tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218881502011-12-30T07:19:02.787+11:00This blog is authored by Joshua Gans (Professor at the University of Melbourne) and is devoted to discussions of economics, strategy, occasional parenting and his own pop culture tastes.Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.comBlogger1881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149569349272011532006-06-06T14:46:00.000+10:002006-06-06T14:49:09.293+10:00

This blog started as an experiment. As with all experiments I chose the easy route: in this case, hosting by Google's blogger. After four months and 190 posts, this blog appears here to stay. So I am moving it to bigger digs.In the future, please visit the new Core Economics Blog at economics.com.au (a nice easy name to remember). All of the past posts and comments are there too. You can also

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149383716600140462006-06-04T11:08:00.000+10:002006-06-04T13:17:11.500+10:00

Yet another new way of renting movies has appeared in the US -- MovieBeam. (Here is the NYT write-up). But there is something much more profound that lies at the heart of that development. Something that gave me a radical idea about how to dramatically improve competition in our television markets. But first I need to explain just what MovieBeam does.From the user's perspective, you spend US$200

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149381106127847662006-06-04T10:31:00.000+10:002006-06-04T10:31:46.293+10:00

FYI: a short post today at Game Theorist: Hard choices.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149288884815519912006-06-03T08:43:00.000+10:002006-06-03T16:25:39.713+10:00

[Link from Greeneconomics] Ed Glaeser advocates a form of congestion pricing for New York City traffic. This is similar to plans advocated by Stephen King and myself except that we don't see any reason why it can't be on all roads. (See my earlier post here and my Age op ed). Glaeser's piece makes a nice point about how the London system was actually progressive (favouring lower income commuters)

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149162824847347562006-06-01T21:51:00.000+10:002006-06-01T21:57:16.676+10:00

This comes from my brother, Jeremy. It is worthwhile following his guide in reading this blog post.Another remarkable web document with a twist, but this one isn't as amusing as the 'cab driver' expert.It's a blog about the recovery of a car accident victim in a coma. The blog is, as usual, in reverse chronological order, so the shock ending is at the top. You could just go straight to the key

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149141588226501582006-06-01T15:59:00.000+10:002006-06-01T15:59:48.396+10:00

Google have generated a funky tool for viewing graphs of correlations of world development indicators. It has several dimensions including correlation, scale and also animinations across time. You can even pick your scale -- linear or logs. Someone will find this useful for classroom presentations.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149133786934054512006-06-01T13:49:00.000+10:002006-06-01T13:49:46.950+10:00

For those interested, I have a new post today at gametheorist on babies and getting them to sleep through the night. It is mostly reflections on personal experience.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149107878764247012006-06-01T06:35:00.000+10:002006-06-01T06:37:58.776+10:00

Google have come out with some wonderful little programs of late. Let me plug just one: Google Notebook. This one requires a little download to your browser (Firefox on Mac or PC or IE) and then you have a notebook hosted by Google that you can put links, thoughts and 'soon to be blogged' items. Just with the click of the right button. It also has a little notebook icon on your browser that you

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149059674636174052006-05-31T16:51:00.000+10:002006-05-31T17:14:34.753+10:00

So the Opposition Health spokesperson, Julia Gillard, got thrown out of Parliament today for calling the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, a "snivelling grub." Yesterday, Mr Abbott was not thrown out for saying the exact same insult. Commentators have called it a double standard.Well sure, it is a double standard. But let me go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe it isn't a bad thing if the

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1149058077564306582006-05-31T16:47:00.000+10:002006-05-31T16:47:58.576+10:00

I have taken a little time to get around to this, but a couple of weeks ago the Productivity Commission released a report into waste management. The blaze of publicity centered around their conclusion that only 1 percent of all plastic bags used in Australia find their way into streams and such, potentially choking wildlife to death. The PC reached the conclusion that perhaps a blanket ban on

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148935894236738132006-05-30T06:50:00.000+10:002006-05-30T08:48:51.123+10:00

New research on the career paths of academic economists tells us pursuing careers in Australia something very important: consider starting your career elsewhere. Stanford's Paul Oyer has studied the career paths of economists conditioning on the status of their initial job placement. Now of course initial job is an indicator of quality but it also is driven by other factors; principally, the

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148867842263849042006-05-29T11:57:00.000+10:002006-05-29T13:12:29.856+10:00

Economists think alot about queues whenever they are standing in them. For example, Steve Levitt became preoccupied with Disneyland queues earlier this month.Today, my co-author, Andrew Leigh recounts his supermarket experience. He ponders the difficult issue of what line to stand in and concludes that it may be best to make your assessment, go to the nearest queue and stick to it. Queue picking

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148866768322627982006-05-29T11:35:00.000+10:002006-05-29T11:39:28.323+10:00

Earlier this month I testified before the Australian Parliament on the impact of the Reserve Bank's credit card reforms. For those of you who can't get enough of this, the transcript is now in Hansard. Click here to download the day. I start at about page 20 and blather on for about 8 pages.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148866154961288832006-05-29T11:29:00.000+10:002006-05-29T11:29:15.120+10:00

It has been about 6 years since I have done this but I have redesigned by academic home page. Click here to see the result. The idea is to make it a more 'living document' than I had previously with more about 'what's new' than 'what's old.'

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148779510179200282006-05-28T11:25:00.000+10:002006-05-28T11:25:13.810+10:00

There is a new post today on GameTheorist (my original blog I started in 2003; I mentioned it in an earlier post).I decided to revitalise that blog in order collect together some of my longer posts on parenting issues. I have visions of a book -- did someone say Parentonomics? So GameTheorist contains some cross posts from this blog and I intend to continue to do that. I have more ideas to write

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148694740408922662006-05-27T11:49:00.000+10:002006-05-27T12:05:29.276+10:00

Lots of talk today on the web about an open letter proposal from Matthew Yglesias. He writes:I'll believe that this is all about altruism when I see an open letter from economists demanding that we scrap the complicated H1B visa system and instead allow unrestricted immigration of foreign college professors. Brad de Long and Greg Mankiw are happy to sign even if it might depress their own

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148692151216834672006-05-27T11:05:00.000+10:002006-05-27T11:10:03.073+10:00

Our paper on "The Millennium Bub" appears to have made the news today (page 3 of The Age no less, "Y2K proved a turn-on"). Obviously, the article focused on the conceptions result but did quote liberally and accurately from the paper.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148686104500056642006-05-27T09:02:00.000+10:002006-05-27T09:47:07.050+10:00

When I picked up The Genius Factory by David Plotz, I was expecting something a little different. The book was subtitled: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank; speaking of the (in)famous experiment run by Robert Graham (the shatter-proof eyeglasses magnate) who supposedly recruited Nobel prize winners to 'improve' the world's human gene pool. Now whatever you think about the

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148549546754060402006-05-25T19:32:00.000+10:002006-05-26T15:40:40.873+10:00

Much was foretold about the problems that might have befallen us on the day of the Millennium (1st January, 2000). Little happened, of course, that was detected by the human eye. But it appears the statistics have uncovered a little something; perhaps a hint of optimism. Perhaps a way to remember the ages of your children. Perhaps a good time. Who can tell?Andrew Leigh and I have made a habit

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148532755956930842006-05-25T14:50:00.000+10:002006-05-25T16:15:38.020+10:00

Apparently, in a recent speech, Hillary Clinton said that "young people today think work is a four-letter word." I am not sure but was she implying that young people in generations past used to think work was something other than a four-letter word? If so, all those Spelling Bees in the US are paying off.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148513493209460372006-05-25T09:31:00.000+10:002006-05-25T09:31:36.386+10:00

Nothing pleases me more than having a clever title for an academic paper. Some that myself, co-authors or others have suggested for my papers include "First Author Conditions," "Licensing the Gale of Creative Destruction," "Inside the Black Box: A Look at the Container," and, of course, "Knowledge of Growth and the Growth of Knowledge."[From Marginal Revolution] Hugo Mialon (Emory) has studied

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148445290072274352006-05-24T14:34:00.000+10:002006-05-24T14:34:50.223+10:00

[Via Boing Boing] This is as cool as it gets. Click here to see an 'infinite' photomosaic.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148424298757685232006-05-24T08:35:00.000+10:002006-05-24T08:47:52.560+10:00

I normally like Tim Harford's analysis and conclusions about the frustrations of everyday life. However, this article in Forbes comes up short. Harford looks at the high level of executive pay and provokes us by suggesting that the pay is not for the exec's benefit but for the benefit of their underlings:The ugly truth is that your boss is probably overpaid--and it's for your benefit, not his.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148422330991601212006-05-24T08:02:00.000+10:002006-05-24T08:12:13.573+10:00

In an earlier post, I noted that the television-ad game is a funny one. In order to get viewers to watch ads they don't like, broadcasters intersperse them with television programs they do like.Today, CBS have announced a new way to get people to watch ads. They are going to provide clues within ads that give viewers the chance to win prizes. This isn't such a new idea. Individual ads have often

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148418439097922032006-05-24T06:55:00.000+10:002006-05-24T07:50:18.450+10:00

Scott Adams on The Dilbert Blog today has a provocative post (to me at least) entitled "How to Think Like an Economist." He says, very accurately:The most important skill you learn in business and economics classes is how to compare things. The average person can be forgiven for lacking those skills. It’s not a natural capability. Like most things, it helps to be trained. Economists do think alot

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148353770259555022006-05-23T13:09:00.000+10:002006-05-23T13:09:34.833+10:00

Comedy wise that is; click here. George W. Bush would have been doing this on SNL.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148342505493526752006-05-23T10:01:00.000+10:002006-05-23T10:03:40.743+10:00

This is just a test post from my new Blackberry toy. They say I'll be addicted to it. But wasn't I addicted to email already?

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148332013120760932006-05-23T07:02:00.000+10:002006-05-23T10:05:57.196+10:00

News today that apparently Einstein wasn't that great at maths. He was very good at thinking up broad ideas but not so good on the details of proofs. Even so he was able to derive E = mc^2 although only a few months after his main paper on special relativity.This follows on from the well known tale that Einstein didn't speak properly until 8 or 9.Just goes to show what you can get away with.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148170933551713412006-05-22T08:00:00.000+10:002006-05-22T19:50:33.866+10:00

An interesting debate has emerged in the United States regarding the concept of "network neutrality." This is the idea that Internet networks should not discriminate based on content. The debate involves lots of rhetoric and a lack of clarity on the economics of the situation. A regular reader provoked me into thinking about this issue and there is nothing like to demand to generate supply. And

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148189404932394832006-05-21T15:24:00.000+10:002006-05-21T15:31:08.890+10:00

Sometimes we can be a little slow. A few weeks back I wrote about Amazon.com's wrinkly pricing. This is where it gives users of its A9 search engine a 1.57% discount on its products when they conduct a certain number of searches.Amazon.com say that the 1.57 is approximately pi/2; that is, pi as in 3.14 etc. Apart from noting that that was a non-round number I thought that they were just being

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148080008097722522006-05-20T08:53:00.000+10:002006-05-20T09:06:48.113+10:00

In a provocative post, Donny's Blog calculates that if the RIAA got its way and was able to extract $150,000 per infringement, in one month it would accumulate more money than the annual GDP of France. In the end, some $11,441 billion. This seems a tad more than the $300 million per year the RIAA estimates it is losing because of downloads. To recover that, only 2000 prosecutions would need to be

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148077997777814662006-05-20T08:24:00.000+10:002006-05-22T19:52:54.473+10:00

Last post I described the mystery in The Da Vinci Code movie that wasn't in the book. Namely, how did they get all that great presentation material in lectures. It really was wonderful and I couldn't imagine they could have done it with PowerPoint. I said that I had solved the mystery. Don't read on if you don't want this revealed.OK, the first clue can be seen in the audience of Robert Langdon's

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148077477680112472006-05-20T08:11:00.000+10:002006-05-20T08:24:37.766+10:00

Last night, we went to see The Da Vinci Code. It was pretty much exactly like the book. That would normally lead to the conclusion "if you liked the book, you'd like the movie." I'd say it probably is more accurate to say that "if you liked the book, you won't hate the movie." But the problem really is that the best bit about the book was the following tactic: towards the end of relatively short

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1148020926256019762006-05-19T16:35:00.000+10:002006-05-19T16:42:06.296+10:00

Today we held our '3 C's' Conference on media mergers at MBS with Simon Anderson, Graeme Samuel (ACCC) and Kim Williams (CEO Foxtel) speaking. Some highlights ....Simon Anderson spoke to our joint paper on what is different about media mergers? Interestingly, in commentary on it, Stephen King suggested that because of their two-sided nature -- supplying viewers and advertisers -- it is likely

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147990070205877532006-05-19T08:07:00.000+10:002006-05-19T08:07:50.346+10:00

Ohio State University's Christopher Fairman swears his way into a legal study of the relationship between taboo (linguistically speaking) and the law. [Click here and you will immediately see what I mean]. He has some interesting ideas about self-censorship but ultimately concludes that the law is a mess when it comes to these things.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147947597258291452006-05-18T20:07:00.000+10:002006-05-18T20:19:57.273+10:00

Recently, as part of on-going work into an inquiry into public support for science and innovation in Australia, the Productivity Commission (PC) released a very large (595 page) econometric analysis to uncover the social rate of return for business R&D expenditure in Australia. You can access that report here.Now most econometric studies of this kind have found that the social rate of return to R

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147821697776683322006-05-17T09:21:00.000+10:002006-05-17T10:50:20.936+10:00

John Quiggin has a nice post on the differences or lack thereof between Galbraith and Becker and Murphy on advertising --- namely, both assume advertising is uniformative but B&M allow for the possibility that consumers might like it.John Quiggin suggests that because we are 'paid' to watch ads on television -- essentially by the lure of television programs -- that it must be the case that ads

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147751498243463292006-05-16T13:51:00.000+10:002006-05-17T10:25:50.030+10:00

Harry Clarke reviews an article published in the latest Journal of Political Economy of the small world of academic economists. It seems that most economists have few co-authors who themselves do not co-author with one another. Thus, links are characterised by a large interconnection of star graph formations.Naturally, this sort of thing prompts one to look at their own 'networked' situation. I

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147732757473295652006-05-16T08:22:00.000+10:002006-05-16T08:51:31.073+10:00

Last night I watched an "Enough Rope" episode I recorded last week on my Foxtel IQ. I missed a bit when I was called upstairs for Ghostbusting duties, so I rewound the program and played it again. It turns out that that act was an illegal violation of new copyright laws in Australia!There was a sense that when copyright laws in Australia actually ended up making it illegal to record television

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147731252596626472006-05-16T08:04:00.000+10:002006-05-16T08:14:12.686+10:00

As an economist, people often ask me what the changes to the superannuation laws will mean for them. My response is that when I work out what the previous laws meant, I might have a hope of working out what the changes to those laws would mean. Frankly, all I know is that the government forces me to save and wants me to believe I am getting some form of tax advantage by doing so. In my mind,

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147669094461360122006-05-15T14:55:00.000+10:002006-05-15T14:58:14.526+10:00

We have been re-watching Frontline on DVD these last few weeks [highly recommended by the way] but not even there could you have seen or imagined anything like this clip on youtube.The best way to watch it is just to watch it first and then 30 or so seconds in take a look at the description. You will be stunned but not as stunned as the guy being interviewed.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147668351613995302006-05-15T14:38:00.000+10:002006-05-15T14:45:51.626+10:00

No sooner had I returned to Melbourne after testifying at a Parliamentary inquiry on the credit card reforms than a story on the day's events had appeared online. Here is the entry from news.com.au and a similar one from The Age. It appears my "they appear didn't have much impact" message was noted but others are concerned about bank shareholders losing at the expense of retailer shareholders

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147589382655057812006-05-14T16:41:00.000+10:002006-05-14T16:49:42.676+10:00

The Social Science Research Network (or SSRN) is one of the main repositories of working papers in the social sciences. I discovered today that it now carries ads.Here is an example of one of the more popular of my papers hosted on SSRN. You'll notice the Google Adsense links on the right hand side. It contains ads for risk analysis and even photocopying. An interesting mix for a paper on

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147575405873120002006-05-14T12:51:00.000+10:002006-05-14T13:00:35.720+10:00

I read a great piece by Mitchell Zuckoff in the current issue of The New Yorker where he provides an account about how a psychotherapist got taken in by a Nigerian e-mail scam. You can read the article here. This is not an "it could have happened to you" story. Everyone who has received Nigerian e-mails with promises of shares of ill gotten riches and ignored them would not have gotten into

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147560398793716432006-05-14T08:41:00.000+10:002006-05-14T10:57:16.936+10:00

In the "I thought I'd seen it all" category, it is a little hard to see from my mobile phone shot, but here is the urinal from "Middle Brighton Baths" (a restaurant in Melbourne). Yes, it has a plasma television screen built in. At the time, it was showing CNN.Suffice it to say I couldn't do it. I worship television way too much. But don't despair, many others have taken the opportunity.Of course

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147501889192255092006-05-13T16:24:00.000+10:002006-05-13T16:31:29.213+10:00

I came across this late but here is a list of the most expensive words on Google. You may not be aware but those links down the right hand side of Google search results are the results of bids in an auction. Advertisers bid for priority on the page and pay by the click (with some adjustments that need not concern us here). The words here are those attracting the highest bids.Number one relates to

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147385565920500252006-05-12T08:12:00.000+10:002006-05-12T08:12:45.933+10:00

Today's Age reports the consumer groups have claimed that credit card reforrms have not gone for enough. I have said previously that I don't think they have had much impact.Next week the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration will be holding hearings on the credit card reforms and their impacts. I'll be testifying first thing Monday morning

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147380954103631272006-05-12T06:46:00.000+10:002006-05-12T18:34:25.306+10:00

Former Patricks chair Chris Corrigan yesterday suggested that if the ACCC and its mergers team were to form a rock band it would be called "Flim Flam and the Flakes." I guess my long time co-author Stephen King would be one of the flakes.I wondered what songs they might sing. A few came to mind:"All my friends are getting married""D.I.V.O.R.C.E.""Love and marriage"and some special tributes to

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147348919134627112006-05-11T21:59:00.000+10:002006-05-12T07:57:46.426+10:00

I saw Mission Impossible III last week. Even if I wanted to give the plot away I couldn't. It wasn't really given to me. [I mean if anyone can tell me what the threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was this time, I'd like to know]. Suffice it to say I am happy to review it as "not as stupid as Mission Impossible II."Now I think enough time has passed that I can give the plot of MI:

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147308073511427882006-05-11T10:24:00.000+10:002006-05-11T10:45:56.766+10:00

Today, Google launched a beta version of Google Trends. You can put in a keyword and if it is popular enough, then you can see how its popularity changes over time, the impact of certain news events and the regional distribution of searches.I can see already that we are going to enjoy this one. For instance, type "game theory" and it appears that most activity is coming from Bangalore, India.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147220632055668542006-05-10T10:18:00.000+10:002006-05-10T10:46:39.126+10:00

The back page of the latest issue of the Journal of Political Economy (JPE) usually contains descriptions of references to economic ideas from literary sources.From the back page of the latest issue (April, 2006):Darth Vader and the Holdup ProblemIn The Empire Strikes Back (part of the Star Wars saga), the evil Darth Vader set in motion a plan to lure Luke Skywalker (the hero) into a trap. To do

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147149214448483082006-05-09T14:23:00.000+10:002006-05-09T14:33:34.466+10:00

In Slate, Sean Captain predicts that "your laptop will never replace your TV." His argument is not strictly about laptops but more about the prospects for download television. He argues that broadcast television will dominate because download television cannot deliver the same quality efficiently or more critically in a timely fashion.Of course, this prediction suffers from the 'current

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147141110279738272006-05-09T12:15:00.000+10:002006-05-09T12:18:30.280+10:00

I know that it is great news that the Tasmanian miners were released but I became aware today of some more terrific news: the SciFi channel is developing a prequel series to Battlestar Galactica called Caprica. It is set 50 years earlier at the time when Cylons are first developed.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147140574750789342006-05-09T12:02:00.000+10:002006-05-10T07:33:36.826+10:00

I was involved in a short but interesting discussion today about whether the word 'blog' was a good word blog related activities. I argued that its chief virtue was that it could easily by made into verbs and adverbs such as blogging, blogged and blogable.This lead to another thought: was 'Google' so successful in becoming known because it had the same verbability [yes, I know verb doesn't really

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147130592066095822006-05-09T09:16:00.000+10:002006-05-09T09:23:12.080+10:00

When I first started this blog, my 'evil' strategy to build readership was to tell my students that my exam questions would be inspired by blog posts. [Here is that earlier post]. I did just that for the mid-term exam.The final exam was very challenging. [Click here if you are interested in viewing it]. But the multiple choice questions were based on my post about movies and popcorn on which I

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147127741890168672006-05-09T08:33:00.000+10:002006-05-09T09:28:59.513+10:00

Preston McAfee is a not a stranger to textbook writing. His Competitive Solutions is a nice but low-tech textbook designed to give MBA students a feel for the economics of strategy.Now he has done something far less marketable: an introductory economics text that is far from shy on the technical. While written assuming no prior economics knowledge, it has the technical (that is, mathematical)

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147127031745851912006-05-09T08:23:00.000+10:002006-05-09T08:23:51.780+10:00

[From Boing Boing] News today that the United States Patent Office will be launching peer review of patents. The idea is that the overloaded work of the USPTO will be assisted by volunteering to vet patent applications. IBM, for one, have agreed to this.This idea has a precedent: scientific peer reviewing. For the most part that works well and there is some alignment of skills in that '

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1147085374231567002006-05-08T20:34:00.000+10:002006-05-09T09:04:31.026+10:00

Philips has filed for a patent on a digital video recorder whose remote would be disabled from skipping ads unless the owner paid a fee. Here is the write up. Not surprisingly, Philips aren't seriously thinking of marketing this yet but with changes in digital broadcasting, the option for utilising this type of technology is improving.The problem with television advertising (and for that matter

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146972677340627942006-05-07T13:31:00.000+10:002006-05-07T13:47:00.353+10:00

In today's New York Times Freakonomics column, Levitt and Dubner uncover a startling fact:If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in next month's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146960698167725182006-05-07T09:48:00.000+10:002006-05-07T10:11:39.633+10:00

In Project Syndicate, Peter Singer has an article about 'Fairtrade.' Fairtrade is a service that ensures that the ultimate product suppliers -- e.g., the growers of coffee, cotton and the like -- are paid a fair amount for their produce. It appears that some people object to this as being a poor way of helping the poor and that giving money directly to aid agencies may be better. Singer is right

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146955030301786042006-05-07T08:33:00.000+10:002006-05-07T08:37:10.530+10:00

Today's FT Magazine has an interesting article by Tim Harford of the world of competitive poker. Game theorists since von Neumann have been interested in the game and with $250m supposedly bet each year more are trying to use game theory and computer science to profit from poker. Of course, the one thing we know is that this is a zero-sum game, so there will be losers. The effort is in trying not

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146887709350776572006-05-06T13:55:00.000+10:002006-05-06T13:55:09.473+10:00

The Kauffman Foundation who a few years ago awarded my co-author, Scott Stern, a medal for for excellence in entrepreneurship research, have established a research portal. You can access it here. Lots of good material for those interested in all aspects of entrepreneurship.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146777028908250582006-05-05T06:53:00.000+10:002006-05-05T07:10:28.926+10:00

[From Marginal Revolution] Today there is a store the the US Post Office is considering launching a stamp which can use to post a letter at any time in the future. This will hold even if, as is inevitable, stamp prices should rise. What this means is that you could confidently buy the stamps and not have to worry about having to put annoying little adjustments on when the price rises. There would

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146699753244865672006-05-04T09:18:00.000+10:002006-05-04T09:42:33.306+10:00

Paul Krugman recently reviewed a new book by David Warsh, Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations. [Here is a link to some extracts from the review].One bit got my interest ...Maybe that slight sloppiness reflects Warsh's relative lack of interest in applications of increasing returns other than the one he believes to be most crucial: as an explanation of economic growth. He portrays a famous 1990

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146697886361059222006-05-04T08:58:00.000+10:002006-05-04T09:11:35.553+10:00

A new post on the Freakonomics blog today describes a music artist, Jane Siberry, who sells on-line tracks by means of an honour system. No one has to pay but she posts statistics regarding what proportion of people have paid and what they paid. Suffice it to say, most pay her recommended price despite the ability to simply receive a 'gift.'Stephen King tried a similar idea in 2000 selling a book

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146629727961174062006-05-03T14:06:00.000+10:002006-05-04T08:13:01.643+10:00

I have a new post today on Aplia's blog. It is a review of a new paper by Steve Levitt that analyses whether a particular bagel business was maximising profits over the last twenty years. The answer: yes in some respects (quantities) but no in others (prices).The bagel business was the subject of an earlier analysis of honesty. Here is an article describing that research. Stephen Dubner has

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146627754609222902006-05-03T13:28:00.000+10:002006-05-04T09:47:48.700+10:00

At 5:40am this morning, a truck jacknifed on the Monash freeway outbound, knocked over a light and spilled oil onto all of inbound lanes. [Here is the account].At 5: 50am I left my house to go inbound on the Monash freeway [yes, I know it is early but I like to do that to (ahem) avoid traffic]. At 5:55am I joined other commuters inbound at a standstill on the Monash where we sat for the next hour

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146618090683291762006-05-03T10:58:00.000+10:002006-05-03T11:01:30.696+10:00

I am not in the habit of simply pointing out links but this one for sticky measuring tape is worthy of the widest dissemination. Do they have one in centimetres?

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146615620614621562006-05-03T10:11:00.000+10:002006-05-03T10:20:20.650+10:00

Today amazon.com announced that it had switched from Google to Microsoft as the provider of search engine technology for its own A9 search engine. I hadn't thought much about A9 so I thought I'd check it out.Well I had always known that A9 allowed searches inside books. But this also allows classified searches in many places including reference sources, Wikipedia, blogs and of course the web in

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146563968379237252006-05-02T19:50:00.000+10:002006-05-02T19:59:28.396+10:00

I write alot. Really, quite alot. What the means is that quite often I forget that I have written about something in the past and am reminded of it by others.In addition, like many people, I have lots of usernames and passwords for various sites. I keep mine all nicely encrypted on my computer and occasionally I take a look at what I had registered for.Today, I noticed that I had two blogger

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146517874698635172006-05-02T07:04:00.000+10:002006-05-02T07:11:14.753+10:00

Regardless of politics the following statement is true: increased demand and reduced supply for oil should mean lower profits for petrol producers.Jon Stewart got it right when debating the issue with Wall Street Journal correspondent Kimberley Strassel who needs Economics 101 training and focused on how high profits were good for shareholders. [A similar 'debate' played out at NBC's Meet the

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146516000594571982006-05-02T06:37:00.000+10:002006-05-02T06:40:00.643+10:00

Today's print version of The Age contains a very short reflection by myself of John Kenneth Galbraith. The online edition has the full version which itself is an edited version of my earlier post.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146374769031965682006-04-30T14:59:00.000+10:002006-04-30T16:17:37.120+10:00

This has been a bad week for the challengers of 'conventional wisdom.' First, Jane Jacobs and now news that John Kenneth Galbraith has passed away at the age of 97. (The grand obituary was published today by the New York Times).In many respects, JK Galbraith was the writer who got me into economics when I was in high school in much the same way as demand and supply didn't. He had a turn of phrase

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146356471516756262006-04-30T10:14:00.000+10:002006-04-30T15:58:11.923+10:00

Over the past week or so, I have been steadily going through the daily challenges on The Da Vinci Code Quest (brought to us by Google). I can recommend it thoroughly. It takes less than a minute but is a nice distraction.The idea is to solve puzzles, reveal clues and use Google to solve the clues. Suffice it to say, there are alot of clues you can solve this way. This is going to make Dan Brown's

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146183020123980112006-04-28T10:03:00.000+10:002006-04-28T10:10:20.140+10:00

The FT (Wednesday, 25th April) had a profile of Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft exec, who set up a company Intellectual Ventures, essentially for patent trolling. Here is one article and one video on what he is doing.Following up from my earlier post defending patent trolls, there is a sense in which Myhrvold sees himself as providing liquidity in markets for ideas; especially as he employs

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146175410806896112006-04-28T07:54:00.000+10:002006-04-28T08:03:31.386+10:00

A few weekends ago, while I was writing an exam for my students, I got to thinking about popcorn and movies. Part of this thinking was inspired by this piece by Edward Jay Epstein that the entire movie theatre business was driven by popcorn and soft drink sales. That is, theatres competed not to be able to make money from movie tickets but from other sales. This appeared to make some sense given

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146088429447439092006-04-27T07:45:00.000+10:002006-04-27T07:53:49.476+10:00

Tyler Cowen today asks: why are all iTunes songs the same price? This is a good question because it is clearly the case that some songs are more popular than others and indeed have differential quality (see this CNN story today). All indications are that the real reason is as basic as: Apple wants simplicity so it can sell more iPods even if the music companies would like to be able to say more

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1146000519408985442006-04-26T07:22:00.000+10:002006-04-26T07:28:39.423+10:00

Reports today that Apple is considering putting advertisements in iTunes. This is not as new as it seems as ads already appear embedded within Podcasts. But the ability to truely target viewers and know precisely who is watching what is a tempting prize for advertisers.Of course, the real opportunity here would be for Apple to provide consumers with more options. I have earlier written that to

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145998649854428652006-04-26T06:50:00.000+10:002006-04-26T06:57:29.953+10:00

News today that Jane Jacobs, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations, has passed away.In an earlier academic life, she inspired myself and two of my classmates (Raphael Bostic and Scott Stern) to work on understanding what drove urban growth. The idea that cities had a life of their own and both a resistance to management and a fragility to

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145942119936697912006-04-25T15:05:00.000+10:002006-04-25T15:15:51.316+10:00

We have it for buses, trains and ferries, why not airplanes? According to reports today, Airbus has been advocating the use of standing passengers to increase passenger numbers on planes. Hey, we all know that with the way seats have gone there isn't much comfort there anyway and for airlines it saves the cost of carrying around all those heavy seats.Here is the relevant bit:Airbus has been

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145917962625516132006-04-25T08:20:00.000+10:002006-04-25T08:32:42.636+10:00

Today brought moves for a code of conduct for the 'junk food industry' to limit the advertising content in junk food ads to children. One of the suggestions is that McDonalds would not be allowed to put toys in Happy Meals.When it comes down to it, the whole move against advertising towards children is a red herring at best and at worst a distraction and excuse for governments not to hit at real

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145916986248248032006-04-25T08:11:00.000+10:002006-04-25T08:16:26.276+10:00

In today's Age, I respond to Mike Vitalie's suggestion that there be a HECS scheme for biotechnology firms in Victoria. I argue that while the intentions may be good, it may be 'solving the wrong problem' when it comes to VC funding.You can read the Age article here. It basically expands on my blog from last week on the same issue.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145861072128994232006-04-24T16:15:00.000+10:002006-04-24T16:50:18.976+10:00

On Friday, the Australian Competition Tribunal handed down its decision on the application by the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) to authorise collective boycotts by chicken growers in Victoria when negotiating with chicken processors. The ACCC had earlier allowed the VFF this right but the Tribunal overturned that authorisation. So growers will not be able to collectively boycott. You can

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145750523249973852006-04-23T09:54:00.000+10:002006-04-23T15:00:30.723+10:00

Youtube has just posted Steve Job's introduction to the very first iPod; almost 5 years ago now. When you watch it, the first thing that hits you is the small room this was done in and all the empty seats. Hardly the introduction you would expect from what became a killer appliance in the music industry.The initial iPod was only for Mac (Windows would have to wait another year), ultraportable

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145746352676358962006-04-23T08:42:00.000+10:002006-04-23T08:52:34.916+10:00

Tim Harford has a little piece in the FT today on George Akerlof and his insights regarding markets for used cars.Apart from explaining Akerlof's nobel prize winning contributions he also describes his difficulties in getting his work published ...used cars were just the beginning for Akerlof. His neat little paper was turned down by two top journals because they couldn't see past the trivia of

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145660131269192772006-04-22T08:41:00.000+10:002006-04-22T08:55:31.286+10:00

From Nature, so you know its a contribution to knowledge, a story about research at the University of Leuven who have examined the behaviour of men playing the ultimatum game.This game is a simple one where one person makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to another over how to split an amount of money. Either the other person accepts the deal or they do not. In the latter case, no one gets any money

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145596016612963252006-04-21T14:51:00.000+10:002006-04-21T15:06:56.640+10:00

Ian Holsman has set up a 'blog of blogs' on economic issues. It is a good way to consolidate your blog monitoring on a single site. My interests are a little broader and so I often use Bloglines.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145427586021502362006-04-19T16:16:00.000+10:002006-04-19T16:19:46.053+10:00

On Friday, 19th May, the Centre for Business and Public Policy here at Melbourne Business School will be holding a half day conference on "Media Ownership Reforms: The 3 C's -- Convergence, Competition and Consolidation."The line-up is a terrific one including Graeme Samuel (Chair, ACCC), Kim Williams (CEO, Foxtel) and Professor Simon Anderson (University of Virginia). If you are interested in

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145343000129110832006-04-18T16:28:00.000+10:002006-04-18T16:50:00.146+10:00

It was inevitable really. AAPT is contemplating suing Telstra over its 'sponsoring' of its own link when someone searches for AAPT. Of course, if you try googling 'aapt' now all you get as a sponsored link is AAPT. Nonetheless, apparently until recently you would get Telstra there too.This is not an uncommon practice:Google 'nab' and you get American ExpressGoogle 'Melbourne Business School' and

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145236697812755032006-04-17T11:12:00.000+10:002006-04-17T11:18:17.830+10:00

I am going to celebrate my 100th post by blogging about another blog: oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com. It is a specialist blog by Kyle MacDonald who has been trying for the last 10 months to covert his possession, one red paper clip, into a house. He is getting closer and this week sealed a trade that got him a year's rent on a place in Phoenix. That is also getting him a ton of media attention.His

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145139392014034632006-04-16T08:15:00.000+10:002006-04-17T09:38:41.813+10:00

In Slate, Tim Harford recounts his difficulties in choosing a mobile phone plan. Faced with a confusing set of options, he finally rings his current provider and they tell him what the best plan for him is. His thought: they put too many options in their catalog so as to screen customers based on whether they have time to call them for the 'right' choice or not.The question is whether this

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1145056083535702452006-04-15T08:55:00.000+10:002006-04-15T09:08:03.560+10:00

In today's Age, Mike Vitalie argues for a HECS scheme for biotechs ...A "HECS for Biotechs" program, that is loans for fledgling companies, to be repaid if and when a company's earnings reach a certain level - should be implemented. More should be done to encourage overseas biotechs to establish operations in Australia. In biotechnology as in education, our neighbours are steadily becoming our

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144976587838469272006-04-14T11:00:00.000+10:002006-04-14T11:03:07.936+10:00

There is lots of talk on the upcoming likely attack by the US on Iran. My favourite assessment thusfar comes from Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report:Many say, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I say, those who ignore history are in for a Big Surprise! And doesn't everybody love a surprise?

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144970039585582532006-04-14T09:13:00.000+10:002006-04-14T09:54:58.523+10:00

In academic economics, the convention in papers with many authors is to order them alphabetically. This is in contrast to other academic disciplines that have their own norms including ordering based on relative contribution.It was always somewhat surprising that economists might choose to 'hide the individual contribution' by adopting a convention that meant that name-order should bear no signal

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144968832298178502006-04-14T08:41:00.000+10:002006-04-14T08:53:53.463+10:00

The discovery of Neptune was pathbreaking in astronomy. It was the first planet to be discovered in theory before it was actually found. As Tom Standage recounts in The Neptune File, John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier took unusual anomalies in the orbit of Uranus and concluded that these were caused by a planet. They then went on to predict the planet's location. Telescopes were trained on

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144702355743268842006-04-11T06:52:00.000+10:002006-04-11T08:42:28.120+10:00

Last time on "the evolution of television" ...iTunes put TV shows on (ad-free) for US$1.99 per episode; now dropping to less than a dollar if you purchase a whole seasonGoogle launched its Video Store with episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race among many others available for variable prices and watching optionsCBS launched a direct TV on demand service similar to iTunes.Telstra Bigpond offers

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144634131958325762006-04-10T11:40:00.000+10:002006-04-10T11:55:32.193+10:00

David Hsu (Wharton), Scott Stern (Kellogg) and I have a new paper out this week on "The Impact of Uncertain Intellectual Property Rights on Markets for Ideas: Evidence from Patent Grant Delays." The paper assembles an interesting data set that allows us to relate the timing of patents being granted (as opposed to being filed) to the timing of licensing agreements (that is, transactions in markets

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144617034107652982006-04-10T07:08:00.000+10:002006-04-10T07:10:34.133+10:00

I followed Greg Mankiw into textbook writing by adapting (with Stephen King and Robin Stonecash) his Principles of Economics book for the Asia-Pacific Region. [It is now in its 3rd edition from Thomson].It seems like Greg has followed me (by a month) into blogging. Probably not causal this time but nonetheless a great resource for economics students.

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144563317030422312006-04-09T16:05:00.000+10:002006-04-09T16:15:17.076+10:00

A few days ago, Ocean Tomo held a well-publicised auction of 68 blocks of patents. Many sales were transacted with prices ranging from a few thousand to over $1 million (that one for compressing movies on television). Such things have generated concerns over patent trolling (see my previous posts on that).In actuality, they represent a good way for smaller innovators to commercialise their

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21888150.post-1144542425742957192006-04-09T10:08:00.000+10:002006-04-09T10:29:07.096+10:00

This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education is about the ways in which authors can find out who reviewed their paper for academic journals prompted me to wonder about why referees do not 'sign' their reviews. Why is there anonymity?We know why sometimes journals make reviewers blind to an author's identity -- to remove reputation and affiliation from the accept/reject decision. But what

Joshua Ganshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13713171032343855718noreply@blogger.com0