Nicholas Decker
@captgouda24.bsky.social
Doctoral student at George Mason University! I care about economics above all else. Please read my blog at nicholasdecker.substack.com :)
What’s the matter with India? I argue it’s the courts. They leaves firms unable to conduct business, and make the country as much as 10% poorer.
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
May 21, 2025 at 2:55 PM
What’s the matter with India? I argue it’s the courts. They leaves firms unable to conduct business, and make the country as much as 10% poorer.
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
Reposted by Nicholas Decker
What Matt means here is he used to uncritically write articles about "paper in top journal finds result consistent with progressive policy" & now he's worried those articles were refereed and accepted with a less critical and unbiased eye than he had thought. Like, clearly true! Everyone knows this!
I absolutely regret my role in this — it turns out that academic social science is shot through with dramatically more ideological bias than I realized 20-15 years ago and all the stuff you guys churn out should come with huge warning labels before it’s presented to laypeople.
March 27, 2025 at 2:06 AM
What Matt means here is he used to uncritically write articles about "paper in top journal finds result consistent with progressive policy" & now he's worried those articles were refereed and accepted with a less critical and unbiased eye than he had thought. Like, clearly true! Everyone knows this!
Reposted by Nicholas Decker
A group of researchers has attempted to replicate our work on self-control and asset market prices published in the Review of Financial Studies (doi.org/10.1093/rfs/...) and not been able confirm our findings. See doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...
Do experimental asset market results replicate? High-powered preregistered replications of 17 claims
Experimental asset markets provide a controlled approach to studying financial markets. We attempt to replicate 17 key results from four prominent studies, coll
doi.org
December 14, 2024 at 4:03 PM
A group of researchers has attempted to replicate our work on self-control and asset market prices published in the Review of Financial Studies (doi.org/10.1093/rfs/...) and not been able confirm our findings. See doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...
Reposted by Nicholas Decker
In fairness to Kruse, if I were an academic best-known for plagiarism I would also feel distinctly threatened by AI tools
December 15, 2024 at 7:02 PM
In fairness to Kruse, if I were an academic best-known for plagiarism I would also feel distinctly threatened by AI tools
The very best inventors are sensitive to top tax rates, especially the foreign born. An elasticity of 1 means that a 1% increase in tax rates leads to a 1% decrease in foreign born inventors! Paper below, blog post Tuesday (I’m back to writing >1 per day lol)
t.co/gNXRknmt4y
t.co/gNXRknmt4y
December 9, 2024 at 5:31 AM
The very best inventors are sensitive to top tax rates, especially the foreign born. An elasticity of 1 means that a 1% increase in tax rates leads to a 1% decrease in foreign born inventors! Paper below, blog post Tuesday (I’m back to writing >1 per day lol)
t.co/gNXRknmt4y
t.co/gNXRknmt4y
Between 1995 and 2001, 35 million workers were laid off from state-owned enterprises in China. They were pushed into creating their own companies, leading to an increase in the number, size, and quality of entrepreneurs. t.co/cPSoNwDTQc
December 9, 2024 at 5:22 AM
Between 1995 and 2001, 35 million workers were laid off from state-owned enterprises in China. They were pushed into creating their own companies, leading to an increase in the number, size, and quality of entrepreneurs. t.co/cPSoNwDTQc
Nature is healing 🥹🥹
December 3, 2024 at 2:28 AM
Nature is healing 🥹🥹
Today I make the case that you should, if at all possible, have someone better than you be the biological parent of your kids. Read it here: nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/why-your-c...
November 23, 2024 at 12:18 AM
Today I make the case that you should, if at all possible, have someone better than you be the biological parent of your kids. Read it here: nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/why-your-c...
What are the most important questions in economics? What should someone who wants to change the world work on?
November 21, 2024 at 2:46 PM
What are the most important questions in economics? What should someone who wants to change the world work on?
The podium is fundamentally Freudian
November 20, 2024 at 12:53 AM
The podium is fundamentally Freudian
This is the best blog post I’ve ever written. It is not possible to infer where the gains from education are coming from, given our tests. Signalling vs human capital questions are, at the moment, empirically unresolvable. nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/the-return...
November 19, 2024 at 3:06 PM
This is the best blog post I’ve ever written. It is not possible to infer where the gains from education are coming from, given our tests. Signalling vs human capital questions are, at the moment, empirically unresolvable. nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/the-return...
Hey econ folks, I’m working with an historical data set which lacks a great measure of tfp. (Specifically, I can’t tell capital intensity). Is gross value added per worker a reasonable proxy?
November 18, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Hey econ folks, I’m working with an historical data set which lacks a great measure of tfp. (Specifically, I can’t tell capital intensity). Is gross value added per worker a reasonable proxy?
The rollout of the internet substantially reduced unemployment. To learn all about equilibrium unemployment, read my latest blog post! nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/why-does-u...
November 18, 2024 at 2:50 PM
The rollout of the internet substantially reduced unemployment. To learn all about equilibrium unemployment, read my latest blog post! nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/why-does-u...
Just read Aumann’s Agreeing to Disagree and alas, I now must be a Kahanist
November 17, 2024 at 3:40 AM
Just read Aumann’s Agreeing to Disagree and alas, I now must be a Kahanist
Truly the Ron Swanson of websites
November 17, 2024 at 3:37 AM
Truly the Ron Swanson of websites
Berkshire Hathaway’s website is *iconic*, btw
www.berkshirehathaway.com
www.berkshirehathaway.com
November 17, 2024 at 3:36 AM
Berkshire Hathaway’s website is *iconic*, btw
www.berkshirehathaway.com
www.berkshirehathaway.com
Firm size stays the same as productivity increases. This implies that entry costs must rise with productivity, and we should expect a bit less from productivity enhancing policies, especially if no. of products connected to no. of firms.
www.nber.org/system/files...
www.nber.org/system/files...
November 15, 2024 at 2:45 PM
Firm size stays the same as productivity increases. This implies that entry costs must rise with productivity, and we should expect a bit less from productivity enhancing policies, especially if no. of products connected to no. of firms.
www.nber.org/system/files...
www.nber.org/system/files...
Should the FTC break up Meta? A key fact in estimating effects is the acquisition premium, or the difference between first and second highest bids. I estimate that Facebook buying Insta and Whatsapp was not anti-competitive. You can read more on my blog!
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/should-the...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/should-the...
November 14, 2024 at 4:40 AM
Should the FTC break up Meta? A key fact in estimating effects is the acquisition premium, or the difference between first and second highest bids. I estimate that Facebook buying Insta and Whatsapp was not anti-competitive. You can read more on my blog!
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/should-the...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/should-the...
I walk between the shelves in the library, and think: What fools are we to believe that we shall ever exceed machines? Which can, in one instant, grasp the whole sum of human knowledge? Our time will have been like the tinkering of cavemen with tools.
November 11, 2024 at 11:14 AM
I walk between the shelves in the library, and think: What fools are we to believe that we shall ever exceed machines? Which can, in one instant, grasp the whole sum of human knowledge? Our time will have been like the tinkering of cavemen with tools.
Tomorrow on my blog: should the FTC break up Meta? Under what conditions is banning start-up acquisition optimal? And much more.
And stay tuned for a very substantial post on equilibrium employment rates over time!
And stay tuned for a very substantial post on equilibrium employment rates over time!
November 11, 2024 at 11:11 AM
Tomorrow on my blog: should the FTC break up Meta? Under what conditions is banning start-up acquisition optimal? And much more.
And stay tuned for a very substantial post on equilibrium employment rates over time!
And stay tuned for a very substantial post on equilibrium employment rates over time!
Read a 1981 paper by Akerlof which bugged the hell out of me — “Jobs as Dam Sites”. He seemed to treat the number of jobs as fixed? Which is just, weird?
October 27, 2024 at 4:31 PM
Read a 1981 paper by Akerlof which bugged the hell out of me — “Jobs as Dam Sites”. He seemed to treat the number of jobs as fixed? Which is just, weird?
Do neighbors matter? How much of our outcomes is attributable to the people around us? I review the evidence, which points to small but real effects.
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/do-neighbo...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/do-neighbo...
Do Neighbors Matter?
The effects of neighborhoods and peers on life outcomes
nicholasdecker.substack.com
September 30, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Do neighbors matter? How much of our outcomes is attributable to the people around us? I review the evidence, which points to small but real effects.
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/do-neighbo...
nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/do-neighbo...
Gonna be using Bluesky now!
September 30, 2024 at 12:11 AM
Gonna be using Bluesky now!