Tyler Cowen's Blog, page 554

Foreign Students

Good piece in the New York Times making three points about foreign students in U.S. universities 1) State budgets for education have been slashed, 2) foreign students are way up and because they are paying much higher tuition than in-state students they are supporting education for citizens, 3) selling education services is one way our trade deficit with China is balanced.

This is the University of Washington's new math: 18 percent of its freshmen come from abroad, most from China. Each pays tuition of $28,059, about three times as much as students from Washington State. And that, according to the dean of admissions, is how low-income Washingtonians — more than a quarter of the class — get a free ride.

Not everyone is happy, however. Here is one (ironic?) complaint:

"Morally, I feel the university should accept in-state students first, then other American students, then international students," said Farheen Siddiqui, a freshman from Renton, Wash., just south of Seattle.

The negotiations over refunding Greece

Here is one very effective understatement:

The two sides were "quite far apart" over projected cuts of 25 per cent in private sector wages, 35 per cent in supplementary pensions and the immediate closure of about 100 state-controlled organisations with thousands of job losses, a Greek official said.

Coase may yet kick in, but it looks pretty tough to me.  Here is a good post on what it means if there is no public lender haircut.

Assorted links

1. Is manufacturing special?, by Christina D. Romer.

2. The gains from trade model, slide show, recommended for all.

3. Andrei Shleifer, lessons from communist transitions.

4. The culture that is Rostock.

5. Is scalable quantum computing possible?

The cultures that is Italy

Responsible for one of the most stupid shipping accidents of all time, not to mention the death of thirty or so passengers, Schettino was nevertheless greeted in his home town of Meta di Sorrento (on the south side of the bay of Naples) by a crowd waving banners in his favor and complaining, priest included, that the man's bad press was the result of a general prejudice against their community. "Every Italian," Giacomo Leopardi dryly remarked in 1826 "is more or less equally honored and dishonored."

Here is more, interesting throughout.

The West Rt. 50-Gallows feed

There are three lanes, with the left two lanes narrowing into one.  A slight bit further ahead, the traffic from Gallows Road merges into the right lane, map here.

Many people from the far left lane merge "unethically," driving ahead as far as they can, and then asking to be let in at the near-front of the queue.  The traffic from Gallows Road, coming on the right, merges ethically, as it is a simple feed of two lanes nto one.  They have no choice as to when the merge is, although de facto the construction of the intersection puts many of them ahead of the Rt.50 drivers.

The left lane merge is slightly quicker than the right lane merge, in part because not everyone is an unethical merger.  Yet it is more irksome to drive in the left lane, because you feel, correctly, that people are taking advantage of you (unless you are an unethical merger yourself, which I am not).

In recent times, I have switched my choice to the right lane.

Why does Arnold Bread have forty different kinds of bread?

100% whole wheat, 12 Grain, 7 Grain, German Dark Wheat, Health Nut, Healthy Multi-grain, Honey Whole Wheat, Oatnut, Country Oat Bran, Country Wheat, Country White, Country Whole Grain White, Healthfull 10 Grain, Healthfull Flax and Fiber, Healthfull Hearty Wheat, Healthy Nutty Grain, Double Fiber, Double Protein, Grains & More Flax and fiber, Triple Health, Dutch Country 100% whole Wheat, Butter Split Top, Extra Fiber, Premium Potato, Premium White, Rye Everything, Rye and Pump, Pumpernickel, Rye Seedless, Melba Thin, Rye with Seeds, Soft Family 100% Whole Wheat, Soft Family Classic White, Soft Family Honey Wheat, Soft Family Whole Grain White, Brick Oven Whole Wheat, Brick Oven Premium White, Premium Italian, Stone Ground, Light 100% Whole Wheat.

Here is more, from William Gadea.  The hypothesis:

The motivator here isn't making the customer happier, it's the oft-neglected fourth 'P' of marketing: placement. Even if the supermarket carries only half the varieties that Arnold offers, all of a sudden they are hogging a big part of the bread aisle. Arnold is the bread that is most likely to be close to your hand.

For the pointer I thank William Gadea.

$35.9 million says subjective value theory is correct

One related story is here.

Addendum: Qatar, by the way, last year paid about $250 million for a Cezanne "Card Players."  The details are now coming out.

Toward a theory of praise

Rogoff's real hero, however, was Bobby Fischer, the American chess champion of the 1970s. He remembers following the games from the famous Fischer-Spassky world chess championship in 1972, and being awed by Fischer's play – "It was like seeing the hand of God at work; the originality, the simplicity." He shakes his head in delight and amazement. Fischer even paid the teenaged Rogoff the compliment of analysing and praising one of his games in an article. But Rogoff did not let that go to his head. "I took that to mean that he knew I could never beat him. Because I knew he was hyper-competitive. I completely understood the message," he chuckles.

Not sure if you can get through the FT link to the rest.  It is interesting throughout.

The Chinese fapioa, or reverse tip

In China a fapioa – the official receipt used for expense claims has a resale face value of 2 – 10% of face value – leaving one behind in a restaurant or taxi is the equivalent of giving a tip (in a culture where tipping is uncommon) and not requesting one allows the person or establishment to avoid ringing the exchange through a cash register. There are two primary practices around handing out fapioa: the first is that they are printed to the exact value; the second is that the seller takes an equivalent sum from book of fapioa that contains various denominations.

In many smaller establishments the seller is reluctant to hand over fapioa since in essence it becomes declared income and it is common to have to ask twice, especially as a foreigner. But in larger service industry chains where (some) tax is a given and employees feel less loyalty to the bottom line over-paying on fapioa (handing back receipts way in excess of the actual sums purchased) is like handing money back to the customer. The social norms dictate that the seller should round up – so if the the lowest denominations are 20 RMB (about 2.5 Euro) a customer could get 40 RMB of fapioa for a 25 RMB drink.

Here is the link, and for the pointer I thank Fred Smalkin.

Assorted links

1. Markets in everything bride price decomposition the culture that is Nigeria.

2. David Cronenberg interview.

3. How exactly do we know, from the photo, that she is on the political left rather than right?  Seriously.  Here is her blog and profile.  Here is her Twitter feed.  How do we know?  And that we know — should it make you less confident in your own political beliefs?  WWRHS?

4. Kling on Murray.

5. Man arrested for stealing a glacier.

6. Bitcoins for World of Warcraft Virtual Gold,.