It’s kind of a trick question, exactly the type of gambit that drives both research and blog posts. (The answer, it seems, is “both should magically emerge simultaneously.”) Anyway…I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately, and not the twerking kind. Both the seasonal goings-on and my mind doing laps on a vexing problem … Read more
As Labor Day weekend approaches, scores of scholars are steeling themselves for the “networking experience” that is the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Of course, the main value of networking is establishing relationships. For example, meeting new people can lead to coauthorships, useful information about grants/jobs/conferences, invitations to give talks, and so forth. … Read more
Paul Krugman recently wrote a post about how/why formal theory has fallen behind empirical work in prestige/prominence in economics. I agree with Krugman that the decline (if one thinks it has occurred) is not due to behavioral social science (Kahneman & Tversky’s voluminous body of work being the most notable of this field). Krugman argues … Read more
Thanks to Kevin Collins, I saw this forthcoming article (described succinctly here) by Omair Akhtar, David Paunesku, and Zakary L. Tormala. In a nutshell, the article, entitled “The Ironic Effect of Argument Strength on Supportive Advocacy,” reports four studies that suggest “that under some conditions…in particular, presenting weak rather than strong arguments might stimulate greater advocacy and action.” This … Read more
Did the Senate ironically kill (for the time being) an immigration deal by passing an immigration bill? Arguably, yes. Control of the Senate is up in the air in the 2014 elections. On the other hand, the GOP seems pretty likely to maintain its majority in the House. If the GOP wins control of the … Read more
A fundamental consideration in decision- and policy-making is aggregation of competing/complementary goals. For example, consider the current debate about how to measure when the “border is secure” with respect to US immigration reform. (A nice, though short, piece alluding to these issues is here.) A recent GAO report discusses the state of border security, the variety … Read more
Forceful confrontation to a threat to filibuster is undoubtedly the antidote to the malady. –Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV) Filibuster reform in the US Senate has once again begun to attract attention. In a nutshell, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) is—ahem—upset that—in his opinion, at least—Republican Senators are unreasonably holding up executive branch nominations out of either animus … Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about signaling lately. The central idea of signaling is hidden (or asymmetric) information. A classic example of signaling is provided by education, or more specifically, “the degree.” Suppose for the sake of argument that a degree is valuable in some intrinsic way: a college degree is arguably worth $1.3 million in additional lifetime … Read more
“Disambiguiating,” as wikipedia fittingly obscurely puts it, Conservatism is a set of political philosophies that favour tradition. My point in this post is a defense of the notion that the Supreme Court’s ruling in US v. Windsor that the “Defense of Marriage Act” is unconstitutional. (The majority’s reasoning in that case—that Section 3 of DOMA amounted to … Read more
A recurring apparent conundrum is the mismatch between Congressional approval (about 14% approval and 78% disapproval) and reelection rates (about 91% in 2012). If Americans disapprove of their legislators at such a high rate, why do they reelect them at an even higher rate? PEOPLE BE CRAZY…AMIRITE? Maybe. A traditional explanation is that people don’t … Read more