Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Daytime session at Sherigu Community Library
- La deuxiÚme journée des activités de café littéraire à la bibliothÚque de Boni
- Ăchanges avec la nouvelle gĂ©rante de la bibliothĂšque de Koho
- Reprise des activités de la bibliothÚque mobile Pénélope
- Sortie de la BibliothĂšque Mobile PĂ©nĂ©lope Ă lâĂ©cole Sainte ThĂ©rĂšse
- Bonne nouvelle pour les amoureux de la lecture Ă Niankorodougou
- BibliothÚque communautaire de Zimtenga ! Les livres attendent patiemment le retour des communautés
- Bilan des activitĂ©s du mois dâaoĂ»t de la bibliothĂšque de Bougounam
- Bilan des premiÚres journées du café littéraire
- Nyariga community library, daytime activities
Author Archives: mkevane
Jobs and wages in the United States: Finally some policy debate
A student shared a recent oped by Alan Blinder at the WSJ. Andrew, Thanks for sharing! Something like this should be on the final, right? đ Actually, this is more about micro-level policies and supply side policies that we have … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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Are we in a nation-wide housing bubble?
Maybe? The 20-city Case-Shiller index suggests that while nation-wide prices are rising rapidly (about 10% a year) for the past three years, we are still pretty far away from a bubble. But the peak back in 2006 was really high, … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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 IMF quota and governance reforms were finally approved by members earlier this year
The IMFâs 2010 quota and governance reforms have finally become effective and will give emerging markets like BRICS more power and greater say at the lender of last resort. âThe conditions for implementing the International Monetary Fundâs 14th General Quota … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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Why is higher inflation worse than lower inflation?
Fredrik Wulfsberg’s analysis of Norwegian data suggests it is because when inflation gets higher (i.e. 10-15% range) firms change prices much more frequently, and so presumably this is more confusing for consumers. The main result in this paper is that … Continue reading
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Total Factor Productivity growth accounts for all growth in U.S. agriculture according to USDA
The TFP indexes reveal the dramatic contraction of labor in the farm sector. Agricultural land, a component of capital, also fell steadily, except for a brief cessation in the 1970s, and by 2004 amounted to less than three-quarters of its … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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Bad news on GDP growth (very slow) and business investment continues to drag
Based on more complete information about recent years, the government also revised last yearâs growth rate up slightly to 2.6 percent â the best so far since the severe recession ended in 2009. But thatâs still well below the gains … Continue reading
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“The Story of a Scar” by James Alan McPherson
Originally posted on Michael Kevane:
Last night I read “The Story of a Scar” by James Alan McPherson, and I have to say that it is an excellent short story. The dialogue is gripping, and the characters sympathetic. I wasn’t…
Posted in Burkina Faso
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Growth accounting West Africa
The results show that during the period 1980â2012, with the exception of Nigeria and Cote dâIvoire productivity growth was not the hardcore of the growth observed in the ECOWAS countries but the growth was driven by factor accumulation. In addition, … Continue reading
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U.S. savings rate vary by age
Nice graphic from WSJ. The source and article worth reading is here.
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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Dollar declines
The dollar had been strengthening against the euro the past few weeks, but the “soft” Fed meeting statement caused the market to reverse the recent gains. (Gains for me, because our expenses at Friends of African Village Libraries in Burkina … Continue reading
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Fixed exchange rate arrangements per IMF 2014
Posted in Teaching international trade, Teaching macroeconomics
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Kordofan Invaded rocks on…
Endre Stiansen and I edited Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and Social Transformation in Islamic Africa almost 20 years ago (it was published in a beautiful typography and layout volume by Brill in 1998). Here is my favorite review of the … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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U.S. economy looking decent for remainder of year
The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, but it issued an upbeat assessment of economic conditions that suggested a growing chance that it would increase rates later this year.The Fed, in a statement after a two-day … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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Emily Wolfe in San Francisco Tuesday August 3, Bottom of the Hill
Posted in Music
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“Reading Harry Potter lowers Americans’ opinions of Donald Trump, study finds”: When you read a headline like that, please click somewhere else
The are so many reasons why this should be buried. But maybe it can bring some attention to Friends of African Village Libraries? Mutz polled a nationally representative sample of 1,142 Americans in 2014, and again in 2016, asking about … Continue reading
Posted in Reading
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Lynn Scholl on how graduated drivers licenses for teens have huge effects in reducing car accident fatalities
For a paper I am working on, I am reviewing some of the econometric work that uses paired adjacent counties that straddle state borders to examine the effects of state-level policies. There is a growing number of such papers, many … Continue reading
Posted in United States
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Another #IGEL2016 paper: Anne Mangen on reading fiction
Anne Mangen from the Norwegian Reading Center reported on a replication effort (with Anezka Kuzmicova) of the widely reported Kidd and Castano 2013 paper on whether Chekhovian fiction produced more empathy than regular writing. The sample size was small, just … Continue reading
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Decline in the labor force participation rate
A short note from the St. Louis Fed suggests that much of the decline is anticipated demographic change and inevitably reversal of the extremely high participation rates in the early 2000s (A Closer Look at the Decline in the Labor … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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IMF projections for growth for Burkina Faso
What I hate about the IMF and World Bank is that very often they report growth rates in aggregate and not per capita. Burkina Faso’s population growth rate is about 2.8%, so these projections of 4%-5.2% are really 1.2%-2.4% growth … Continue reading
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