Spring = {Sun, Shorts, Skirts, Smiles}

Need I say more?

Putting a Finger on the Problem

Researchers at the University of Alberta came out with a study that says the relative length of your index finger compared with your ring finger might predict how physically aggressive you are (is this a result of pressure to come up with a research output for tewnure track faculty? :) ). That is, the shorter the index finger is compared to your ring finger the more physically aggressive you are. I suppose I can wave my hand at a mugger and say "see that? do you know what you're dealing with here?"

Hispanic Profits

I've noticed the spanish option on ATMs and checkout counters before and always understood that this is a way for merchants to make it easier for spanish speaking people to patronize their businesses if not attract them to keep coming back. The "translator" facilitates trade by lowering the cost of transaction to the hispanic customer and also to the merchant.

As I was staring at the option that popped up again at the Wal-Mart check out counter I began to realize that there is something even more clever than making the transaction painless. It's profit generating! Imagine spanish speaking buyers are the only ones for sure likely to choose the option of doing the transaction in spanish (except for few spanish tourists and language students). This makes them the only demographic group where merchants can mine expenditures and consumption data for. Sellers like Wal-Mart can figure out how sensitive they are to miniscule price changes, what kind of goods they like, when and how often they buy this and how much they spend on it as a fraction of their monthly grocery expenditures. All these information is important in trying to set up prices and stocking items that would maximize profits. Makes a lot of sense since the spanish speaking population is the fastest growing segment of americans.

Mean Dynasty

In East Asia the Philippines scores the highest in terms of women participation in politics as a good percentage of elected officials are women. Contrary to other international evidence however, the increased participation of women has not resulted in lower corruption. The Philippines still ranks high on the corruption index. Perhaps the reason is because women participation is partly due to the impact of term limits on politicians. Wives/daughters will run in place of their husbands/fathers whose term limit is up this perpetuates the political dynasty, a mainstay in Philippine politics. This paper presents evidence on the negative impact of political dynasties (defined in this study as the proportion of provincial officials related to each other by blood or affinity) on economic growth rate in the provinces of the Philippines by regressing growth rate on selected variables:

Growth, inequality and politics revisited: a developing-country case • SHORT COMMUNICATION
Economics Letters, Volume 79, Issue 1, April 2003, Pages 53-58
Arsenio M. Balisacan and Nobuhiko Fuwa

Determinants of provincial growth: instrumental variable estimation (t-ratios in parentheses)
Independent variable : Provincial Growth
Log(per capita expenditure -0.088 (10.24)
1988)
Mortality rate -0.001 (3.04)
Literacy rate 0.0001 (0.16)
Dynasty -0.026 (2.24)
Irrigation area 0.002 (0.14)
Land Gini 0.001 (3.05)
Chg. CARP 0.006 (2.11)
Chg. Electricity -0.00003 (0.13)
Chg. Ag. terms of trade 0.016 (0.52)
Chg. Road density 0.018 (0.64)
Constant 0.849 (8.52)
Adj. R 0.6799
Sample size 65

Will Think for Food

From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Median annual wage and salary earnings of economists were $68,550 in 2002. The middle 50 percent earned between $50,560 and $90,710. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $38,690, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $120,440.

The Federal Government recognizes education and experience in certifying applicants for entry-level positions. The entrance salary for economists having a bachelor’s degree was about $23,442 a year in 2003; however, those with superior academic records could begin at $29,037. Those having a master’s degree could qualify for positions at an annual salary of $35,519. Those with a Ph.D. could begin at $42,976, while some individuals with experience and an advanced degree could start at $51,508. Starting salaries were slightly higher in selected areas where the prevailing local pay was higher. The average annual salary for economists employed by the Federal Government was $81,852 a year in 2003.

Swimming with the Fishes

Didn't know that there is research going on to determine if fishes have conciousness and feel pain.

Fish and Fisheries Volume 5 Issue 4 Page 281 - December 2004 doi:10.1111/j.1467-2679.2004.00163.x

An evaluation of current perspectives on consciousness and pain in fishes

Kristopher Paul Chandroo, Stephanie Yue & Richard David Moccia

Abstract There is growing societal and scientific interest in the welfare status of fish used for commercial enterprise. As animal welfare is primarily concerned with the quality of life of a conscious, sentient organism, the question of whether fishes are even capable of consciousness must first be addressed in order to assess their welfare status. Recently, there has been a resurgence of research investigating the biological basis for human consciousness, and our current understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying fish behaviour has likewise improved significantly. Combined, these research perspectives create an opportunity to better comprehend the phylogeny of traits associated with consciousness, as well as the emergence of consciousness itself during vertebrate evolution. Despite the availability of this literature, contemporary reviews or published studies investigating the probability of conscious states occurring in fishes often do so without considering new perspectives or data. In this paper, we review and critique recent publications that report equivocal conclusions favouring the absence or presence of consciousness in various fishes. By introducing other data into these analyses, we demonstrate that there are alternative perspectives which support the existence of consciousness in fishes as a plausible concept. An accurate assessment of the mental capacity of fishes will require enhanced knowledge of their forebrain neuroanatomy, an understanding of how such structures mediate behavioural responses, and an analysis of that information within the context of contemporary theory related to the evolution of consciousness in higher vertebrates.

Paper Trail

Been rewriting and revising this paper I'm supposed to present next month. Haven't quite found a draft I'm happy with. Sleep deprivation is affecting my work, there's this crew working on the roofing of the apartment building next to mine, they start hammering at 8:30am, that's about 5 hours into my sleep, don't think I'm getting any REM, forgot things in my car I needed to carry to the office three times today! Had to go back three times to the parking lot.

Another Stupid Idea

A senator in the Philippines is proposing that the government re-caquire controlling interest in one of the country's biggest petroleum companies. This he claims would result in stabilizing the prices of petroleum goods that seems to keep adjusting after the industry was deregulated a few years ago. The government had it right deregulating the industry in the first place and putting politics out of price determination in the petroleum markets. What price stabilization did back then is to contribute to budget deficits as the state continue to jump in everytime world prices shoot up. In the end it is the same consuming public that has to pay for these subsidies by having to deal with increasing budget deficits and spending cuts on other government programs. The secretary of energy got it right by saying no state owned petroleum company can control the movement of oil prices.

Quote to Ponder II

"When you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research."

Wilson Izner.(1876-1933)--Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 757 (15th ed. 1980).