy Carter (Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Motor Carrier Act of 1980, Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980) or Bill Clinton (Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency […] The post Matt Yglesias on regulation and deregulation...

PIER Plans will be evaluated as part of the merit review process and will be used to inform funding decisions. The review criterion, Quality and Efficacy of the Plan for Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research, will be included as one of the merit review criteria that peer reviewers will use to evaluate applications. The Office […] The post From the Department of Energy appeared...

1. My podcast with Minus One. 2. Why are fewer men going to college? 3. Warren Nutter’s Soviet research for the CIA. 4. Those new service sector jobs: “This Texas Mom Charges Over $1,000 for Her Elaborate Pumpkin Displays.” 5. Pizza Hut Will Deliver Your Resume Printed on a Pizza Box to Prospective Employers (NYC only). […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

The post Optimus personal assistant robot appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Dinwar. I think you're conflating invention and ... by DylanIn reply to EVCoyote. SpaceX is about to launch a massive ... by It Ain't Necessarily SoIn reply to Hazel Meade. Circa 2019, I came back to the ... by Mark BahnerLOL. Elon has gone all in on Trump so...

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation minority staff (Committee), which oversees federal science agencies including NSF, analyzed 32,198 Prime Award grants NSF awarded to 2,443 different entities with project start dates between January 2021 and April 2024. Committee analysis found 3,483 grants, more than ten percent of all NSF grants and totaling […] The post U.S.A. facts of the day appeared...

Starting today: Kalshi will pay you 4.05% interest on both your cash and open positions. Here is the link. The post Arbitrage! (at multiple levels) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to rsm. We are now in the zombie Rayward era. by NoIn reply to rayward. So, were the rumors of your death by ... by rsmAnother indication that the NGDP gap...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: First, whenever possible it is better to use private insurance, such as homeowner’s insurance and flood insurance, to protect against loss. One of the functions of insurance is to make losers at least partially whole after the fact, but another is to […] The post How economists think about victims of...