Most popular posts in UDADISI from 2012

2012 is almost over, and I want to thank you for visiting UDADISI. It has been a great year. I wish that 2013 brings you wonderful things. 

Bye 2012!

The most visited post, by far, is the list of the best 10 economics papers of 2012. That has also been the most visited post in the history of this blog (it was mentioned especially here and here). Paper number two (Do economists lie more?) is unfortunate for us, economists, but more research is needed. 

The productivity of Milton Friedman was also very popular. The post shared the analysis that Julio Cole, my colleague at Francisco Marroquin University, did on Milton Friedman's scholarly productivity (4.9 original publications per year, over 72 years!). As Justin Wolfers wrote on twitter, the only thing one can say is "wow." 

Another popular post was on the rare but interesting things people do research on. In this case it was on "gelatophobia" which is "the fear of being laughed at," and is negatively correlated with certain measures of wellbeing. "Gelotophobes described themselves with lower overall estimations of their lives. Gelotophobia was negatively correlated with life engagement . . . In China, gelotophobia was also related to a lower life of pleasure and life of meaning. Overall, the results show that gelotophobes do not pursue any of the three orientations to happiness." Indeed, gelatophobia is a serious stuff. Marginal Revolution posted it too. 

How to make a country suffer was popular as well. It says that an easy way to make a country suffer is by mistreating immigrants who go there. 

"Scientific blogs without borders" was another popular post. It has a link to an invited post I wrote for Scientists Without Borders. It describes two papers on randomized control trials in economic development. The first one on the effects of consultancy on performance of micro, small, and medium enterprises, and the second one on ways to improve the police in developing countries. Their post is here.  

A post on my teaching of entrepreneurship in Haiti was also visited frequently. I came back with the idea: "Lack of electricity seems to be the root of many problems in Jeremie, such as poor health services, it is also a great obstacle for all kinds of businesses and startups. Opening the market to private provision can be a solution. Markets have been opened in other cities such as Jacmel with good results." I am pessimistic of foreign aid in Haiti, but more optimistic of the role that higher education, and education of future leaders, can play in the long run development of the country.  

Another popular post was a review of the work that CABI, an excellent research center in Guatemala, does on a regular basis to analyze the trends of violence and homicides in the country. The homicide rate has been going down in Guatemala since early 2009, but for some reason the local media usually says the contrary. 

A recent post on advice for authors of academic papers was visited numerous times as well. I find this advice particularly interesting: "Treat any comment in a seminar or conference like a referee comment, address these comments, and when appropriate email the commenter to explain how you addressed the suggestions."  

The excellent Marginal Revolution post on the most popular of 2012 was a motivation to write this post. Tyler and Alex are the master-artists of econ-blogging, they go beyond the normal boundaries and actually crate new economic concepts (suffice to mention two: "a bet as a tax on bullshit" or the "Tabarrok Curve"). 
Thanks to Victor T. for the suggestion as well. 
If I keep editing this post it will be 2013 already!

:) 2013!