Evidence That Myopia Has a Strong Environmental Cause
Time reports on a new study on why Asians have a higher rate of nearsightedness:
Read More »It has long been thought that nearsightedness is mostly a hereditary problem, but researchers led by Ian Morgan of Australian National University say the data suggest that environment has a lot more to do with it.
Reporting in the journal Lancet, the authors note that up to 90% of young adults in major East Asian countries, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, are nearsighted. The overall rate of myopia in the U.K., by contrast, is about 20% to 30%.
The Economics of a Ransom
In The Atlantic, Megan McArdle traces the economics of ransom negotiation:
Read More »Economists would describe hostage negotiation as a bilateral monopoly price negotiation that is structurally just a special case of chicken. That is, unlike a barrel of oil or a freight car full of soybeans which can trade on an extremely liquid market with innumerable buyers and sellers, a hostage has exactly one seller (the kidnappers) and exactly one buyer (the employer and/or family of the hostage). When there is only one buyer, the opportunity cost for ransoming the hostage is zero.
Portugal’s Budget Cut: Public Holidays
The BBC reports that Portugal will be cutting 4 of its 14 public holidays as an “austerity measure”:
Read More »Two religious festivals and two other public holidays will be suspended for five years from 2013.
The decision over which Catholic festivals to cut was negotiated with the Vatican.
It is hoped the suspension of the public holidays will improve competitiveness and boost economic activity.
What Do Indian Politicians and Drug Dealers Have in Common?
Freakonomics described the economics of a crack-selling gang – a tournament model where you don’t earn much unless you can get to the top of the pyramid. Columbia Business School professor Ray Fisman, who has shown up on this blog before, argues that politics isn’t all that different. In Slate, Fisman summarizes his new working paper, coauthored with Florian Schulz and Vikrant Vig, which uses disclosed finances of politicians in India in the last election cycle. The researchers found that being a politician doesn’t really pay off: Read More »
FREAK-est Links
1. Will putting your organ donor status on Facebook encourage organ donation?
2. Economist humor: When a physicist meets an economist.
3. Will the UAE outlaw junk food in schools?
4. CNN releases 13 years of transcripts.
5. Why fiction might be good for you.
6. The 10 Commandments of Twitter: Academics Edition.
Is Eyeglass Recycling a Waste of Money?
Recycling your old eyeglasses may make you feel better, but, in Bloomberg View, Virginia Postrel argues that it’s actually a waste of money. Postrel tracks the journey from eyeglass donation box to final destination — glasses are first shipped to their destination, where they’re sorted and evaluated for usefulness (only 7 per cent of donations are actually useable). The numbers aren’t pretty. Read More »
The Future of USAID
Foreign Policy has published an interesting interview with Rajiv Shah, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator and former Gates Foundation employee. Here’s Shah on his efforts to bring a business-like mentality to USAID:
Read More »I’ve tried to bring that business-like rigor and the tendency to ask questions — some would say I ask far too many questions — to make sure that when we’re spending taxpayer resources, we’re doing it with that absolute focus that we are making an investment against generating a result.
How to Be ExxonMobil
Foreign Policy interviews Steve Coll about his new book Private Empire
Read More »I also think that the way they win these deals in a place like Chad or Papua New Guinea or Angola is, in effect, they go to the host country and say: “Look, we recognize that you can deal with the Chinese, and you’ll get soft loans and guns and things that you think are more valuable than what we can offer you, but what you’ll also get is really lousy project management. You’ll get less oil pumped, you’ll get less royalties, you’ll get less taxes, so you’ll end up net poorer. Why not come work with us under our rule of law, under a really straightforward contract? And what our record shows is that you’ll end up with more cash faster — and then you can use that cash to buy whatever guns you want? But you’ll have the money to carry out what ever plans you have; and we’re reliable, we’ll come in on time.”
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