Blog: The Monkey Cage

A few years ago Jared Diamond got in trouble for garbling facts and making up quotations in an article about Papua New Guinea. The other day, Diamond criticized Mitt Romney “because he misrepresented my [Diamond’s] views and, in contrasting them with another scholar’s arguments, oversimplified the issue.” Fair enough, but I think he should be […]

Reading this discussion by Matthew Yglesias about purchasing power parity adjustments reminds me of the time I tried to track down Russia’s per-capita GDP. I got the following different numbers: $7,600 (World Bank 2007) $9,100 (World Bank 2007) $14,700 (PPP adjusted, World Bank 2007) $4,500 (World Bank 2006) $7600 or $14,400 (gross national income: “Atlas […]

This is a guest post by Jason MacDonald.  For more on limitation riders, see his research here (ungated).  In addition, see the new issue of “Extension of Remarks,” the newsletter of the American Political Science Association’s Legislative Studies Section. ***** As is well known within the political science community, the U.S. House included language, the […]

I received the following (unsolicited) email: Dear ANDREW GELMAN, I have had an opportunity to read your paper entitled “WHAT IS THE PROBABILITY YOUR VOTE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE?” published on the journal “Economic Inquiry”. I know you are an expert in this field. I am Daisy, the editor of Business and Economic Research (BER) […]

Sociologist Brandy Aven writes: I have been thinking a lot about reproducible science, particularly for the social sciences. Creating norms or policies that enforce reproducible science may not only be cheap insurance to mitigate academic fraud but also improve our field. . . . There are quite a few wonderful archives out there that provide […]

Readers of The Monkey Cage may have noticed in the last few days a conspicuous lack of coverage of the Olympics on our blog. While for some of you this may have been greatly appreciated, others may have been left wondering if this was appropriate behavior for one of the seven most powerful blogs in […]

This week’s back-and-forth between the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Justice Department over the Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking (sic) initiative serves as a useful hook for a new report from the good folks at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. The Center has pulled together scholars in the field […]

With so much focus on President Obama’s record-breaking first-term fundraising efforts, what are the next four years of presidential fundraising likely to bring? If Mitt Romney were to win the White House and our campaign finance rules remained the same, he would likely follow in the footsteps of the past four presidents, with substantial dedication […]

Dan Nexon has some excellent advice over at The Duck of Minerva.