In This Issue:
Welcome to the January 2008 issue of Econ Journal Watch. EJW is a triannual peer-reviewed journal for scholarly commentary on academic economics.
Comments
- Do Casinos Cause Crime? Yes, according to a REStat article by Earl Grinols and David Mustard. But that answer relies on several weak links, says Douglas Walker. Grinols and Mustard reply.
- Is Highway Penetration of Central Cities a Significant Cause of Suburbanization?- Yes, according to a QJE article by Nathaniel Baum-Snow. But Wendell Cox, Peter Gordon, and Christian Redfearn say no, and look at Western Europe data. Baum-Snow replies.
- Regime Change Correlates with Growth Acceleration—NOT! Richard Jong-A-Pin and Jakob de Haan identify a serious problem in work by Ricardo Hausmann, Lant Pritchett, and Dani Rodrik in the Journal of Economic Growth.
- Earned Income Tax Credit: Paul Trampe replies to Hilary Hoynes on disentangling EITC effects.
- Challenging on Usury: In a work said to mark the beginning of the modern world, Jeremy Bentham schools the master.
Economics in Practice
- The Lemmas Problem: Philip Coelho and James McClure give evidence that long chains of exact reasoning do better in statistical than in economic analysis.
- Distinguishing Model and Theory: Robert Goldfarb and Jonathan Ratner assay the hairy business.
Character Issues
Paul Krugman and the Have-Nots: Based on a comprehensive account of his New York Times columns thru 2006, Daniel Klein argues that Paul Krugman sacrifices poor people’s interests to certain ideological values.