Andrew Leigh

It's been over a month since I last posted about the things I've been reading. But while I can't promise that these articles appeared yesterday, I can attest to the freshness of their ideas:

• From the Journal of Politics: 'the political similarity of spouses derives in part from initial mate choice rather than persuasion and accommodation over the life of the relationship'


• A new World Bank study shows the impact of educational attainment on growth and inequality in developing countries


• A cost-benefit analysis of US homeland security (HT: Saul Eslake)


• Economists analyse the 2010 World Series of Poker, and find that poker is a game of skill, not just luck


• Jeff Borland suggests four ways to boost workforce participation rates


• Ralph Johnstone looks at discrimination against professional African jobseekers


• The impact of America's 21 year-old drinking age on nonfatal injury and crime


• John List offers an overview of the economics of charitable giving


• When do negative campaign ads reduce turnout? (answer: if they attack a candidate that people have already decided to support)


• The job market for African-Australian professionals


• The evolution of cooperation


• Getting academics more engaged in the policy process


• The OECD's Better Life Index (aka pick your social welfare function). (HT: Dan Andrews)


• Matt Morris on PNG and the 'resource curse'


• Election betting in interwar Britain


• Washington DC's IMPACT teacher evaluation metric


• Maternity leave and children's cognitive development - evidence from Canada


• PISA and the uber-impressive Andreas Schleicher


• Optimal randomised policy trials


• The Grattan Institute looks at Australians' housing preferences


• Understanding the financial crisis through daily happiness surveys (and some evidence that asking people about politics makes them sad)

On the topic of academia, I've been amused to discover how long the tail of academic publishing is. Although I resigned as an ANU economics professor a year ago, I've still got forthcoming papers in Economics Letters, Economic Papers and the Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics, as well as revise-and-resubmits being considered by the Economic Record, The BE Journal of Macro, Review of Income and Wealth and the Economics of Education Review.