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Marginal Revolution

Marginal Revolution

Newsletter | United States | Centre-Right
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Economics blog by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok covering economics, culture, and ideas.

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Discussions from Marginal Revolution

Technology

Governing agentic AI

From a new paper by Shruti Rajagopalan: AI agents now transact, publish, and act on external systems without contemporaneous human approval, creating new regulatory challenges. A growing literature has responded with proposals for legal personhood. This Article argues that personhood is neither necessary nor sufficient, shifting the question from status to enforcement. The Article first […] The post Governing agentic AI appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. Related StoriesSpreading AI to the...

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Technology

The future belongs to AI maniacs

That is the theme of my latest Free Press column, excerpt: An AI maniac is someone who is obsessed with working with the latest AI models. They try out new models as soon as they can, they spend hours and hours trying to master them, and they use them to regulate both their workflows and […] The post The future belongs to AI maniacs appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsIn reply to Neurotic. affiliation by NeuroticTyler's hit the nail on the head, once again! What insight. by Neuroti...

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Culture

My excellent Conversation with Chase Koch

Here is the audio, video, and transcript. Here is part of the episode summary: Chase and Tyler discuss if any of his father’s lessons never stuck, the guilt-trip letter his grandfather wrote three months after Charles was born, why Chase started throwing tennis matches, what Rafa’s grit taught him about stoicism, who he admired most […] The post My excellent Conversation with Chase Koch appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsIn reply to DjFul. More like egg rolling. by MHanging out wi...

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Technology

My GOAT book now has updated software/AI

Generative Book – GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time, and Why Does it Matter? The post My GOAT book now has updated software/AI appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. Related StoriesA Tale of Three CitiesWho Thinks Like an Economist?Land Reclamation!

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Culture

Toward a theory of uni-context

Here is a good dialogue between Derek Thompson and Agnes Callard, excerpt: Callard: In general, goodness is more context-dependent than badness. There isn’t really anything that’s good all the time for everyone independent of context. Happiness depends on your context and who you are. There isn’t anything that will always make a person happy. But there […] The post Toward a theory of uni-context appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsShe claims death, pain, illness and violence are ne...

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Economy

Sub-Saharan Africa facts of the day

In aggregate its farmers are growing more cereals, such as maize (corn) and rice, than ever: nearly five times as much as in the 1960s, when many countries achieved independence. But most of those gains came from cultivating more land, which cannot go on for ever (see chart 1). Africa, once sparsely populated, is getting […] The post Sub-Saharan Africa facts of the day appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. Related StoriesPersistent Inequality in Publishing in EconomicsThe wisdom of Conor Sen...

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Economy

Persistent Inequality in Publishing in Economics

This paper documents new facts about concentration in publishing in economics. First, the profession grows downward . The number of economists grew almost sixfold since 1990, but new entrants publish in lower-tier journals while incumbents hold the top. Second, there is high and persistent concentration at the top. Along with the downward growth, the top-1% […] The post Persistent Inequality in Publishing in Economics appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsIn reply to Dismalist. OK, b...

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Culture

Creating your own religion in an AI-drenched world

Religious life, I think one thing we’ll see, and this is, again, pretty soon, it won’t be hard to create your own religion. I’m not sure many people will do this. I don’t think most people will. But they’ll be like accretions to the religions we have now. And I think with Fable 5, you […] The post Creating your own religion in an AI-drenched world appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsAI created religions . by Joel“ Today, not only in peasant homes but also in city . by K.In reply to...

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Economy

Incentives matter, installment #1637

I had long wondered about this: Performance metrics can misalign individual and organizational incentives. We study a clean case: an NBA player holding the ball as a quarter expires must choose between a low-probability “heave” that can only help his team and protecting his shooting statistics. We model this decision as a metric-driven principal-agent problem […] The post Incentives matter, installment #1637 appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. Related StoriesPersistent Inequality in Publis...

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Culture

*A Tale of Three Cities*

The author is Bob Harris, and the subtitle is The Life and Times of Lord Daer 1763-1794. Who is Lord Daer? Don’t worry about that! So many books on the Scottish Enlightenment cover one particular thing, but somehow fail to give the reader a proper sense of life on the ground. I found this is […] The post A Tale of Three Cities appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsHe doesn't say anything about it being

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Politics

The Trump Administration’s Threat to Scientific Research

In The Nationalization of American Science I warned that the Trump administration’s rewriting of the seemingly mundane Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance was a tremendous threat to America’s historically successful decentralized system of science funding. Many others are now sounding the alarm. It’s not surprising that organizations like the AAAS oppose the rule, albeit with unusually […] The post The Trump Administration’s Threat to Scientific Research appeared first on Marginal REV...

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Healthcare

Mental health sentences to ponder

Christoph Henking and Ben Baumberg Geiger found that while there has been a steep rise in the share of young Britons reporting a mental illness, the share of people who say a mental health problem limits their day-to-day functioning has barely budged. …when asked if they would consider someone experiencing typical fluctuations in mood (described […] The post Mental health sentences to ponder appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION. CommentsIn reply to Tom Meadowcroft. “excuses for self pity” . ...

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