Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com. Calculated Risk.
The Big Picture. Opinion - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com. Marginal Revolution. Going as far back as Andrew Weiss’s survey paper , there are various attempts to argue that the two theories make the same predictions about earnings and education. A randomly elevated individual will earn more money but is this from having learned more or from being pooled with a more productive set of peers?
To explore this, let’s pursue the very good question asked by Bryan Caplan : Our story begins with a 22-year-old high school graduate with a B average. He knows an unscrupulous nerd who can hack into Harvard’s central computer and give him a fake diploma, complete with transcript. In the U.S. labor market, what is the present discounted value of that fake diploma? If he can fake a good interview (a big if, but let’s say), and if certification from recommenders is not important in the chosen sector (another big if), he may get a Harvard-quality job for his first placement.
In most jobs they figure out your productivity within two or three months after training, if not sooner. Links 10/6/10. Dinosaur origins pushed further back in time BBC (hat tip reader John M) Indian language is new to science BBC (hat tip reader John M) Rare Oasis of Life Discovered Near Geothermal Vents on Floor of Yellowstone Lake Science Daily (hat tip reader John M) Man fined $1B for sending Facebook spam CNews The Face of An American Lost Generation Andy Kroll Crony Capitalism: Wall Street’s Favorite Politicians Zach Carter (hat tip Mike Konczal) Cuts threaten to knock recovery as jobs ‘flatline‘ Independent Barbarians at the gates of complexity John Kay, Financial Times Bailout Loss Estimated at $29 Billion Louise Story, New York Times.
At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture New York Times The Incidence of Unemployment and Underemployment, by Income Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser Where are Young Grads Finding Jobs? How a financial crisis morphs into a currency war Ed Harrison Wondering How Lenders Are Making Up for Missing Credit Card Fees? Everything’s Going Up? Who Wins? Antidote du jour: