Author Archives: mkevane

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About mkevane

Economist at Santa Clara University and Director of Friends of African Village Libraries.

Apparently U.S. does not want to release H-1B gender breakdown

Computerworld filed a FOIA request for H-1B gender data last year and was told that providing such information would be “unreasonably burdensome.” “In order to determine the gender of H-1B applicants, USCIS staff would have to manually search each applicant’s … Continue reading

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How much was spent on public services for the homeless in Santa Clara County in 2015? $520 million a year

But now, for the first time, a staggering fiscal cost has been calculated: $520 million annually. A new study, described as the most comprehensive look ever at the expense of homelessness on a community, has determined that more than $3 … Continue reading

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Sending books to Burkina Faso

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Gender in China in 2017

An Junxi’s father really wanted a son. “But I was born a girl, so my dad just thought, ‘Well, she’s young, so we’ll just dress her up like a boy,’” Ms. An said, straddling a lounge chair — full manspread … Continue reading

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Kendrick Lamar – Duckworth

Heard this on NPR All Songs Considered.  Worth a listen.

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Five Chinese to be tried for illegal mining in Ghana

It emerged during the court proceedings that the A-G had filed an affidavit in opposition to the bail application.  It pleaded with the court not to grant bail because the activities of the five Chinese contravened the Minerals and Mining … Continue reading

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Estimates of Missing Women in Twentieth Century China

The sex ratio at birth in China began to deviate from the normal range in the early 1980s, and has continued to rise during the past three decades. Though some optimistic research studies assert that the sex ratio at birth … Continue reading

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The Sex Ratio at Birth for 5,338,853 Deliveries in China from 2012 to 2015: A Facility-Based Study

Seems like exactly the kind of study needed to confirm that the sex ratio is and has been skewed, and the issue was not just an underreporting problem as argued by Shi and Kennedy. There were 2,785,513 boys and 2,549,269 … Continue reading

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Daily dose of Akerlof: The rat race

Somehow he succinctly describes the key insight in one page.  Here is the full paper at jstor.  I vainly searched the web for “Akerlof rat race intuition” and of course there was nothing better, because why bother?  The article marked … Continue reading

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Nice description of textile factory problems in Uganda, from The Economist

Uganda’s main advantages, for the moment, are cheap cotton and labour, and preferential access to American and European markets. When exporting to the rich world “Africa has an 18-35% duty advantage over any other continent”, says Nick Earlham, a shareholder … Continue reading

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Bill Sundstrom three years ahead of me on BIG

But there are virtues to being a late-comer. One does not have to write as much. From 2014: Having acknowledged all these drawbacks of the BIG idea, I still can’t help thinking it deserves a bigger place in our political … Continue reading

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The American Health Care Act “scoring” by the Congressional Budget Office… the old one…

The relevant quote: CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. The increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would … Continue reading

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Was Clifford Geertz culpably negligent in misunderstanding the mass killings of Indonesian communists in 1965?

Powerful “history of anthropology” from Ben White. In the same year Geertz wrote a chilling footnote, almost an aside, in the landmark ‘cockfight’ article on Bali, where the killing had been relatively more severe than in any other region: “That … Continue reading

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Wisdom from Martin Ravallion about universal basic income guarantee

Well-worth reading.  This discussion should be receiving more attention in the United States. Whether we see universal BIGs in future or not, the current policy debates will hopefully lead us to be less reliant on finely targeted social policies that … Continue reading

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Puerto Rico Declares a Form of Bankruptcy

I am sure President Trump with his extensive experience with bankruptcy, and his many friends owning island property, will be deeply involved in the negotiations and eventual resolution.  From NYT. The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, said he would … Continue reading

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Notes on the op-ed “Everything We Knew About Sweatshops Was Wrong”

In a class I am teaching, we were reading Diane Wolf’s Factory Daughters, and so much about the op-ed by Chris Blattman and Stefan Dercon “Everything We Knew About Sweatshops Was Wrong” seemed to echo what Wolf had to say … Continue reading

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“Deaf and Blind” by Lara Vapnyar

“Deaf and Blind” by Lara Vapnyar, short story in April 24, 2017 The New Yorker.  As usual, the blog Mookse and the Gripes has great comments with reader reactions to the story.  I found it very readable though a little … Continue reading

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Harsh but a little strange, the words of Zéphirin Diabré leader of opposition in Burkina Faso

Good reporting by Burkina24. Et même si, dit-il, ils ne sont « pas d’accord sur tout », parce qu’ils ne sont « même pas obligés d’être d’accord sur tout », le CFOP affirme qu’il le sont sur un point. « … Continue reading

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Ethics of collecting $400,000 for a speech, random notes

The context is here. Reactions to detractors seem to be: “Hey Ruth Marcus, let me know how many $400K speaking gigs you pass up after doing the toughest job in the world for eight years.” “Seems to me only women … Continue reading

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Colossal, with Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudekis. I totally recommend it.

Sukie, Leslie and I all liked it.  There is nothing to say about it because you just have to go and enjoy it.  Then afterwards you will have plenty to talk about!

Posted in Book and film reviews | Comments Off on Colossal, with Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudekis. I totally recommend it.