One of the toughest things about writing this blog has to be being an economist. Economists aren’t hip. They’re not even hip in that “we’re so much more high-tech than you that we must be hip” way. Yeah, so we use complicated models, but being an economist is definitely square. Unlike [...]

Posted on April 24th, 2006 by Lee
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Last Friday I finally managed to turn in my senior thesis paper. An entire hour before the deadline, no less! Does it ever feel good to be done with that. Here’s the abstract:

“How do the Olympic Games Impact Employment in the Host City?”
Despite the size and prestige of the Olympic Games, few [...]

Posted on February 28th, 2006 by Lee
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The Guardian has a really interesting story this week about the decline of the auto industry:
Latham says his students no longer see their cars as an essential expression; their Toyotas and Hondas are just vehicles. They boast of iPods or computer games, not their ‘wheels’.
‘They are like walking cyborgs with all these things attached to [...]

Posted on January 29th, 2006 by Lee
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This has to be one of the most interesting studies I’ve seen in a long time: (from the Freakonomics blog)
There are many sterotypes associated with undergraduates at the University of Chicago. They are typically thought to be really smart, very overworked, and a bit odd.
Two U of C undergrads, using a data-driven approach worthy of [...]

Posted on January 22nd, 2006 by Lee
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India receives 90% of its rain during monsoon season so forecasting monsoons is critical for productive farming. Fortunately, according to an article in Nature (subs. req.), the Indian Meteorological Department has found a way to make its forecast better than any other available - they have suppresed publication of the other forecasts. The [...]

Posted on August 10th, 2005 by Lee
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