Stay Tuned

The lack of posts lately is because I've been busy trying to finish writing a paper, preparing a presentation for another paper, and dealing with the regular end-of-quarter workload. Sometime in the next few days I may post a small piece of investigative journalism. I have a strong bit of evidence of price discrimination by a major online "player."

Bklog #4

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

Definitely as good as advertised. Gladwell describes the process through which social phenomena goes from non-existent to the cool kids doing it to everyone doing it. In making his case, we get a wonderful tour through all sorts of interesting empirical studies in psychology, epidemiology, marketing, education, and sociology. In my favorite chapter, he explains the psychological tests that influenced Sesame Street and Blues Clues. How anyone could not enjoy that sort of discussion is beyond me.

Also, the book is amazingly well-written. It might be fun (not to mention useful) to spend some time analyzing his writing style to figure out what makes it so effective.

What's up with that?

Last night I played tennis with a friend. It was after dark but the courts were well lit. Adjacent to the tennis courts was a basketball court. No lights. This isn't the first time I've noticed such a design. Why not light those as well?

Is the bouncing of a basketball so loud that it's a nuisance? I'm inclined to think this isn't the answer since the park was a good distance from any homes. Is there greater demand for tennis at night than basketball? Are they trying to keep away the types of people who would play basketball after dark? Is there something else I'm missing?

Why didn't I realize the absurdity before?

#1: Balance budget multiplier. An introductory and intermediate macroeconomics concept. If you raise lump sum taxes and government spending by equal amounts, GDP will increase by that amount. (Then why not just have a command and control economy? To clarify, much of introductory and intermediate macroeconomics has always seemed absurd to me--but it is especially so in this case.)

#2: "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." (But by addressing "you" it is about "you." Yes, I realize the absurdity may be intentional which would make it ironic, I suppose.)

An Idealistic Thought On Teaching

You spend God-knows-how-many-years working to get a Ph.D. in your field. Clearly you believe it's important. How can you not convey this enthusiasm to your students? Your students may never take another course in economics (or Math/English/Whatever). Do you keep this in mind when developing a class or lecture?

On a related note, you have to appreciate Mankiw's enthusiasm as indicated by his personalized license plate.

Chicago Trip: Wrap Up + Index

All in all, we've had a pretty touristy trip. That's okay because there's a reason such places are so popular.

Favorite Place (by far): The Art Institute of Chicago
Most Overrated: The Field Museum (The Darwin Exhibit was one of my very favorite things but it's not a part of their permanent collection.)
Biggest Convenience: really good affordable food all over the place
Thank Goodness (Kyle and Richard): we had a place to stay so we could afford the trip

Things to do when I have more money:
-Fancy restaurants
-Sporting events

Things to do when I have more time:
-Kingston Mines blues club
-Museum of Science and Industry
-Wrigley Field
-Tour Eli's Cheesecake Factory

Index of Chicago Trip Posts:
Arrival + Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
The Chair Table
Day 4
Day 5

More on the Happiness Externality

Tyler Cowen alludes to the happiness externality:

Poor, poor Tyrone. No wonder he is so unhappy. He thinks he is surrounded by so many other unhappy people.

As I suggested in my previous post, I think it's important to appreciate that Tyrone only needs to be surrounded by a few to become unhappy himself.

Income and Happiness: A Theory

To my knowledge, there is very little evidence that shows that happiness increases with income. The evidence tends be the following:

1. People in rich countries are not happier than people in poor countries.
2. There are lots of stories of people who have gotten rich and remained/become very troubled.
3. Within countries, there is a little-to-no relationship between income and happiness.
   
4. Economic growth doesn't make people happier in a given country.

Many take this as evidence that there is little to no relationship between income and happiness. Yet this is completely counterintuitive since everyone thinks they'd be better off if they had more money. Daniel Gilbert, in Stumbling on Happiness, explains this inconsistency by arguing that humans are terrible at making predictions. I think Gilbert's story is a subplot to the main story.

As an undergrad, a psychology professor told my class about an experiment in which someone in a bad mood was inserted into a room full of other people. The room was infected very soon afterwards. Even those who didn't interact with this person were adversely affected. The punchline? There are happiness externalities. Further, the negative happiness externalities are more powerful than the positive ones. It's easier to destroy happiness than to create it.

Also, think about the times you've tried to cheer up a friend who was feeling down. More often than not, I'd bet the night ends with you both in a bad mood. Also, think about the last time you walked through a rough area of a city. I bet, like most folks, you kept a solemn expression on your face. Think that didn't affect your mood?

This idea can explain why getting rich doesn't make people that much better off. They still have just as many poor (independently unhappy) folks around bringing their mood down.

This also explains why rich countries aren't happier than poor countries. Or why economic growth doesn't bring happiness. With economic growth comes greater inequality. That is, rich countries still have lots of poor (independently unhappy) people.

Is this idea consistent with the fact that relative income matters? I think so. Just because I want to have a rich happy neighbor doesn't mean that I don't want to be even richer than he is.


Related Links:

• Tyler Cowen discusses a recent debate on America's pursuit of happiness that included himself, Will Wilkinson, Jeffrey Sachs, and Betsey Stevenson. Hopefully it will be posted online soon.
• A 2006 JEP review of the happiness literature Kahneman and Krueger. Sorry, couldn't find one that's ungated.

Update: I didn't realize it at the time, but this post is totally influenced by Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point which I had just barely started reading the night before. Now that I'm further in the book, the influence is obvious.

Chicago Trip: Day 5

Today we started by visiting the University of Chicago. (The trip there was not fun, by the way, with the university located in the middle of a pretty rouch area.) It was nice to just stroll around and enjoy the beautiful buildings. Especially the gothic style buildings of the main quadrangle. In addition to the quadrangle, we checked out Bond Chapel, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (pictured below), and Regenstein Library.

Right off campus, we visited Robie House which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The amazing exterior has recently been renovated but the inside still is in pretty poor condition. Our tour guide said they're aiming to have everything finished by 2010. Interesting bit of trivia: As you may know, Wright is famous for using long horizontal lines to make his buildings appear organic. To accomplish this goal, he used pigmented mortar for all the vertical spaces between bricks.

Next we headed to the 95th floor lounge at the John Hancock building for its great view of the city.


For dinner, we went to Lou Malinati's Pizzeria. I think it wins the battle versus Giordano's. The best thing, though, is that they had Eli's Cheesecake! The original was stellar.

After dinner we planned to go to Kingston Mines, a blues club. That plan was dashed when we (Jenise) lost our keys. We never found them. A few hours later, we were able to get in but were too fatigued to go out again. Since Jenise's brother doesn't have an extra set of keys and his roommate is going to be gone during the day, we're home ridden for our last half-day here. Oh well. I think we've done plenty in a relatively short amount of time.

Chicago Trip: Day 4

Today we intended to complete the museum campus trifecta. We went to The Field Museum of Natural History on our first day and today we had The Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium on the list.

First up was The Adler Planetarium. They had a great exhibit on the history of the theory of the universe beginning with the flat Earth that was the center of everything and ending with the idea that the universe is expanding. At each stage there was a list of how the new theory improved on the previous one. It made me realize how little about this stuff that I know.

We also saw a pretty amazing show called Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity. Visually it was stunning (and you have to love watching a flick leaned back in your chair and staring at the ceiling), the sound was great (with narration by Liam Neeson), and the content fascinating. It went by a bit too fast for me so I'll have to see it again sometime. There's a link to the trailer on this page.

A neat bit of trivia: "The Earth's natural radioactive decay releases as much energy in one second as the amount of energy used by the United States in about four-and-a-half years.

There was also a nice exhibit on the history of US space travel. I think the rest of the planetarium was skippable with lots of mediocre interactive learning tools.

After taking a quick rest, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. Interesting observation: they actually have a pretty cheap basic admission ($8) but the cheapest package they advertise is $23. Anywho, the aquarium was nice. Fish are pretty amazing creatures. They also had a newborn beluga whale. And sharks. And a komodo dragon. There were two standouts for me. First was an Australian lungfish who has been in Chicago since the 1933 (!) World's Fair. Second were the sea dragons.


In the evening we went to Twin Anchors, an old neighborhood restaurant off the beaten path (but still packed), for some delicious ribs. Falling off the bone with a nice tangy sauce, they were worth the long wait.

The Chair Table

Also known as "The Most Underappreciated Piece of Art at The Art Institute of Chicago."


Imagine the poor sap who brings this home enthusiastically seeking his wife's approval:
"Honey, I know you've been wanting a nice place for us to eat our meals together in a proper fashion."
"Yes," she responds eagerly while staring at the solitary chair in the corner.
"You'll never believe what I found! It's a chair and a table all in one! A chair table! You just fold it right here and it's a table. Fold it back and, voilà, it's a chair! Combined with the chair we already have, it'll be perfect!"
"Yes, dear, but where will you sit if I'm sitting in the old chair?"
"I'll be sitting in this chair, of course."
"Then where will we put our plates?"
"On the the table!"
"But the table is a chair. And you're sitting in it."
"Then I'll just fold it over, like so, and we have our table!"
"But, then the table is no longer a chair and...."
"I know. Blows your mind, doesn't it?"
"Yes, dear."

Chicago Trip: Day 3

Today we had an ambitious day planned: The Art Institute of Chicago, Oak Park, and and Navy Pier.

Before heading over to the art museum, we checked out Millenium Park, home of the amazing Cloud Gate (or the "The Bean") which is fully deserving of two pictures.



The Art Institute of Chicago was my favorite place so far and I doubt that anything else will surpass it. The most famous piece there is probably American Gothic or The Old Guitarist. Both exceeded expectations.

I was most pleased that they had a large number of Monet's. I'm pretty confident in saying that no other artist consistently comes close to his level. Maybe Van Gogh but I prefer Monet. Okay, now for a list of highlights:

Favorite Artist I Didn't Know Before: Kawase Hasui
Random Favorite: Road Near by Twachtman
Most Underrated: Stay tuned...this one is going to get its own post
Best Piece By An American Artist: American Gothic or Winged Figure
Favorite Renoir: Young Woman Sewing
Favorite Monet: Sandvica, Norway
The Sexiest Painting I've Ever Seen: Woman at Her Toilette

The museum took up most of the day but, with an hour and a half of daylight remaining, we headed to Oak Park which contains the world's largest collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright including his own home. They were pretty neat. Next time, I'd like to take a guided tour to make sure I see them all and to get the background info.


Lastly, we went to Navy Pier for a bit of touristy shopping. It was just what you would expect.

Chicago Trip: Day 2

Woke up in the morning with my back in major pain but I wouldn't let that hold me down. We spent the morning and afternoon at the (free!) Lincoln Park Zoo.


It was pretty cold out but it was worth it. Thankfully, there were a number of indoor viewing areas. My favorite was definitely the Regenstein Center for African Apes--I could have spent all day there. The other highlights included the Regenstein African Journy (starring hippos, rhinos, giraffes) and The Lion House. I didn't realize it at the time but, apparently, there was even a mini-lion that tried to jump in my coat!


After finishing at the zoo, we decided rest for the rest of the day. My back needed it. And we had lots of plans for the next day.

Chicago Trip: Arrival + Day One

What was the first thing we did after arriving in Chicago yesterday and dropping our bags off at Jenise's brother's place? Deep dish pizza from Giordano's. It was delicious. It was pretty late afterwards so that was it for our first day here.

Today we spent the day at The Field Museum. The featured exhibition was Darwin. The neatest thing I learned was that he was sitting on The Origin of Species for over 20 years. He was hesitant to publish it for various reasons but he had no little choice after finding out that a fellow scientist was going to publish his version of natural selection.


We had planned to visit the aquarium or planetarium as well but we ended up spending hours in the Darwin exhibit (I had to read everything because it was all so good) and there was lots more to see in their permanent collections. Their most famous piece is Sue, the "largest most complete T-Rex in the world."

Once the museum closed up on us, I talked Kyle and Jenise into going somewhere we could watch the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference Championship. Good food, good drinks, and a good game. Unfortunately the wrong team won as New England beat Chicago. Ah well, neither of them are going to be able to beat Houston anyways!

Another puzzle?

There are far more children born every year with fetal alcohol syndrome than are born with autism or Down syndrome. Fetal alcohol damage is the leading cause of mental retardation, with an estimated forty thousand babies born with the syndrome annually. And yet, the condition receives far less attention and support than other disabilities.

I wonder why. (Kidding. I'm convinced that it's because it's perceived as a poor folks problem.)

Once again, the quote is from the excellent All God's Children by Rene Denfeld. I'm looking forward to reading the second half on my trip to Chicago today but I think it's safe to say that it's a great book. I admire and appreciate the author's ability to remain purely descriptive. The book is written as a series of interconnected vignettes--each street youth's story is well researched and fascinating. (If you were wondering about the context of the quote, one of the girls had FAS.)

I know it's a bit early but...

today I'm thankful for realVNC.

For quite a while now, I've had a bit of a problem. I do and store all my work on my home computer. This makes it difficult go to campus, or anywhere, and do work. My usual solution has been to put files on a flash drive and take my laptop. Of course, this is a pain and I usually forget something.

Many of my colleagues just store all their work files on department servers which can be accessed from anywhere. I have a psychological hangup that has kept me from doing this--I want *everything* to be in one place. On top of that, UNIX is a pain.

Enter realVNC. With this nice program, I can access my home PC using my laptop from anywhere with internet access.

EDIT: Before I was having some problems connecting with my current laptop. It appears to only be a problem when I connect from home which, obviously, is not necessary. Yay!

A novel solution to the SS crisis

Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!) has a novel solution to the SS crisis.

I'm not going to win any awards for saying this, but the elderly are like rude party guests. They came early, they're always in the bathroom, and now they just won't leave. I say we do the same thing to them that I do with stragglers at my shin-digs. Put them to work cleaning the place up...Let's use 'em to shut down our porous Southern Border. One thing Old People have a knack for is keeping kids off their lawn...Plus they're suckers for heat.

As for the book on the whole, I never expected it to live up to the greatness of the show. Nevertheless, it's hit and miss. If you have a bit of time to kill in your local bookstore, chapters on old people, religion, and homosexuals are definitely the hits, in that order.

As for the misses, you quickly learn which parts you should skip: "Stephen Speaks for Me, A Chance for Average Americans to Agree With What I Think" and everything written in the margins. It really drove me nuts that every page had about 3 "parenthetical comments" in the margins (in addition to footnotes.) In general, these were the jokes that weren't funny enough to make the main text. After awhile I knew I should skip them but they were distracting.