Let's start this series with a fundamental question on the economic approach: Why is there a difference between a cost and a price ? Understanding the difference between a cost and a price is key in understanding economics. As we look at people, economists pay attention to everyone's perspective – even when they're aggregated in … Continue reading The difference between a cost and a price
Bitcoin may be worth more than this, but I'll only give two cents for it. TL;DR The infamous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, saw its value explode in a matter of months. It was at $1,000 / bitcoin at the beginning of 2017, $6,000 a month ago, and around $15,000 today (well, stay put, that will change again … Continue reading My two cents on Bitcoin
Our emblematic photo. We drove to the top of the fantastic Mona Kea, the inactive northern volcano of Hawaii island, for the view, for the fun of driving a 4x4 on a good slope, and to visit the W. M. Keck Observatories. The clouds were below us, the temperature closer to freezing, and the sky … Continue reading On top of Mona Kea
The introduction of minimum wages in the United States The early 1930s were the years of the Great Depression, an economic recession that affected the United States as well as most of the European metropolises. This crisis led many countries to enact social policies or reevaluate those in place to protect workers and stimulate the industry. … Continue reading Minimum Wage Policy in the United States
Below, I'm presenting tips and codes to transfer a library from EndNote to Excel using an (EndNote) Output Style File. Before using the code, you should note that only the following reference types* will be correctly exported: journal articles, book, book section, edited book, conference proceedings, report, thesis, blog post, electronic article, web page, generic. … Continue reading From EndNote to Excel
Below, I'm presenting tips and codes to start a Stata program (a.k.a. a DO file) based on data from an Excel spreadsheet, with procedures that you cannot find in the contextual menu of Stata. Before using the code, you should note: In Stata, columns are variables, while rows are observations; I am using Stata 13: … Continue reading From Excel to Stata
In Summary A popular approach that economists take to study the use of illegal drugs is the concept of rational addiction. The idea is that individuals willingly choose to consume heroin and other drugs, as they would do with food, goods or services. While this idea is controversial, it allows both researchers and policymakers to … Continue reading Rational Addiction to Heroin and Other Drugs
See note below for original citation On February 10th, 2015, Google announced the development of a new feature in their research engine to guide users towards sound evidence-based health information. It will take the form of a “knowledge graph” , an encyclopedia providing users with information about an illness: from common symptoms to general treatment … Continue reading eHealth governance: Google, dot-health and privatizing the Internet
See note below for original citation The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) – the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ) also calls it the Survey of Adult Skills – is an international effort to assess human skills and further develop our understanding of human capital. It started in 2012 in … Continue reading PIAAC: Measuring adult literacy and skills
Developing our understanding of health literacy is becoming a growing concern for clinicians, managers of health programmes, and researchers. What was a new concept to operationalize one’s capacity in accessing, managing, and using information to pursue good health has soon become a public health issue on an international scale. Health literacy – as a research … Continue reading Health Literacy on the Public Agenda | EHLC 2014
