This is a small world, as we know it. Most people are connected through the so-called “six degrees of separation”. But what does it mean for our professional life? Researchers have found very short paths in collaboration networks within professional communities. There is a “connection” if two authors have collaborated/coauthored before. A “path” means the […]
I still remember the days of studying dynamic optimization in my advanced macroeconomic class in the MPA/ID program. A few students like myself once moaned about the difficulty and “irrelevance” of dynamic optimization to the real world. Indeed, “optimal control”, a key approach to dynamic optimization, was developed in the 1950s during the space race, and […]
Institutional reforms are the buzzwords in developments nowadays. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s best-selling Why Nations Fail is all about institutions: the balance between inclusive versus exclusive political and economic institutions would determine the development path of countries. Indeed, the full name of the book is Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty… (I […]
Chinese around the globe were outraged by a comment by a boy on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which he joked about killing Chinese people to help erase the U.S. debt. ABC swiftly apologized, saying the network “would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large.” According […]