Readings
I tweet about most of my readings, so follow me!
However, it is sometimes hard to prioritize what I find extremely interesting from the rest on Twitter, so here is a collection of noticeable readings or talks of the past few years.
Discussion of Kathryn Paige Harden's book: The Genetic Lottery, by Prof Michael Thomas, neuroscientist at Birkbeck.
Really fascinating talk by Nathan Nunn at ASSA 2022 on a topic that I particularly enjoy: cultural evolution
Eye-opening totally non technical talk by Bob Aumann on rule-rationality at CORE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Fascinating pair of books on cultural evolution by Harvard Professor Joe Henrich: The Secret of our Success, followed by The WEIRDest People in the World. Here is a 15-minute summary video of his argument:
Recent academic readings in no particular order:
Harden, K. P. (2021). The genetic lottery: why DNA matters for social equality. Princeton University Press.
Henrich, J. (2020). The WEIRDest people in the world: How the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous. Penguin UK.
Eeckhout, J. (2021). The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work. Princeton University Press.
Banerjee, A. V., & Duflo, E. (2019). Good economics for hard times: Better answers to our biggest problems. Penguin UK.
Conley, D., & Fletcher, J. (2018). The Genome Factor: What the social genomics revolution reveals about ourselves, our history, and the future. Princeton University Press.
Zimmer, C. (2019). She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. Dutton.
Barth, D., Papageorge, N. W., & Thom, K. (2018). Genetic endowments and wealth inequality (No. w24642). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Papageorge, N. W., & Thom, K. (2018). Genes, education, and labor market outcomes: evidence from the health and retirement study (No. w25114). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Plomin, R. (2018). Blueprint: How DNA makes us who we are. MIT Press. Chicago.
Boustan, L. P. (2016). Competition in the Promised Land: Black migrants in northern cities and labor markets. Princeton University Press.
Banerjee, A., Banerji, R., Berry, J., Duflo, E., Kannan, H., Mukherji, S., Scotland, M. & Walton, M. (2016). From Proof of Concept to Scalable Policies: Challenges and Solutions, with an Application (No. w22931). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Falk, A., Becker, A., Dohmen, T. J., Enke, B., & Huffman, D. (2015). The nature and predictive power of preferences: Global evidence.
Bénabou, R., & Tirole, J. (2016). Mindful economics: The production, consumption, and value of beliefs. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), 141-164.
Ambuehl, S. (2016). An Offer You Can't Refuse? Incentives Change What We Believe.
Giulietti, C., Rettore, E., & Tonini, S. (2016). The chips are down: The influence of family on children's trust formation.
Brée, S., & de la Croix, D. (2016). Key Forces Behind the Decline of Fertility: Lessons from Childlessness in Rouen before the Industrial Revolution (No. 2016014). Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
Hoff, K., & Stiglitz, J. E. (2015). Striving for balance in economics: towards a theory of the social determination of behavior (No. w21823). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Bertrand, M., Kamenica, E., & Pan, J. (2015). Gender identity and relative income within households. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(2), 571-614.
Black, S. E., Devereux, P. J., Lundborg, P., & Majlesi, K. (2015). Poor Little Rich Kids? The Determinants of the Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth (No. w21409). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Christian, C. (2017). Lynchings, labour, and cotton in the US south: A reappraisal of Tolnay and Beck. Explorations in Economic History, 66, 106-116.
Berman, E. (2000). Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 905-953.
Keep an eye on the latest issue on the Journal of Demographic Economics!
Non-academic (recent and planned):
Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown
The Really Big One (The New-Yorker), by Kathryn Schulz
The Case for Reparation (The Atlantic), by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin
My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk
Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
USA, Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos
Sandalwood Death, Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, by Mo Yan
You may get an idea of my reading habits looking at my goodreads page.
Not all TED Talks are of the same quality. Here are a few that are outstanding:
Feel free to suggest academic (or not) readings of interest by email!