The Ambrosini Critique

a.k.a Toolsmith
a.k.a. Geek

To help forecast a hot CE product in one of the world’s largest retailers (located in Seattle). Apply within.

As I, fingers crossed, wind down my graduate work in economics, I am looking for new hobbies. I was thinking about getting back into baseball. I loved baseball when I was a kid and now, thanks to Moneyball and Baseball Prospectus, there is a “scientific” sub-culture where I would fit nicely. Plus, I’d finally have a reason to get cable.

Or maybe the stock market. Lots of easily accessible data. Check. Interesting theory. Check. Lots of amateurish dabbling. Double check. The only problem is I can’t get excited about trading stocks. The data crunching has moved analysis so far away from the fundamentals that unless you think winning at zero-sum games is fun it’s hard to maintain excitement about it. I’ll probably dabble.

Then there’s social psychology. There’s some data and amateurs abound. Methodologically, the field is familiar to economists but they have done what economists are only starting to do; they’ve dropped the assumption of context independent behavior. The field is young enough that it still has a multi-disciplinary feel and every new finding seems revolutionary. Will Wilkinson is teaching an introductory course in it at his new blog (partial syllabus here). I’ve signed up.

… and I’m boring. There’s no traces of Indian in me (a now debunked family story) and the white in me isn’t that interesting either:

This chart was produced using EURO-DNA-CALC (h/t Volokh). I’m 1/4 Italian-Swiss (hence the name) and the rest Anglo-French mix so the tool did a pretty good job pin-pointing my genetic origins.

Next, I think, I’ll do this. I have no clue why one would want to phase one’s genes but, you know, “because it’s there”.

UPDATE: Here’s one reason why you’d want to phase your genome… Did mom or dad give you your Neanderthal genes?

… or is it?

(PS – NBER has some good working papers out this week… stuff by Hall on the “Long Slump” and Chetty on micro/macro elasticities and then there’s this look at poverty over the business cycle.)

I didn’t vote for him, but Jerry Brown is… awesome! There’s some sort of Nixon-going-to-China thing going on in California right now.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Jerry Brown wants you!

By revealed preference:

Cameron Massoudi, who attends Irvine’s Northwood High School, said he was upset to be placed on UC Davis’ lengthy waiting list and decided last month to go with a solid acceptance from UC Santa Cruz. Then earlier this month, UC Davis offered him enrollment and he decided to switch.

As a macroeconomist I can assume Cameron Massoudi is a representative agent…

A week after my graduation from college, I ordered: The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert, Measuring Customer Satisfaction by Bob Hayes, Unidimensional Scaling by McIver and Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy J. Siegel.

I just started my first “real” job, at a customer survey company.

(meme inherited from McArdle)

AC let me know that Angus Maddison has died. He’s the guy with all the historical data. Some of it, they say, he made up. But at least we were able to include Angus Maddison fixed effects in our specifications. Now, sadly, not.

In his latest post, he worries that his excellent series critiquing Libertarian Paternalism (start here) isn’t getting many comments.

If you’ve read a couple or all of these posts, leave a comment to let him know how great they are.

If not, drop whatever you’re doing and get reading.

This one’s only 6.0.

UPDATE: No injuries. No damage. No power outages. They’re not even letting the kids out of school.