Comparison of UNIX shells

C Shell - good for working on the beach

Korn shell - good for BBQs

Bash - excellent choice, but best outside of work hours.

Prohibition

Q: Where do mice go for drinks?


A: Squeakeasy.

Watch out for vector-raptors...err velociraptors.

What are the reptiles of the linear algebra world?


Scalars.

Supreme Confusion

The econometrics teacher wrote this on the board:

A student raised his hand, and asked, "What is sup?"


The teacher angrily replied, "I'm trying to teach you the finer points of asymptotics, that's what's up."

Econometrics: It's All Greek to Me

Is it a Black and White World?

If your world is calculating heteroskedasticity-robust (White) standard errors for option prices, then it just may be.

cf. Black and Scholes (JPE, 1981) and White (Econometrica, 1980).

Econometrician's Favorite Musical Style?

Rock 'n' ρ


Related: Econometrician's Favorite Radio Station

Market Inefficiencies

Are they caused by RASHional behavior?

Corporate Finance is Scary

From yesterday's post, we know corporate finance has shark repellent, porcupine provisions, poison pills, and greenmail.  Could it get any worse?  Now, you need to be on the lookout for golden parachutes and macaroni defenses.


I sure hope the golden parachutes don't fall out of the sky.  That would hurt. (That's what the shareholder said!)  


What the heck is greenmail?  If you thought anthrax in the mail was scary, watch out for moldy mail!  #freepenicillin


Now I want pasta! I initially suspected a macaroni defense was named for a pasta company's creative anti-takeover measure. The real reason: a macaroni defense triggers a jump in the redemption price of bonds in the event of a takeover--the prices expand like macaroni in a pot.

Toxic Takeovers

Thinking of a tender offer?  Watch out for poison pills and keep this number handy.

Don't forget to be wary of shark repellent, porcupine provisions, and greenmail.

April Apologies

My apologies for not having updated the site lately.  The past few weeks have been excessively busy for me.  I will continue to update the site, though at lower frequency.  I do have a lot of great ideas in the pipeline, so please stay tuned.

Stand Up Economist: Yoram Bauman

I had the pleasure of seeing Yoram Bauman perform at Emory University last week.  If you've not seen his site, check it out: http://www.standupeconomist.com/.

Here is a direct link to a funny video: http://www.standupeconomist.com/videos-public/.

I picked up a copy of his Cartoon Introduction to Microeconomics, and I must say, it's quite entertaining.

When OLS Fails

When All Else Fails...

Econometrics T-Shirts

Accessorizing: Varsace

Since the dawn of the random variable, accessorizing has been limited to tops.

Introducing a groundbreaking line of accessories for the fashion-conscious variable: VARSACE.

Pirate Jokes

• What is a pirate's favorite regression statistic?
• R-squared (pronounced ARRRrrr-squared)

• What is a pirate's favorite statistical software package?
• R

• What is a pirate's favorite mathematical concept?
• Seaquences

Math Pudding

Math Pudding: The Proof is in the Pudding (Flavor: Real Analysis)

March Madness II

Is there a relationship between the excitement surrounding the college basketball championship and net sales?

Bankruptcy

A fruit company recently filed for bankruptcy.


The best solution was liquidation.  Smoothies for everyone!

March Madness

Regarding the NCAA basketball tournament, there has been a lot of talk about poor officiating and missed calls. People are calling the referees blind.


No wonder poor papers sometimes get published in top academic journals--they use double-blind referees.

Accounting meets Australia

Derivatives Confusion

A prerequisite for understanding derivatives is understanding derivatives.

It's good that students often have the option to take derivatives classes.

Indifference Curves: Got MRS?

Moments of Life

I was recently taking a statistics exam that required calculation of moments.


One moment, I knew the answer.


The next moment, I did not.

Datastream

Thompson Reuters' Datastream product is one of the most comprehensive and most commonly used sources of international data.  Many researchers, however, complain about its slow speed and cumbersome interface.


Thompson Reuters should come up with an improved version, and that product should be called Datariver.

Dessert

What dessert appeals to both mathematicians and statisticians?

π à la Mode.

Madoff

We have all read about Irving Picard's multiple lawsuits in the Madoff case.


Sounds like a suenami.

Researcher's Triathlon

Swim through the literature looking for an idea.


Cycle through the steps of data cleaning.


Run regressions.

Law and Finance // Think Boolean!

Law and Finance is a subfield of finance.


Given the history of legal violations in finance, "Law or Finance" may be a more appropriate field.

Liquidity

Microstructure

Why did the finance researcher avoid microstructure research at all costs?


It's too TAQy.

Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics

Why study macro over micro?


It's a much bigger topic.

No jokes here, just statistics.

I'm amazed at the response I have received since starting this blog. Thank you so much for visiting and for sharing with your friends.  The pageview count recently eclipsed 1500, and people from all over the world have contributed to this.  Here is a map of where the pageviews originated.

Perspectives on Dummy Variables

Stan Coleman, Trainer, Variable Special Forces:
"The life of a dummy variable is quite hard. These variables need to maintain strict focus their entire lives--they can only take values of zero or one. Can you imagine a continuous random variable doing that? They can't! It's impossible--probability zero."


Susan Gustafson, Primary School Teacher:
"I just don't understand the hype about the dummy variables. I've had many dummy variables come through my classroom. While I didn't know at the time they would grow up to become dummy variables, I distinctly remember many of these students. They were not at all interested in broadening their horizons. Forget trying to teach anything other than the Natural numbers to those students."

Directionally Challenged

Why was the statistician always getting lost?


Too many random walks.

Adventures in Executive Compensation

Pitfalls of Stock-Based Compensation

Money Supply: M1, M2, M3

Econometrician's Favorite Radio Station?

Econometricians do not have favorite radio stations--they prefer white noise!

Weak Instruments

gued by weak instruments?Send your variables to Gym IV! Our Econometrica-certified trainers will increase the strength of your variables guaranteed.  Say goodbye to low correlations with the endogenous variables!  Get the identification you deserve.

The Most Popular Statistic

While the mean is the least popular statistic, the mode is the most popular statistic. No wonder statistics is confusing.