Tiger Woods, the celebrated professional golfer, was in a car crash in 2020. This was his second widely-reported major smash-up. After the first crash—in 2009—economists calculated some of the economic knock-on costs to companies that had paid Woods to endorse them or their products and services. They reported details in a study: “Shareholder Value Destruction […]
Tag: economics
Do looks matter for an academic career in economics? [study]
According to a new paper from the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the answer is (a robust) ‘yes’. We document appearance effects in the economics profession. Using unique data on PhD graduates from ten of the top economics departments in the United States we test whether more attractive individuals are more likely to succeed. We […]
Passionate Kissing and National Income Inequality [Ig Informal Lecture]
Here is the Ig Informal Lecture by the winners of the 2020 Ig Nobel Economics Prize. The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. […]
Wealth Inequality Among Snails
The economics of snails—specifically, what one might call “the economics of the shell game”—gets some data and hard thought in a new study. “A Comparison of Wealth Inequality in Humans and Non-Humans,” Ivan D. Chase, Raphael Douady, and Dianna K. Padilla, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2019, 122962. The authors, at Stony Brook […]
“National Income Inequality Predicts Cultural Variation in Mouth to Mouth Kissing”
A new study marries, so to speak, economics and kissing. The study is: “National Income Inequality Predicts Cultural Variation in Mouth to Mouth Kissing,” Christopher D. Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff, and Samuela Bolgan, Scientific Reports, vol. 9, article no. 6698 […]
Harvard Business School studies/celebrates Ig Nobel Prize winner Lehman Brothers
Harvard Business School has a special exhibition exploring the history of Ig Nobel Prize winner Lehman Brothers. Max Reyes reports, in the Boston Globe: Harvard exhibit details the rise and demise of Lehman Brothers Before it was a titan in the investment banking field, before it engaged in a form of financial sleight of hand […]
Voodoo dolls, the Ig Nobel Prize and why headlines matter in academia
Here’s a voodoo-doll-rich, behind-the-scenes account what happened before and after a researcher (and her team) won an Ig Nobel Prize. Elsevier Connects reports: Voodoo dolls, the Ig Nobel Prize and why headlines matter in academia How psychologist Dr. Lindie Liang captured the world’s attention with her research By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten Many researchers have a […]
Economic Consequences of Restrictions on the Usage of Cookies
The research project “Economic Consequences of Restrictions on the Usage of Cookies” has received funding to proceed. The work is being done at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Berndt Skiera [pictured here]. The university explains: So far, there exists very little empirical knowledge on the trade-off between […]
Predicting the stock market from photographs in the financial-press (new study)
If you’re inclined to make bets on the stock market, you’ll be at a considerable disadvantage if you don’t have a tight grip on so called ‘investor sentiment’ – in other words a reliable way of being able to judge the current ‘mood’ of the market. But, in practice, it’s notoriously difficult to gauge accurately. […]
Ig Nobel Prize winner Skilling leaves longtime home
Jeffrey Skilling, who shared the 2002 Ig Nobel Economics Prize, has embarked on a new adventure. Fox News reports: Former Enron CEO Jefrey Skilling released from prison Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who helmed the company responsible for one of the worst cases of corporate fraud in U.S. history, is a free man after being released […]