Sunday, April 6, 2014

Classifying Economics Nobels

Someone at the Nobel Foundation has compiled a list of Nobel prizes by fields, with a definition of "field" taken from the one-line prize citation. It makes for a lot of fields...so it may be subject to change. Here's what it looked like recently:

Applied game theory (1)

"for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design"

Development economics (2)

"for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries"
"for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries"

Econometrics (8)

"for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes"
"for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes"
"for his clarification of the probability theory foundations of econometrics and his analyses of simultaneous economic structures"
"for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples"
"for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice"
"for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH)"
"for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration)"
"for their empirical analysis of asset prices"

Economic governance (2)

"for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons"
"for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm"

Economic growth (1)

"for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development"

Economic growth theory (1)

"for his contributions to the theory of economic growth"

Economic history (3)

"for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development"
"for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change"
"for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change"

Economic psychology (2)

"for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty"
"for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms"

Economic sociology (1)

"for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behaviour"

Economics of information (5)

"for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information"
"for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information"
"for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information"
"for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information"
"for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information"

Experimental economics (2)

"for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty"
"for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms"

Financial economics (8)

"for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics"
"for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics"
"for their pioneering work in the theory of financial economics"
"for a new method to determine the value of derivatives"
"for a new method to determine the value of derivatives"
"for their empirical analysis of asset prices"
"for their empirical analysis of asset prices"
"for their empirical analysis of asset prices"

Game theory (6)

"for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games"
"for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games"
"for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games"
"for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis"
"for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis"
"for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design"

General equilibrium theory (3)

"for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory"
"for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory"
"for having incorporated new analytical methods into economic theory and for his rigorous reformulation of the theory of general equilibrium"

Industrial organization (1)

"for his seminal studies of industrial structures, functioning of markets and causes and effects of public regulation"

Input-Output analysis (1)

"for the development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic problems"

Institutional economics (2)

"for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena"
"for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena"

International and regional economics (1)

"for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity"

International economics (2)

"for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements"
"for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements"

International macroeconomics (1)

"for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange rate regimes and his analysis of optimum currency areas"

Labor economics (3)

"for their analysis of markets with search frictions"
"for their analysis of markets with search frictions"
"for their analysis of markets with search frictions"

Macroeconometrics (3)

"for the creation of econometric models and the application to the analysis of economic fluctuations and economic policies"
"for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy"
"for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy"

Macroeconomics (9)

"for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena"
"for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena"
"for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy"
"for his analysis of financial markets and their relations to expenditure decisions, employment, production and prices"
"for his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets"
"for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy"
"for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles"
"for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles"
"for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy"

Management science (1)

"for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations"

Microeconomics (4)

"for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behaviour"
"for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory"
"for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory"
"for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory"

National income accounting (1)

"for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis"

Partial and general equilibrium theory (2)

"for the scientific work through which he has developed static and dynamic economic theory and actively contributed to raising the level of analysis in economic science"
"for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources"

Public finance (1)

"for his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision-making"

Theory of market institutions (1)

"for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy"

Theory of optimal allocation of resources (2)

"for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources"
"for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources"

Welfare economics (1)

"for his contributions to welfare economics"

Welfare theory (2)

"for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory"
"for their pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory"

Posted by Al Roth at 5:48 AM 0 comments
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Saturday, April 5, 2014

List of baby names banned in Saudi Arabia (includes Alice and Elaine)

Saudi isn't the first country to find some names repugnant...as I recall, there is a Napoleonic list of French names that are ok, with some presumption that names not on the list are not.  But naming your baby in Saudi Arabia might now be a repugnant transaction:

List of names banned in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia bans 50 baby names--List includes foreign names; those that ‘contradict culture and religion’


Malaak (angel)
Abdul Aati
Abdul Naser
Abdul Musleh
Nabi (prophet)
Nabiyya (female prophet)
Amir (prince)
Sumuw (highness)
Al Mamlaka (the kingdom)
Malika (queen)
Mamlaka (kingdom)
Tabarak (blessed)
Nardeen
Maya
Linda
Randa
Basmala (utterance of the name of God)
Taline
Aram
Nareej
Rital
Alice
Sandy
Rama (Hindu god)
Maline
Elaine
Inar
Maliktina
Lareen
Kibrial
Lauren
Binyamin (Arabic for Benjamin)
Naris
Yara
Sitav
Loland
Tilaj
Barrah
Abdul Nabi
Abdul Rasool
Jibreel (angel Gabriel)
Abdul Mu’een
Abrar
Iman
Bayan
Baseel
Wireelam
Posted by Al Roth at 5:29 AM 1 comments
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Friday, April 4, 2014

An unusual liver exchange in Hong Kong

Here's a paper describing a liver exchange in Hong Kong between one incompatible pair and one compatible pair.

Chan SC, Chok KSH, Sharr WW, Chan ACY, Tsang SHY, Dai WC, Lo CM. Samaritan donor interchange in living donor liver transplantation. Hepatobiliary Pancreat Dis Int 2014; 13(1): 105-109.


BACKGROUND: In order to overcome ABO blood group incompatibility, paired donor interchange has been practised in living donor liver transplantation. Liver transplantations using grafts donated by Samaritan living donors have been performed in Europe, North America, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Such practice is clearly on strong biological grounds although social and psychological implications could be far-reaching. Local experience has been satisfactory but is still limited. As few centers have this arrangement, its safety and viability are still being assessed under a clinical trial setting.
METHODS: Here we report a donor interchange involving an ABO-compatible pair with a universal donor and an ABO-incompatible pair with a universal recipient. This matching was not only a variation but also an extension of the donor interchange scheme.
RESULTS: The four operations (two donor hepatectomies and two recipient operations) were successful. All the two donors and the two recipients recovered well. Such donor interchange further supports the altruistic principle of organ donation in contrast to exchange for a gain.
CONCLUSIONS: Samaritan donor interchange certainly taxes further the ethical challenge of donor interchange. Although this practice has obvious biological advantages, such advantages have to be weighed against the potential increase in potential psychological risks to the subjects in the interchange. Further ethical and clinical evaluations of local and overseas experiences of donor interchange should guide future clinical practice in utilizing this potential organ source for transplantation.
Posted by Al Roth at 5:36 AM 1 comments
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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Thoughtful mom on school choice in Washington D.C.

Here's an interesting long essay in the Washingtonian on getting your kid into kindergarten in Washington D.C, starting before the current system was introduced.:
How Not to Get Your Kid into Kindergarten--Playing the DC Public Schools Lottery is a crazy, soul-crushing pursuit. By Laura Moser
Posted by Al Roth at 5:22 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Headlines that could have been dated April 1, from the Telegraph

Swedish men told to beware testicle-munching fish
Experts have warned Swedish men to keep their swimming trunks on if taking a dip in a sound off the country's southern coast, after a South American fish known for attacking testicles was discovered in the area.
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Telegraph, 3 September:
Testicle munching fish now found in River Seine in Paris
A South American fish known as the "ball-cutter" due to its taste for human testicles has been caught in Paris' Seine river.
************
Long arm of the law saves officer caught with his trousers down
An armed police officer who had sex with a married woman while on duty kept his job after arguing that he could still reach his gun because it was attached to his trousers around his ankles.

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343 French sign 'Don't Touch My Whore' petition

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A court has rejected a 60-year-old man's attempt to invoke the ancient right to trial by combat, rather than pay a £25 fine for a minor motoring offence. Leon Humphreys remained adamant yesterday that his right to fight a champion nominated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) was still valid under European human rights legislation. 
Posted by Al Roth at 3:19 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Knight Management, and the Knight Way

One of the problems facing medieval kings was managing the feudal lords who made up their tax base and army. Knights in particular were a cross between conscripts and independent contractors, between officers in the army, heavy armored units, and mercenary captains. They were also potential competitors with the king if not managed properly.  A good deal of thought therefore went into the management of knights: how to motivate them, coordinate them and control them. Much of the planning involved was long term, e.g. the children of important knights were educated at the king's court, making them both allies and hostages.

Not surprisingly, some of this thought can be adapted to address the problems facing modern managers.

Stanford's Graduate School of Business is at the forefront of the effort to re-learn and re-purpose some of this innovative medieval management wisdom (e.g. when should the table be round?), with a center devoted to this branch of management knowledge:



While kings needed the kind of advice that today would be given to CEOs about how to manage executive vice presidents, there was also an extensive body of more tactical knowledge (e.g. have your knights take off their armor before attempting a river crossing). These were compiled in detailed manuals, and one ancient source compiled 655 rules, which were published in the codex known as the 655 Knight Way.
Posted by Al Roth at 2:37 AM 1 comments
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