This article-post on the Freakonomics blog was indicative of the poverty of reporting on psychological and economics findings. I found it dreadfully uninformative. How can it simply be said that 'chauvinists are more likely to earn more'? Could it not be that individuals who are successful end up as chauvinists, rather than that chauvinists end up successful? What were the other controls? What other variables did they consider? What did they rule out? Why did the...

Wim Louw over at the little book of capoeira is hosting the second Carnival of the Africans, to which I contributed three pieces, my piece on having a large disadvantaged (I forgot the final d in the original piece's title, silly typo!) populace but wanting to create equality, my piece on herbal remedies and my piece on Egalitarianism in young children.  Other pieces I liked in the carnival include: Dr. Spurt's ecocultural biases of cognition. The Skeptic...

The Mercury reports that Danie Krugel, South Africa's famed quack with his 'quantum machine' is an academic! WHAT CRAZY, CRAZY MISREPRESENTATION!!!  HT: Yet Another Sceptic's BlogI sent them the following letter:To Whom It May Concern, The article mentioned above inaccurately prints that Danie Krugel is an 'academic'.  To be an academic an individual is required to be affiliated with a university or a recognised research institute.  Danie Krugel is therefore...

South Africa's current account is not as disease-ridden as some might argue, but some of the 'solutions' as proposed by individuals such as Zwelinzima Vavi to 'discipline' businesses are bound to do more damage than good.  This is the main thrust of this recent Vox EU article from Peter Draper and Andreas Freytag.  They have a number of conclusions to do with liberalization of industry and improvements in infrastructure and manufactuing.  I agree that...

I have not written at all about the financial crisis that is going on, predominantly in the US, but now also in 'the world'.  My 2 cents is going to be focused on what I would call the philosophical problems of the Paulson Plan.  My reasoning for this has to do with the idea of desert and related concepts of responsibility and accountability.  The eventual outcome of my argument will be that the Paulson Plan does not hold those who were responsible for...

From Al Jazeera English and Lucia Newman on racism-related topics in Latin America. A good quote from a prosecutor, Almeno Soares, in Brazil: "We confuse racial coexistence with racial equality."I also liked the idea of linguistic equality in the 4th video, but in a country like South Africa with 11 national languages should what constitutes 'linguistic equality'?HT: Neuroanthropology. ...

A new development blog, hosted at the Financial Times discusses issues in development.  And who are the blog's illustrious authors? None other than Bono of U2 and his compatriot Jeffrey Sachs.  Have a look at their Development Diary...

On the 28th of September, Wim of the little book of capoeira will host the 2nd edition of the Carnival of the Africans, the monthly science and skepticism blog carnival by Africans or on African topics. He has put out a call for submissions. Please look at the guidelines before submitting.  If you choose to submit, then email Wim at {wim}{dot}[louw}{at}{gmail}{dot}{com} with up to 4 of your best posts from the last month.I am going to submit a couple of pieces...

Lane Kenworthy, a professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, spoke at the CRISS workshop which I attended this last weekend in Rome. I will comment briefly on one of the concepts, marital homogamy, that he introduces in the first chapter of his book Jobs With Equality which is available online. I know that this concept is not new, I know that my discussion of it is not revelatory, I just wonder what people think about the problems that such a phenomenon creates.Marital...

I know that this blog traditionally deals with economics, but I felt I needed to comment on this subject. In the South African news today there are reports of a herbal medicine mixed by a trainee traditional healer resulting in the deaths of the trainee healer's entire family. My condolences go out to the family and friends of those who have passed away.However, this opens up one of the many areas in which progress needs to occur in South Africa. I understand and...

For the past couple of days I was attending a workshop at the University of Rome, `La Sapienza', hosted by CRISS, a cross-university research group investigating dynamics of inequality, poverty and welfare. My notes from some of the sessions are available online:Ravi KanburJeff MadrickMiles CorakLane KenworthyIn general, I enjoyed the sessions, especially those attempting to address persistence of inequality and the dynamics that lead to such persistence. I will comment...

Sarah Palin - potential vice president of the US - and her church.  Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vim...

An Economics Research Southern Africa (ERSA) working paper by Wilhelm Gerhard van der Merwe and Justine Burns uses the dictator game to test altruistic motives in the students. As I have already sent the authors an email with some of my concerns, I am not worried at all about discussing some points about the paper, in fact I hope that more discussion about the paper will improve it prior to its (hopeful) publication. In the spirit of full disclosure: Justine Burns...

So another bank, Lehman Brothers, is going down. Sigh. Anyway, amidst all this I read a fantastic line delivered by John Jansen from across the curve. We were engaged in an orgy of imprudent risk taking for nearly a decade and now a heavy price will be paid for the violation of so many simple and common sense precepts of trading. I truly fear for our economy and our system the next several days.'Orgy of imprudence' is such a fantastic phrase. I'd love to use that...

Children develop into (parochial) egalitarians, at least according to a recent study by Ernst Fehr, Helen Bernhard and Bettina Rockenbach. Children start out as selfish homo economicus style agents and turn into inequality averse parochialists. But the problem is that these aren't just any children, they are Swiss children and the cultural relevance of being Swiss has been seen in Ernst Fehr's own labs...The experiments on which the paper was based were run with children...

I am seriously hoping that InTrade is wrong. More than 50% chance that McCain will be president of the US? Please, please no.  HT: Mankiw and BDL....

The South African implementation of affirmative action policies is unique in that it characterises a situation in which the historically disadvantaged constitute a majority of the population.  In applications of Affirmative Action in the US, for example, the point has always been to get minorities into positions in which they can hopefully have positive spillovers for their communities, act as role models, and improve the well-being not only of themselves and their...

The Iyigun Blog has a fascinating piece on the Modern-Era Gender Gap. The problem with economic interpretations of recent trends in education isn't that women have managed to obtain similar levels of education as men have, but rather that they have overtaken men.  The point that the blog post makes (based on a paper which the blogger co-authored) is as follows:In a world in which education garners returns both in the labor and marriage markets, women  may...

Next week I am off to Rome to attend a workshop on Inequality, hosted by CRISS (Centro di Ricerca Inter-Universitario sullo Stato Sociale).  Highlights for me include a keynote speech by Ravi Kanbur, an acclaimed researcher who has done large amounts of work internationally on Inequality as well as specific work on South Africa.  Then too there is Lane Kenworthy, the worthy academic blogger at Consider The Evidence.  Jeff Madrick, of the Cooper Union...

"Agent-based modeling offers a viable alternative to calculus-based representative agent models in economics", is something I have said to people in the past. In response, I often get blank stares, cries of indignation or just plain 'WTF?'. So what's the deal?There are several reasons why individuals are choosing to adopt agent base modeling. Let's highlight a few of them. First, the concept of the representative agent, or applying methodological individualism always...

Vox EU - Employee Ignorance and Shared CapitalismPaul Krugman - The Resentment StrategyEurekAlert - Intellectual Work Induces Excessive Calorie Intake (though I have an issue with the 'causative' language used there)WSJ - A New View on TVDeving Stewart - Ending the Nation State MythEd Glaeser - The Dream for a Human Capital AgendaEd Glaeser - The Way We Gentrify NowThe Bellows - Response to Glaeser and GentrificationEconomist's View - Small Towns and Big Time PoliticsTyler...

So yes, I have returned home and will return to semi-regular blogging. Various things happen when you don't have regular internet access, you miss all kinds of things on facebook and your google reader list goes ABSOLUTELY CRAZY! So, a question, what do you do when your google reader hits over several hundred items to read? I have been somewhat merciless by clicking, but not reading, on various articles and only actually reading those that interest me. I am down to...