Who cheat more, consultants or academics?

Chris Blattman: "I spent three years in [business] consulting before becoming an academic...I do recall feeling like a bit of a fraud most of the time. If it’s any consolation to the consultants out there, not much has changed now that I am an academic..."

So who cheat more, consultants or academics?

The 2009 Nobel prize in Economics goes...

half to Elinor Ostrom from Indiana University, "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons"








and half to Oliver E. Williamson from University of California Berkeley "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm".





check the Nobel website for more information. Congratulations to both!

Obama & Nobel II

Here are data from Google on how often is given term searched.

Term : Nobel Prize - People care what kind of prize Obama won



Term : Nobel Prize money - They care even more how much money he actually won



Term : Obama charity - But what they care most for is what the hell is he gonna do with that money


For the last graph: I was looking at some random combinations of the term "Obama" + "word"(for example: Obama radio, Obama car, Obama underpants) and they've increased as well after the Nobel Peace Prize announcement, but by a magnitude less than "Obama Charity".

“Noble Nobel”: legitimacy and prospects for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics

The Taliban condemns Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize saying that "[Obama] reinforces the war in Afghanistan, sent more troops to Afghanistan and is considering sending yet more. He has shed Afghan blood and he continues to bleed Afghans and to boost the war here." This being rather an extreme position on the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee’s decision from this Friday, it is indisputable that Barack Obama’s win has generated mixed reactions across the world. The committee said it honored the American president for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Obama is the fourth US President to win the Nobel Peace Prize, however, in contrast to Carter, Roosevelt or Wilson, he has been chosen not for past accomplishments, “but for “vision” and inspiring “hope” at the beginning of his presidency” (CNN). In my opinion such decision above all questions the legitimacy of the Nobel Prize itself. Giving out Nobels for the ability to “capture world’s attention” is bonkers (in a public statement the Committee as part of their explanation supporting their decision has also stated that the US President won because “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention”)…

Undoubtedly, the Committee’s irrationality further builds up the anticipation with which many ( I assume) will be awaiting Monday’s Announcement of the 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. It just might be so that this year, Thomson Reuter’s adumbrations, are completely off. Creditability may also be a problem with the InTrade and Ladbrokes’ predictions and probabilities (odds) for the 2009 Nobel prize in economics. For example here are Ladbrokes' probabilities:

Eugene Fama 2/1

Paul Romer 4/1

Ernst Fehr 6/1

Kenneth R. French 6/1

William Nordhaus 6/1

Robert Barro 7/1

Matthew J Rabin 8/1

Jean Tirole 9/1

Martin Weitzman

The Inkling Market’s valuations can be just as cocky...

Thus I believe that with the cuckoo nature of the Nobel Prize Committee nowadays any of the following are just as good bets for Econ winners as the Fama, Romer or the others: Bottom line: Even though not as 'bronzato' there is hope for Silivio in the end (at least for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize)…

p.s. Be sure to turn on your volume when you go to his support website!

HEID student cited in The Economist

In its special report on the world economy, The Economist refers to a paper by one of us (a HEID current PhD student):
"An emerging-market government can therefore promote this learning process by keeping its currency cheap... This is a tried-and-trusted growth strategy promoted in the past by economists such as Bela Balassa and lately championed by Dani Rodrik of Harvard, among others. In a recent paper Caroline Freund and Martha Denisse Pierola of the World Bank show that sustained export surges in the developing world are often associated with sharp currency depreciations, which encourage entry into new markets and products."

Sunday fun with the credit crunch

I've re-named my morning bowl of muesli at the desk Credit Crunch.
Robert Fulford, London, UK


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7663475.stm

The future of the email...

....according to Google.



Pas Mal!

Farmers and Market Incentives

Last week we mentioned how the plummeting prices for cow milk are causing farmers' protests and urgent re-action by policymakers. In the meanwhile, in the Swiss Alpine region of Appenzeller, some farmers have increased the production of goat milk, because for each liter they produce, they get twice as much as what they get payed for cow milk. Watch this video to enjoy the beauty of the landscape, the poetry of farmers' life, and the working of the invisible hand.

RDB Quarterly Report

Here is the RDB's second Quarterly Report. If you are a new econ student (or anyone else!) and wanna invest some money, send an email to rigotnomics(at)gmail.com! (You can invest as little as 5 CHF if you wish). As you will read in this report, we are part of the mobile money revolution! Not only do we lend money to many mobile shops in Kenya, but also most borrowers pay back their loans with their mobile phones!