Some old friends of mine have just published new books. Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan have just published The Org. I had the opportunity to read an early draft and I was quite impressed with how the authors combine ideas from modern incentive theory and organizational behavior to examine many different organizations around the world. The book highlights the power of economic logic. While I doubt this book will be turned into a movie, the Hollywood crew should read it!
For those scholars who teach intermediate micro, there is a new textbook to adopt. A Dream Team of Goolsbee, Levitt and Syverson has recently published their book. For those of you who want free stuff, here are two free chapters. I have the feeling that the authors rejected my advice when I suggested that they discuss at length the use of "lags" as instrumental variables that would allow the scholar to jump from modestly claiming that he/she had uncovered a correlation to making the stronger claim that the relationship represents a "causal effect".
November Apartment Report
Last month, the apartment complex hit a bit of a rough patch. We saw declining occupancy and increased vandalism. I'm pleased to report that things have improved during November. Occupancy increased and rent concessions decreased, so it appears the new property manager is doing well. We hit our highest monthly total revenue number since June and the third highest for the entire year. This was also an $8,000 improvement over October's figure. Our net income figure also rose to $5,700, which is $1,500 higher than last month and the highest figure of the year.
Expenses continue to be stable and we are almost $4,000 over our monthly budgeted net income figure. Unfortunately, our net income for the year overall is still $45,000 under budget, due to the poor performance during the first half of the year. Next month, our $8,000 reduction in our mortgage payment kicks in, so we should see some really good numbers for December.
Expenses continue to be stable and we are almost $4,000 over our monthly budgeted net income figure. Unfortunately, our net income for the year overall is still $45,000 under budget, due to the poor performance during the first half of the year. Next month, our $8,000 reduction in our mortgage payment kicks in, so we should see some really good numbers for December.
Endless Chatter
The 2013 AEA San Diego meetings are now over. To paraphrase Keynes, "We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun." Over the last 3 days, while my son went to the zoo and the Midway Aircraft carrier, I talked and talked to old friends, new friends, graduate students, bloggers, new colleagues, book press editors, co-authors, future co-authors, past co-authors, 1 Nobel Laureate and 2 past chairs of the CEA. I am now taking a vow of silence.
While I enjoyed all of these conversations, one of the most interesting conversations I had was with Dartmouth's Andrew Samwick who told me about his recent NBER Working Paper. Parents who send their kids to private schools are patriots.
While I enjoyed all of these conversations, one of the most interesting conversations I had was with Dartmouth's Andrew Samwick who told me about his recent NBER Working Paper. Parents who send their kids to private schools are patriots.
Donating the Voucher: An Alternative Tax Treatment of Private School Enrollment
Andrew A. Samwick
Approximately 10 percent of school-age children in the United States are enrolled in private schools, relieving the financial burden on public school systems, and the taxpayers who support them, of the cost of their education. At present, the tax code does not allow families who provide this financial relief an income tax deduction, even though such relief is a gift to governments for exclusively public purposes and thus analogous to a charitable donation. Using the Public Use Microdata Sample of the American Community Survey and the NBER Internet Taxsim calculator, this paper estimates that granting families who enroll their children in private schools an income tax deduction equal to the per-pupil expenditures in their public school district would cost the federal government an average of $7.75 billion per year over the 2006 – 2010 period. This amount is less than one percent of federal income tax revenues. Because private school enrollment, public school expenditures, the likelihood of itemization, and marginal tax rates increase with taxpayer income, the dollar benefits of this change are positively related to income. At the margin, high-income taxpayers would receive about 35 cents in federal and state tax relief for each dollar of per-pupil expenditures foregone.
A Productive 2013?
Today, the economists travel to San Diego for the annual convention. For those who are interested in what economists actually work on (versus blog about) click here for details. On Monday, teaching starts at UCLA and I'm somehow teaching two classes with a total enrollment of over 220 undergraduates. I'm not sure how this happened. Some extraordinary students have registered for my class and I'm eager to see if I can teach them a thing or two. Given my commitment to open source and equal access to education, you can access all of the course material for my environmental economics class here.
Will 2013 be a productive year? It better be. I will turn 47 soon so I should have maturity to be a functioning adult. While I'm excited about several of the projects that I'm currently hard at work on, I'm most excited about the book that Siqi Zheng and I are writing about quality of life in China's growing cities.. This is likely to be my last book for a decade. If this book is well written and well executed, then it will set off an active discussion in China's political circles and will be of interest to Western nerds.
Will 2013 be a productive year? It better be. I will turn 47 soon so I should have maturity to be a functioning adult. While I'm excited about several of the projects that I'm currently hard at work on, I'm most excited about the book that Siqi Zheng and I are writing about quality of life in China's growing cities.. This is likely to be my last book for a decade. If this book is well written and well executed, then it will set off an active discussion in China's political circles and will be of interest to Western nerds.
Who is the King of the Airport Book Store Rack?
I just flew from Oakland to LA and this provided me with the opportunity to study the Airport's book rack. While Dubner and Levitt have been the Kings for a long time, there is a new "kid" on the block and he is UCLA's Jared Diamond. Below, I reproduce a photo I took of the cover of his new book "The World Until Yesterday".
Given the success of his "Guns and Germs", he has earned the right to this top billing. I must admit that I quickly put down his book and started reading Pete Townsend's autobiography of his time with The Who (while I enjoyed the 10 pages, I didn't buy it either). In the brief section I read, Townsend discussed how the band repositioned itself (circa 1979) after the death of Keith Moon to change its style of music.
Returning to Jared Diamond, some sociologist should write a paper about what predicts whether an academic's project achieves popular success. When do academics break through to the other side? The answer my friend may be blowing in the wind? The number of attempts at "success" could be quantified by counting trade publication books and then defining "success" by some sales threshold. A linear probability model could then be estimated as a function of a bunch of attributes of the author and the subject material and the year when it was published. For example, would Freaknomics have been a smash success had it been published in the midst of a deep recession (say 2009) rather than during good times (2004)? Would "Why Nations Fail" have sold many fewer copies had it appeared during good times?
I do not have the time or inclination to think about these deep issues because I'm heading to San Diego for the ASSA meetings.
Given the success of his "Guns and Germs", he has earned the right to this top billing. I must admit that I quickly put down his book and started reading Pete Townsend's autobiography of his time with The Who (while I enjoyed the 10 pages, I didn't buy it either). In the brief section I read, Townsend discussed how the band repositioned itself (circa 1979) after the death of Keith Moon to change its style of music.
Returning to Jared Diamond, some sociologist should write a paper about what predicts whether an academic's project achieves popular success. When do academics break through to the other side? The answer my friend may be blowing in the wind? The number of attempts at "success" could be quantified by counting trade publication books and then defining "success" by some sales threshold. A linear probability model could then be estimated as a function of a bunch of attributes of the author and the subject material and the year when it was published. For example, would Freaknomics have been a smash success had it been published in the midst of a deep recession (say 2009) rather than during good times (2004)? Would "Why Nations Fail" have sold many fewer copies had it appeared during good times?
I do not have the time or inclination to think about these deep issues because I'm heading to San Diego for the ASSA meetings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)