Tchotchkes

Tchotchke. Noun, informal: a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional; a trinket. (Oxford English Dictionary)

Tchotchkes are not purely decorative. They add beauty, novelty, and interest to our lives. Sometimes, these little decorations alter our perspectives and challenge us to think outside the box. In keeping with that noble goal, there is a long tradition of satire in the social sciences, mathematics, and medicine.

Here is a list of extraordinary academic papers, in two categories. Some of them are actually fairly scientific, though most of them are meant for entertainment. Or perhaps they are not.

Authentic Chicago Tchotchkes:

James Heckman. The Effect of Prayer on God's Attitude Toward Mankind, Economic Inquiry, 48(1), pp. 234-235, 2010.

Stephen Stigler. Stigler's Law of Eponymy, Transactions of the New York academy of sciences, 39, no. 1 Series II, 1980.

Stigler, George. The Conference Handbook. The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 85, No. 2, pp. 441-443, 1977.

Actually, our friend George (Nobel Prize, 1982) had a razor-sharp sense of humor and served as editor of the Journal of Political Economy for quite some time. This might explain a few things, including:

Snower, Dennis. Macroeconomic Policy and the Optimal Destruction of Vampires, The Journal of Political Economy, 90(3), pp. 647-655, 1982.

John Siegfried. A First Lesson in Econometrics, The Journal of Political Economy, 78(6), pp. 1378-1379, 1970.

If you can find a copy, I highly recommend George Stigler's book, The Intellectual and the Marketplace and other essays, which contains several additional essays which I cannot find on the internet (shockingly!). These include Stigler's First Law of Sympathy, Stigler's Law of Supply and Demand Elasticities, and other gems.

Some more self-reflective Tchotchkes:

Wright et al. This Study is Intentionally Left Blank - A systematic literature review of blank pages in academic publishing. (is this published?)

Cath Chapman and Tim Slade. Rejection of rejection: a novel approach to overcoming barriers to publication, British Medical Journal, 351:h6326, 2015.

Goodman, Goodman, Goodman, and Goodman. A Few Goodmen: Surname-Sharing Economist Coauthors, Economic Inquiry, 53(2), pp. 1392–1395, 2014.

And let's not forget:

J Huston McCulloch. On Heteros*edasticity, Econometrica, Vol. 53, No. 2, p. 483, 1985.