2026-04-17 02:53:07
A new venture, focusing on evidence-based approaches to economic development globally. Here is Paul Niehaus on GiveDirectly and the evidence for cash-based transfers. Here is the home page and a link to subscribe.
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2026-04-17 00:01:37
1. Kasparov analyzes the rise of Sindarov.
2. Podcast on Houellebecq’s Submission. With transcript.
3. “A majority of Australian children under age 16 still use social media apps despite a ban implemented in December, according to new research.
Sixty-one percent of Australian children between the ages of 12 and 15 told researchers from a prominent UK foundation and an Australian youth research agency that they can still access accounts on major platforms just as they did before the ban was put in place.” Link here.
4. “If anything, nationalists are fighting to reassure pro-EU voters. Marine Le Pen has softened her line on Brussels over the years to remain electorally competitive in France. Giorgia Meloni has mostly co-operated with the EU during her three-and-a-half surprising years as a hard-right Italian prime minister. Both will have watched events in Hungary over the weekend and felt themselves vindicated. Of all the varied reasons for Viktor Orbán’s landslide defeat, the public’s desire to mend relations with the EU was prominent. The election winner Péter Magyar, no kind of liberal, and in fact a former Orbán man, favours a “return to Europe”.” (Ganesh in the FT)
5. Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia. And a useful thread.
6. Alex Imas on the evolution of employment with AI.
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2026-04-16 22:02:13
Here is one appreciation. His three-volume biography of Keynes (better than the one-volume condensation!) is in my opinion one of the very best books ever written, up there with Caro on Moses, etc.
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2026-04-16 19:21:13
Here’s a revision I made to Modern Principles, my textbook with Tyler. Some things change dramatically, some things never change.
The post Revising Modern Principles appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-04-16 17:29:52
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics has been awarded annually since 1969. Who wins the prize is a topic of much interest and tracks the whole course of the academic discipline over the last 57 years. Explaining who wins the prize in any given year is a complex process, which involves the subtle endogeneity of the choice of the field and the individual(s) who should be honoured. Citations, track records, networks of past winners, institutional factors along with field rotation and Economic Prize Committee composition may all play a role. A dynamic sample involving a changing stock of would-be candidates along with a moving flow—both into and out of the sample—add complexities to the modelling. We find robust evidence that the Nobel Prize rotates in a semi-regular way between the fields of economics. Earlier awards were for a single paper, later ones for a body of work. Networks do not matter, but having a Nobel student or co-author does. There is some evidence that the personal preferences of Committee members had an effect on either field or individual winner. The Committee’s decisions changed after Lindbeck retired.
That is from a new paper by Peter J. Dolton and Richard S.J. Tol. Via Niclas Berggren.
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2026-04-16 12:58:58
This is self-recommending if there ever was such a thing. What I found so striking is how many mini-exhibits were embedded in the broader show. Those include:
1. The early large pieces from Colonna and Castello — how many of you are going to get there to see them in situ?
2. A mini-exhibit of works from Perugino, Raphael’s teacher and mentor, and a wonderful painter in his own right.
3. A small set of knockout Leonardo drawings.
4. Two Roman sculptures that showed some background influences behind Raphael’s work.
5. Three full-size “derivations” based upon the Vatican tapestries, from 16th century Flemish studios.
6. Plenty of light-sensitive drawings, which are not displayed much or are held in very scattered locales.
It is rare to have so much original content in a single exhibit, and of such high quality, and unrelated to previous exhibits one might have seen. This was an event.
The Alba Madonna, in DC’s National Gallery, still strikes me as Raphael’s best creation.
My main beef: the opening panel of explanation for the show was just plain, flat out stupid, and started by referring to Raphael as “One of the most important influencers of all time…”, followed by nothing of any substance.
This exhibit needs no endorsement from me, but ultimately it did not elevate Raphael into the tier of my very very favorite painters. He is at the top for beauty and charm, but very few of his paintings confound me in say the way that a top Leonardo or Velazquez might. Perhaps the Castiglione portrait from the Louvre would qualify there, but the others not. His was nonetheless a remarkable achievement, and this is very likely the best view of it you will get in this lifetime.
It was crowded, but on a Monday not intolerable and I had good views of the art works most of the time.
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