Natasha Plotkin studies economics, will soon live in Berkeley, and wonders about everything.
Natasha Plotkin
Articles by Natasha Plotkin:
Quasi-Experimentalism in Economics
in Issue 66 | Empiricism (Jul 2016)how do natural experiments work? - students who received scores just below the cutoff - evidence that attending an elite high school does not cause students to get better SAT scores - theory reigned supreme in all subfields of economics - people and firms aren't randomly irrational - the analysis is based on exploiting a legal quirk - the appearance of credibility
Transit Infrastructure and the Temptations of Techno-Autocracy
in Issue 42 | More Government (Jul 2014)Second Avenue Subway - high speed rail - $3 billion per mile - a scramble for extra funds - We tie the hands of our bureaucrats - low trust in government - simply lack of governance - Moses built New York - to ram highways through - NIMBYism - strong popular mandates - talent for getting things built