Questions tagged [soft-question]

A Non-specific question regarding economic practice and analytical development.

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How To Publish a Quantitative Economics Paper Without a Degree or Affiliations

I dropped out of a physics degree and do not have a degree. After this, I somehow found myself going from writing marketing software related code to writing quantitative trading code and doing ...
cronius's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
133 views

Biggest breakthroughs in Economics in 2023

I recently went through a few videos by Quanta magazine, talking about what, in their opinion at least, are the biggest breakthroughs in Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Biology/ ...
Ishan Kashyap Hazarika's user avatar
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51 views

Bernoulli, Ergodicity, Ole Peters

You may or may not be aware that there's a Simple English Wikipedia. It's very helpful for those of us who know English, but are unable to parse complex sentences (for whatever reason). I'm very ...
thanks_in_advance's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
141 views

Is there a mathematical more realistic version of economics [closed]

List item I have read many informal introductions to economics I want something not only rigorous but realistic I find classical microeconomics to be very weird, I don;t know if the field has changed....
Lina Jane's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
353 views

Favorite Economics Podcast?

What is your favorite Economics podcasts? More on the research side please. Since I have too few words, here are mine: https://www.aeaweb.org/research/podcasts I used to like EconTalk, but it's not ...
Papayapap's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
166 views

Inductive proofs in economics

Are there any thorems in economics which use proof by mathematical induction to prove them? I've noticed that there is nothing (to my knowledge) from a standard PhD microeconomic theory sequence which ...
EconJohn's user avatar
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3 votes
4 answers
1k views

What are the most creative uses of Mathematics in Economics

Could you recommend economic papers or books that exhibit exceptionally creative applications of mathematics? In other words, if you were to demonstrate to a mathematician the joy and potential of ...
Pavel Kocourek's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
95 views

How Does Economics Address Society's Major Existential Threats?

Given our societal emphasis on the pace of 'progress', often overlooking its direction, we face a multitude of existential challenges [1]. These range from the looming threat of nuclear warfare and ...
Pavel Kocourek's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
65 views

Research in Applications of Machine Learning Techniques to Economics

I am a new graduate student in economics, and my advisor has recently focused on applying machine learning techniques to economics. It seems natural for me to take up this area, but I heard the rumors ...
zyy's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
181 views

Can euler equations and intratemporal optimality conditions ever bind one another?

The Euler equation is an a solution concept in most macroeconomic models which determine the optimal path to be taken in a consumption sequence. In a case where we have multiple consumption goods (say ...
EconJohn's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
31 views

Opportunities for Graduate Economics Students

What internship opportunities, Fellowships, External Research Grants (Preferably Paid) are specifically catered towards PhD students in Economics? To name a few I know of Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, and ...
Rumi's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
4k views

Is Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell a good book for a layperson who isn't interested in pursuing economics?

I heard that Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell is a good book for a layperson to get a feel for how the economy works. I have also heard some criticisms but they seem to be based on Thomas Sowell's ...
ApplePiePoodle's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
71 views

Information request about Robert Frank's principles of economics and Mankiw's principles of economics

I'm a high school student. Some of the teachers at my school announced that the school may introduce electives in the next school year. One of the options for electives to be introduced was economics, ...
LostPositron's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
54 views

ETF market during severe crash

Question: Does the decentralized creation and redemption process make ETFs fragile in case of a market crash? While the idea of ETFs is obviously great, I am a bit skeptical whether the tradeability ...
Papayapap's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
621 views

What are the economic peer-reviewed journals devoted to literature review?

I am looking for economic/econometrics journals committed to publish just (or mainly) literature review. So far I've found: Journal of Economic Literature Journal of Economic Surveys What are some ...
Oalvinegro's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
451 views

How do I elegantly upload my working paper on SSRN?

I am an academic novice. Recently, I have a working paper that I want to upload to SSRN. I have several questions that I wish to get answers to: Will registering SSRN with a private email address ...
ExtinctionEngine's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
48 views

Companies database with strange negative values, are they reasonable from an economic point of view?

I have a dataset of US firms (around 6500 in total) containing time series of: Sales (191 negative observations corresponding to 0.0351% of total observations) Liabilities (70 negative observations ...
Barbab's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
40 views

Monetary and fiscal policies: problem and solution approach

Can the community recommend resources about macroeconomics / public finance that (roughly) follow the following design: Here's a macroeconomics / public finance economic problem (description, ...
yurnero's user avatar
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11 votes
4 answers
1k views

Are there any economic peer-reviewed journals dedicated to, or at least committed to publishing, replication studies?

Because it is widely perceived that generally science has a reproducibility and replication problems recently some replication journals were set up such as ReScienceX (see Roesch & Rougier, 2020). ...
1muflon1's user avatar
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3 answers
318 views

What are the examples to the terminology "allocation of scarce resource"

Does allocation of scarce resource mean trading of a perishable goods with the one who needs it most. Say, a drug that can cure cancer and there is only 10 units left. A seller sells the item who pays ...
Charles's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
317 views

Learning post-keynesian and marxist economics

My question here is not about theory, but more about the teaching landscape. I'm currently learning economics in Canada, and I realize that the academic world is very homogeneous. I'm quite impressed ...
Alexandre Michaud's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
226 views

Recursive Macroeconomics - Practice Questions

I am looking for practice questions on recursive macroeconomics that focus on the following: Defining Competitive equilibriums (Arrow Debreu, Sequential Market, Recursive Competitive) for different ...
Rumi's user avatar
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0 answers
20 views

How *do* NGOs, think tanks, and governments weigh income/consumption tradeoffs/transfers at different income levels?

In considering policies and transfers, how do we (economists, NGOs, governments & think tanks) weigh income (consumption) tradeoffs between the poor & the very poor? E.g., 'is giving 100 USD/...
daaronr's user avatar
  • 111
2 votes
1 answer
29 views

When should we use "internal consistency" test?

From a paper of Gao (2021), I saw a paparagraph We deviate from this traditional specification in three ways: we examine only money held by corporations, we include real GDP growth in the regression ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
125 views

Curiousity the validity of an example of normative, positive and consumer surplus?

Following up a pretty long but very informative discussion with 1muflon1, I want to expand and merge with consumer surplus to have a big picture. In research of Dasgupta, 2019 about that after ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
131 views

Is there any overlap between Rawlsian approach and uncertainty avoidance?

From the definition of the Rawlsian approach The Rawlsian approach to social welfare, built on the foundation of the “veil of ignorance” (Rawls, 1999, p. 118) where "veil of ignorance" is ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
163 views

Is there any example to see the differences among Rawlsian ethics, Utilitarianism or (classical) liberalism ethics in policy economics?

From a decent answer and comment here of 1muflon1, I am motivated to know more about Rawlsian ethics, Utilitarianism, or (classical) liberalism ethics in policy economics. However, so far, I still not ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
317 views

Why "positive theory" is important in discussions of how antitrust law achieve "normative goal"?

In this description regarding positive theory and normative theory, from what I understand, positive theory is based on fact and cannot be approved or disapproved (e.g., explain how the economy ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
73 views

What is the proper way to read and/or express "price elasticity of demand"?

The natural language phrase such as square root of x for a function $Sqrt(x)$ precedes the input with the word of. When we talk of a bivariate function, such as $x/y$ aka $Ratio(x,y)$, we say simply ...
James Bowery's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the consensus (if any) on Peters "The ergodicity problem in economics" (2019)?

Peters (2019) made a splash criticizing the theory of expected utility on the grounds that it implicitly assumes ergodicity where this is unwarranted. He stated this applies widely in economics, to ...
Richard Hardy's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
243 views

Why did the Cambridge Capital Controversy have no impact on economic modelling?

Every now and again I find myself looking into the Cambridge Capital Controversy in terms of debate around general equilibrium modelling often walking out more confused than I have before doing such a ...
EconJohn's user avatar
  • 8,345
0 votes
1 answer
111 views

Curiousity about the significance symbol in Stata?

Today when I read the esttab command of Stata, I saw the star options description: ...
Phil Nguyen's user avatar
  • 1,130
3 votes
1 answer
117 views

Replication of empirical results in Economics

I was reading about the replicability crisis in Psychology and Medicine. Many psychology experiments, for instance, were being conducted on undergraduate students, with too low sample sizes, which ...
Ishan Kashyap Hazarika's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
915 views

What are the advantages using Otree to progam economic experiments?

I need to decide between learning Ztree and Otree. The added cost of complicating the server setup severely should have some benefit. Apart from Ztree being ugly, are there any other advantages of ...
Papayapap's user avatar
  • 1,843
1 vote
1 answer
240 views

Soft question: How do you create/draw/plot economic graphs digitally?

Obviously I'm talking about a theoretical graph not one where you can just plot the data. The only two options I can think of are just using shapes in word/powerpoint or using TikZ in Latex which is ...
Henry M's user avatar
  • 113
0 votes
2 answers
45 views

If I had a new economical theory, how could I share it with academical environments? I call it “algorythmic economy”

If I had a new economical theory, how could I share it with academical environments? I call it algorythmic economy. I have made this same question on Quora. https://www.quora.com/unanswered/If-I-had-a-...
Liliana Ventura's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
380 views

What are some good Phd or research programs for Economic History / Economic Thought History?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but my impression is that most "mainstream" economics programs are now focusing less and less on economic thought history. So, in order to do research on ...
Erin's user avatar
  • 47
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Citing non-economics studies in an economics research paper

I am currently working on a paper in economics that has some dimensions that discuss women's social value. As is the case in developing countries a lot of economic studies do not exist whereas there ...
Lorien's user avatar
  • 103
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

Can I rename a utility function based on its properties?

A big name researcher gives a name to a specific utility function 30 years ago. Now I am writing a paper and feel that a new name might be more suited because of the properties associated with the ...
High GPA's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
851 views

In Economics, how likely is a R&R paper be finally accepted in a top field journal or top 5 journal? [closed]

Based on reliable data (if there is any), how likely is a R&R be finally accepted approximately? Here is some numbers I found: According to an anonymous comment, the post RR acceptance rate for ...
High GPA's user avatar
  • 1,906
1 vote
1 answer
185 views

Why is Ricardian Equivalence Important?

Ricardian equivalence is a result regarding the ineffectiveness of government due to consumption smoothing behavior of consumers. A primary reason why it fails is due to population turnover (i.e ...
EconJohn's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why hasn't JPE formally retracted Emily Oster's article "Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women" (2005)?

Amartya Sen (1992) argued that there were more than 100M "missing women" worldwide. In "Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women" (2005), Emily Oster argued that hepatitis B ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
93 views

Which database language and database management system should an economics student learn? (Provided that one has to be learned) [closed]

I will have to pick essentially any DBS, learn how to use it and use it during a period of 2-3 month. I do not possess any noteworthy background knowledge, so I will be starting from scratch ...
Andre's user avatar
  • 321
5 votes
2 answers
362 views

Proof Based Math Education in Economics

One of the things I've experienced as a graduate student is really the lack of math being a main factor in holding me back from approaching more advanced materials in microeconomics and macroeconomics....
EconJohn's user avatar
  • 8,345
2 votes
1 answer
382 views

Is it necessary to ask permission before including someone in the acknowledgements of a economic research paper?

Do I need permission to thank someone, even if I said “all mistakes are our own”? Do I have to make sure that the person being thanked must read the paper, or, it is fine if he just discussed about ...
High GPA's user avatar
  • 1,906
3 votes
1 answer
56 views

Gamification and incentives

Is there any (theoretical?) work on "gamification" in game theory? I do not have a proper definition of gamification, but StackExchange would be an example. Contributers like us provide a ...
Bayesian's user avatar
  • 5,290
4 votes
1 answer
271 views

Are simultaneous equation models out of fashion? Why?

According to Angrist & Pischke "Undergraduate econometrics instruction: Through our classes, darkly" (2017) Tables 2 and 3, econometrics textbooks deemphasized simultaneous equation ...
Richard Hardy's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
569 views

How can I model my problems with math?

I want to ask a question about mathematical economics. When I read an article about economics, I see lots of mathematical equations. I can solve them without any help. But I can't create my own ...
mfc's user avatar
  • 95
0 votes
1 answer
31 views

How do 'econometric' explanations differ from 'economic' ones?

I am interpreting some coefficients of a regression model and have been asked to, first, give an 'economic' explanation and then an 'econometric' explanation as to why coefficients differ as more ...
Esther Blaese's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
215 views

What are the correct utility functions?

It is common to talk about utility functions. For example in a universe with only two goods, we might assume each person (or group of people) carries a function $u(x,y)$ in their heads. When offered ...
Daron's user avatar
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