Monthly Archives: February 2010

Wryside on Gender and Competition

Posted on February 22, 2010 by andrewleigh

My ABC Radio National ‘Wryside Economics’ segment tomorrow (Tue 23rd) will be on gender and competition, riffing off my AFR op-ed on this topic. Jane Caro is standing in for Richard Aedy (who has the flu this week), so you’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Coming Events | Comments Off on Wryside on Gender and Competition

Death and Taxes

Posted on February 18, 2010 by andrewleigh

In politics, death is a remarkably potent card to play. But its rhetorical power needs to be matched by a bit of substance. Every year, about 130,000 Australians die. Each of these deaths are tragic (I’m not saying this lightly … Continue reading →

Posted in Australian Politics | 12 Comments

The Ideas of March

Posted on February 16, 2010 by andrewleigh

On 20-21 March, the folks at ANU’s Manning Clark House are running the closest thing that Canberra has to a Festival of Ideas: a weekend event titled ‘Fair suck of the sauce bottle: a celebration of Australian language’. Teaser on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Ideas of March

Gender and Competition

Posted on February 16, 2010 by andrewleigh

My AFR op-ed today is on gender and competition, writing up a series of recent research papers. It would’ve been too cumbersome to mention all the authors, but you’ll find the studies hyperlinked if you’d like to read the original … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics Generally | 2 Comments

Another interesting Joyce of words

Posted on February 16, 2010 by andrewleigh

From BusinessWeek: Greek government bonds fell after Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said his country is in a “terrible mess” and compared fixing the nation’s deficit to changing “the course of the Titanic.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Another interesting Joyce of words

Permanent Income Inequality

Posted on February 14, 2010 by andrewleigh

I have a paper out, looking at income mobility from year to year, and how it affects estimates of inequality. One reason for writing the paper was to address the critique “sure, the US is unequal if you just use … Continue reading →

Posted in Inequality | 3 Comments

We’ll always have (the wrong number in) Paris

Posted on February 12, 2010 by andrewleigh

I blogged last year on the difficulty I’ve been having in getting the OECD to correctly quote a paper that I wrote on intergenerational mobility. Apparently my friendly ‘oops, you did it again’ emails don’t seem to have any impact. … Continue reading →

Posted in Inequality | Comments Off on We’ll always have (the wrong number in) Paris

What’s the impact of raising the drinking age to 21?

Posted on February 10, 2010 by andrewleigh

I’m distracted by other things today, but couldn’t resist the PM’s call for evidence on the costs and benefits of raising the Australian minimum drinking age from 18 to 21. Here are 3 possibly relevant economics papers. Does the Minimum … Continue reading →

Posted in Health economics | 1 Comment

Life Matters, and so does suicide bombing

Posted on February 9, 2010 by andrewleigh

My Wryside economics segment on Life Matters this morning discussed Eli Berman’s work on the economics of terrorism. If you’d like to listen to it, you can find it here.

Posted in Economics Generally | Comments Off on Life Matters, and so does suicide bombing

New econ-talks

Posted on February 9, 2010 by andrewleigh

The 2010 Research School of Economics Seminar Series kicks off with two seminars that are slightly out of sync with our regular time slots. Prof Robert Haveman, University of Wisconsin – Madison Friday 12 February, 3:30-5:00pm  Seminar Room E, Coombs … Continue reading →

Posted in Coming Events | 1 Comment

A randomised trial of mentoring programs for female faculty

Posted on February 8, 2010 by andrewleigh

A new US randomised trial suggests that mentoring programs can have surprisingly large effects: Can Mentoring Help Female Assistant Professors? Interim Results from a Randomized Trial (unstable ungated link, stable gated link) Francine D. Blau, Janet M. Currie, Rachel T.A. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics of Education, Universities | 1 Comment

Miscellaneous links

Posted on February 5, 2010 by andrewleigh

Alison Booth and I have written up our gender discrimination paper for Vox EU. The Kaufman Foundation has released its econ-blogger survey (I’m one of the many datapoints) From a recent article about journal ranking in economics: Nearly every ranking … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Alt-worthy, or an epic fail?

Posted on February 2, 2010 by andrewleigh

The ANU Commonwealth Bank has a billboard outside, advertising ‘Student options is heaps good’. Should I be worried?

Posted in Universities | 1 Comment

The Size of Nations

Posted on February 2, 2010 by andrewleigh

Ever wondered why there are so many countries in the world? My AFR op-ed today attempts to provide an answer. Full text over the fold.

Posted in Global issues, Trade & Development | 5 Comments